Powder Coating and lead hardness

[GimpeeShooter]

I did some searching and couldn't come up with an answer, so if I missed a thread already on this topic I apologize. My dad just melted down some range lead and got 140 lbs of lead ingots. If I'm powder coating, do I need to be concerned about the hardness of the lead? It will just be used to plink at the range. No competition or hunting use.

[kevin c]

If the coated boolit is fit to your bore, your coating technique is good, the alloy doesn’t have anything in it that prevents the coating from adhering right, and you’re not hotrodding the load, I think you’d be fine at pistol and moderate rifle velocities.

[bangerjim]

I cast, coat, and shoot 9-10 hardness lead all the time in sub-sonic pistol and rifle loads. PC'ing really does minimize/eliminate the need for much harder lead. Old school teachings on hardness are now out the window.

Range scrap is just fine. You may need a percent or two of Sn to give your melt good detail fill capabilities.

But as said...FIT IS KING.

[GimpeeShooter]

Awesome, thank you for the feedback!

[contender1]

For the purposes you've mentioned,, you are fine. When casting an alloy,, you often go for a specific hardness,, especially getting a harder bullet to allow for faster velocities. What a lot of folks fail to think about is the fact that when you PC the bullets,, you are actually annealing them,, to a softer Bn. People who wish for a harder PCed bullet water quench them straight out of the PC oven. But with what you seek,, you should be just fine!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Don't be afraid to try it in your higher velocity rifles with gas checks. We push 8bhn lead to 1800-2000+ fps (mostly dependent on the twist rate) with very decent accuracy.

[Kraschenbirn]

I cast and powder-coat range scrap (8-10 Bhn) + 2% Sn for my 32-20s and 38-55s when loading with smokeless. Velocities in the 1350-1500 fps range (dependent upon caliber/boolit design); good accuracy, no leading. Have used same scrap - with a little more Sn added and pan-lubed with Emmert's Improved - to load BP rounds with equally good results.

Bill