Really hard lead

[Mandoair]

I was by the gun shop today and found some lead some really really hard lead. I could not scratch it with my finger nail not even a mark. So my question is is there such a thing as lead that is too hard. I want to cast heavy bullets for heavy loads and a 10 mm?. Thanks for your input all I can tell you about the lead is one said LYMAN and then there was a different ingot that like the LYMAN had a number 12 in the casting thanks

[megasupermagnum]

There's an alloy called Lyman #2, which is quite hard. It is a bit pricy, but it does make fantastic bullets.

[Hogtamer]

Excellent for buckshot

[Winger Ed.]

I'd grab it if the price was half way decent.

Either use it like it is, or alloy it into more pure Lead for slow speed stuff.

[nhyrum]

There's a book that should be free. It's an e book called "from ingot to Target" by Glen fryxell. In short, yes, there is lead that's too hard. It could be Lyman #2, it could be monotype or linotype. Hard lead becomes brittle.

Lyman makes ingot molds. It very well could be that the Lyman on the ingots is simply from the mold

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk

[Mandoair]

Hay thanks for the advice‼️‼️

[Petander]

There's a book that should be free. It's an e book called "from ingot to Target" by Glen fryxell.

http://www.lasc.us/fryxell_book_contents.htm

[GregLaROCHE]

You should buy it if the price is reasonable. Hard lead usually goes for more than soft lead. You should eventually test it for hardness. The pencil test is probably the simplest. Look for it in the search box on this site.

[swingingblock2520]

http://www.lasc.us/fryxell_book_contents.htm

Thanks for linking the book,on a side note I see you’re Finnish.
I have a very close friend who lives in Pori,we met about 25yrs ago thru an international pen pal program in school. Mira and I remained friends after all these years. She has visited us a few times and my wife and went to visit her when our oldest daughter was 5,Mira took us to the big jazz festival.

[JimB..]

Or it could be zinc.

Does the shop have a story about the source of these ingots?

[Wayne Smith]

Or it could be zinc.

Does the shop have a story about the source of these ingots?

A couple drops of muriatic acid will determine that. Muriatic acid is the stuff they use in swimming pools, so it is readily available, at least in the US.

[charlie b]

FWIW, I use Lyman #2 alloy for all my bullets. It is normally 16-18bhn. Many years ago it was THE alloy for rifle and heavy pistol loads.

[waksupi]

I suspect it will be too hard for a 10mm, but will most likely work in rifles.

[oley55]

Mandoair,

First of all, Welcome to the Forum!

An FYI, the 'Lead and Lead Alloys' sub-forum about 2/3 the way down this Casting and Reloading section is chocked full or all types of lead and alloy information. It would help with your alloy hardness/identification efforts. There are just so many areas related to specific interests in our addiction, the forum managers saw the need to break topics down into more manageable (and readable/findable) sub-forums.

I have no familiarity with 10MM and don't know whether hard or mid-level hardness is appropriate. 45 ACP doesn't need to be hard, while 9MM does a bit....

[farmbif]

if your new to casting your own bullets, never, never pass up opportunity to get inexpensive lead or other casting alloys such as printers type, wheel weights, lead bars or pipe, solder, old pewter, ect. or stuff you find in gunshop.
as for pricing, look at what rotometals.com charges for different alloys, a great source if your wanting to buy alloy that you can be assured of purity.

[Petander]

Thanks for linking the book,on a side note I see you’re Finnish.
I have a very close friend who lives in Pori,we met about 25yrs ago thru an international pen pal program in school. Mira and I remained friends after all these years. She has visited us a few times and my wife and went to visit her when our oldest daughter was 5,Mira took us to the big jazz festival.

Now that's nice.

I have one hour drive to Pori.

I've worked in music scene all my life, also with some bands from Pori.

Hard lead? Good to have some!

[Cast10]

I cast for my 10mm’s. I’m a newby so have been doing lots of studying over the past year. I arrived at a mix to try that should be around 11.3 BHN. I shoot a Glock 20 stock barrel and a 16” carbine.

My lead mixed was Hardball with SOWW. It came out to 1% SN, 2.57% SB, and 96.4% PB.

I have no leading in either the Glock or the Carbine. I push them to 1600 fps in the carbine.

Best of luck to ya!

[WRideout]

I acquired some mystery metal from an estate sale, that I assumed was clip-on-wheelweight. When I molded pistol bullets out of it, it was actually too hard to go through a lubrisizer die. I had it analyzed by BNE from the forum here, and it is looking like melted down chilled shot. I use a small amount to harden up my recovered range scrap.

Wayne

[Mandoair]

Hay thanks for the book. From Ingot to Target ‼️ Reading it now.

[FISH4BUGS]

FWIW, I use Lyman #2 alloy for all my bullets. It is normally 16-18bhn. Many years ago it was THE alloy for rifle and heavy pistol loads.

You are not the only one.

[Mandoair]

I tried to find BNE didn’t. Who or what is that? Thanks

[oley55]

I tried to find BNE didn’t. Who or what is that? Thanks

a forum member who will supposedly run XRF analysis of lead samples for a pound of lead or something like that (as per posts I've read, I think maybe, or I could be confused!!?). A look into the Community tab, select 'member list' will help you find user ID: BNE, tab B, page 50.

[Mandoair]

Thanks all I new to do was use the search tab.

[oley55]

Don't feel bad, the search engine here has some limitations which I have yet to figure out. The worst part is it seems to need a minimum number of characters which forces you to use more generic words/phrases getting you many non-related hits. It's weird and frustrating, but a small price to be part of this forum.

There is a thread in the 'Frequently Asked Questions' where a guy explains how to use/force Google to search only in castboolits and accepts short or abbreviated queries. Using that method is supposed to allow us to search for short narrowed options, 45ACP, 357 and presumably BNE as well, but I find it cumbersome. https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?417200-Search-function-assistance

As a knew to the forum guy, perusing the "frequently asked questions' section may be worth the effort. If nothing else when you encounter a forum frustration, it's probably been discussed there and you'll know to look there for help.

A note, 'Frequently Asked Questions' is supposed to be 'Forum' use and function questions, but more than a few post reloading/casting questions in there.

edit added: I just did a search on Duckduckgo as follows:
site:castboolits.gunloads.com BNE and got MANY results.

[Hanzy4200]

I would use it in your alloy, just see how it melds with your usual alloy. It could even be a Super Hard alloy sold by RotoMetals. Very high antimony content. Just FYI, the stuff is like $7 a lb shipped.

[John Boy]

Lyman #2 alloy should be Bhn 15 ….

[John Boy]

Lyman #2 alloy should be Bhn 15 ….
No scratch ingots is monotype, Bhn 22

[Mandoair]

291374Thanks everyone. Being knew I was confused there were different types of lead on the same shelf. Most of what I found was hard lead but not extreme found out it’s most likely we w w. The other stuff called or stamped that’s more like it ALLCOY. Probably isn’t lead but an alloy. I went back the other day and the guy had lee molds of tin for five dollars probably close to 2 pounds and I only had a five with me but going back I am. thanks again also 291375had another box of those wheel weights cast into the lee molds.

[Green Frog]

Those strings of ingots could be a lot of things. I’ve seen some like that, foundry marked, that were a special alloy referred to in the trade as “Linotype plus” which was used when casting type to “sweeten up” the alloy as the antimony was lost due to multiple meltings. As one would expect, they were harder than Chinese arithmetic!

Froggie

PS Somewhere along the way I got some things that looked sort of like old fashioned window sash weights with loops cast into both ends and one flat side. Turns out this was how they reworked the type alloy to prepare it for insertion into type casting machines. If you find any of these, they will probably check out as good Linotype.

[OFFSHORE]

I'm a 10mm shooter, and after installing my KKM barrel on my G40, cast is all I shoot out of it. My alloy is 30:1 - 30 pounds 50/50 COWW and soft lead to 1 pound pewter. It gives me a BHN of 13/15 with no leading at 1320FPS. Accurate mold 40-200C sized to .402". Nasty business for deer and hogs out to 75 yards, maybe further. . .that is just as far as I've stretched its legs on game animals. Like others have said. . .buy the hard lead if the price is right, and mix it in to achieve your desired hardness in your bullet. Good luck.