prs
11-14-2012, 11:13 AM
A couple of weeks back I blended a 150# batch of 95pb:2sn:3sb and took reasonable care to get the protions correct by weight of materials. Got 74 nice muffins out of the effort. Used X-Ray room sheeting and some plumber's pigs which I considered as pure lead, some RotoMetals Super Hard, and "lead free solder". This has previously worked well for me and some casting last week was very satisfactory too in regard to fill, weight, and size. I decided to water drop the boolits last week. At only 7 days of age, they now test at 25BHN with Lee's tester. Boolits from my previous air cooled casting of same boolits tested at 15BHN at 8 weeks of age.
The boolits are mostly for pistol rounds with 38SPCL, 40 S&W, 45ACP, and 45 Colt; so my water dropping is gonna probably be folly at best and may be a negative if they don't obturate as the theory goes. The batch I water dropped were of two designs for 45ACP, one the TL452-230-1R had previously given me fits with sizing down during seating due to the delicate nature of the TL lube bands, so I figured the harder pill might work better. That is yet to be seen. The other was Lee 452-230-TC and I water dropped it for no good reason because it had not shown any indication of down sizing since I properly used the "M" die and crimped in seperate stage. I shall see. I did not think this alloy blend would be quite as hard as 15 air cooled as tested with the Lee tool.
prs
The boolits are mostly for pistol rounds with 38SPCL, 40 S&W, 45ACP, and 45 Colt; so my water dropping is gonna probably be folly at best and may be a negative if they don't obturate as the theory goes. The batch I water dropped were of two designs for 45ACP, one the TL452-230-1R had previously given me fits with sizing down during seating due to the delicate nature of the TL lube bands, so I figured the harder pill might work better. That is yet to be seen. The other was Lee 452-230-TC and I water dropped it for no good reason because it had not shown any indication of down sizing since I properly used the "M" die and crimped in seperate stage. I shall see. I did not think this alloy blend would be quite as hard as 15 air cooled as tested with the Lee tool.
prs