Does BN/hardness of bullet matter?

[gifbohane]

I have a few hundred pounds of boat lead ballast that I will eventually cast. About 50 pounds of it have been reduced to Lyman mold ingots. I have no idea of the hardness. Does that matter at all?

Stupid question of the week- can I just mold it to 9mm bullets for my CZ and fire it? Not paying any attention to hardness? I do not care about accuracy I just want it to go down range without causing a problem. My eyes glaze over when I read about tin and antimony mixes.

Right now I have everything to do some molding except a two bullet Lyman mold.

At my stage I do not want to become an expert caster, just mold some safe bullets that can be loaded and fired .........SAFELY.

[Char-Gar]

In the late 50s when I started casting, I bought lead ingots from my gunsmith. He had a large wooden crate in the reloading section. He would pick up a couple and hit them together. If they went "thud", it was considered pistol alloy. If they "rang", it was considered rifle alloy. It was pretty crude, but more accurate than folks today would care to admit.

I should think that thud or ring, should suit your purposes. I would not foresee any real problems, just cast and shoot and then you will know.

[StuBach]

As long as accuracy isn’t biggest concern I can’t imagine them not hitting a piece of paper at standard handgun range length. Similarly, when I started casting I just had lead, I melted lead, I filled molds, I sized and lined bullets and I shot them. No issues. Getting them to known values was not of huge concern for me them. Drop a ingot on concrete and listen for the sound (as mentioned earlier). If it has a dull thud you dealing with mostly pure lead like SOWW, if it has any sort of ting/ring to it than it’s a blend of some sort.

Mold fill out might be your biggest issue as there likely isn’t much tin in that lead (makes lead flow easier and fill out more). If that’s the case drop a large bullet size chunk of pewter into each pot of that lead and you should be golden.

Alternatively, you could trade another caster what you have for a smaller amount of blended material and just know it’s golden.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

I would get a Lee hardness tester if you can find one. Takes the guess work out. You then have a better handle what you need to achieve obduration for a given load. You can load pistol boolits close to bore diameter and get a good gas seal and fine results. I have two Smith & Wesson revolers who's throats are right at .357" A bhn of 10 in a medium load with boolits sized to .357" works nicely with no leading.

[BNE]

Just some free advice:

“Not paying attention” and “eyes glaze over” in this hobby lead to frustrating mistakes and damage to your gun and possibly you.

BNE

[John Boy]

https://forum.castbulletassoc.org/thread/dhccking-lead-hardness-with-drawing-pencils/

https://www.jetpens.com/blog/the-best-lead-grade-for-every-application/pt/475

[ElPistolero]

Hardness has mostly to do with how fast, how much pressure you can put on the bullet and leave or not leave alloy plated on the inside of your barrel. It can affect accuracy and time, certainly, over time, an accumulation of metal in the bore is a bad thing. You want something that will not let hot gasses go past the bullet and melt edges, but you also need something that will engage the rifling well. Look into guidelines that talk about speed vs. hardness. and "ballistic coefficient". Don't buy in to the idea that "it has to be as hard as you can get it to make *** happy".

[Sasquatch-1]

If you don't mind cleaning lead out of the barrel it doesn't matter for plinking rounds. If you are going to cast soft you will need to check for leading in the barrel. There are several threads here about removing lead from the barrel. The cheapest, and for me, most effective, is 100% copper pot scouring pad strands(such as Chore Boy) wrapped around a patch on an old cleaning brush.

I have shot everything from dead soft to super hard out of .38's and .44's with nothing more then very light leading near the forcing cone. You may run into a problem with feeding issues if the lead hits the feeding ramp wrong in a semi.

Also try the thumb nail test, if you can easily scratch it with a finger nail it's pretty soft if you can't it isn't. Quick and easy test for what you want to know.

[44MAG#1]

Here goes Ole Simple 44MAG#1, I would cast some and try them and see. Then you will know the answer. That will give you the answer. Plus fulfillment. If they dont work out dump them in the pot and add some metal/metals that will improve the situation by your experimenting.

[725]

Just another consideration: If you plan on shooting this in a Glock, do some research. Some do & some don't believe shooting lead in a poly barrel is a bad thing. The Glock company does not recommend it. I can only think softer lead will be the problem. YMMV. Good luck.

[fredj338]

Well not caring about accuracy, why bother shooting then? In most instances with handguns, the bhn wont be a big deal. I do fine with range scrap, about 9bhn, for most handgun needs to about 1200fps. When running harder than that, bumping up the bhn by water dropping, 12-14bhn works. If PC, it will matter even less.

[gifbohane]

Just another consideration: If you plan on shooting this in a Glock, do some research. Some do & some don't believe shooting lead in a poly barrel is a bad thing. The Glock company does not recommend it. I can only think softer lead will be the problem. YMMV. Good luck.

They would be fired in a CZ and a S & W. Thank you for the all the positive responses.

[gwpercle]

Not having a mould kinda puts a crimp in the casting process !
I'm "old school" and so low tech I'm surprised they let me hang around here .
So ... this is what I would do... take a couple ingots , drop on concrete or hit together ...if they go thud then is on the soft side ...good. If they go clang or ringlike a bell ...they on hard side ...still good. For 9mm you don't need hard boolits ... You will have to wait for your mould to arrive for step #2...Cast a few boolits , Size & Lube , Load and Shoot em . After that ...if they hit the target and don't muck-up the barrel with lead ...you good to go.
Be sure to size properly and use a good lube or powder coat . I don't powder coat but use Lithium - Beeswax lube and size 9mm boolits to .357" .
I have worked up a several loads in the past few years ... the 9mm Luger can be a stinker to get all the bugs worked out ... but plenty info. is on the site on this and I have learned a trick or two.
Shout out when you get mould ...have data will post .
Gary

[uscra112]

The melt must have at least SOME tin in it to get good fill-out in the mould. Boat ballast can be anything, and it might not matter whether you add tin or not. But then again it might.

Hardness will matter a lot if you size your bullets to exact groove diameter or something less. Undersize bullets that are hard will lead your barrel. Softer ones won't, because they obturate (slug up) to seal the hot gases behind them. But they have other problems when loaded into 9mm cases.

Personally I've quit loading cast bullets into 9mm. Too touchy about crimping, feeding, and of course the leading problems. If I had to do it again I'd want at least 3% tin for good fillout and 5% antimony for hardness, size 'em .001 to .002 bigger than groove diameter, and size/expand/crimp the cases as for jacketed bullets.

[MOA]

Gif. What might be easiest for you is this.
Get your mold first, but if your shooting 9mm I'd get a mold a few thousands larger than you need. Pure lead in molds when it cools is likely to shrink too much to end up giving you a lead free barrel.

Sell your lead and use the money to buy some #2 Lyman lead from Roto Metals. They are a sponsor with a tab to their website at the top of the page. Use that for your casting. Less issues for you to deal with.

[uscra112]

^^^Amen^^^

[Edward]

Lee hardness tester is cheap and mine gets used a lot as I use uncertified lead . I can alloy anything lead using a tester ,certified I could not afford to shoot as much as I do thanks to Lee . Certainly not the best but it works for me , and lots of lead thru my G20/G26 by knowing hardness (a must) in casting to shoot targets or critters !/Ed

[Edward]

Gif. What might be easiest for you is this.
Get your mold first, but if your shooting 9mm I'd get a mold a few thousands larger than you need. Pure lead in molds when it cools is likely to shrink too much to end up giving you a lead free barrel.

Sell your lead and use the money to buy some #2 Lyman lead from Roto Metals. They are a sponsor with a tab to their website at the top of the page. Use that for your casting. Less issues for you to deal with.

Or just learn powder coating and create your own jacket and size to desired dimension (shake and bake method) and again easy /cheap and keep your cheap lead .Powder coat and size to your barrel ,and did I mention push soft lead way faster ,and for hunting making the perfect mushroom /Ed

[CPTCUFFS]

+1 for powder coat. I shoot salvaged range lead most of it is pretty soft. I can run them pretty fast in my 9mm pistols with no issues. Not so fast in the 45acp but it is one of my most accurate loads.