Range Lead

[ourway77]

Melted range lead is it OK for Muzzle loader bullets

[Rich/WIS]

Generally range lead is in the 9-11 Bhn range, might be a little too hard for a ML. Don't know for sure, have only used pure for round balls and REAL bullets.

[243winxb]

Pure lead is needed

[dondiego]

It will work fine for patched round ball but C&B revolvers and conicals need soft lead.

[bigdog454]

agree with dondiega
bd

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

should work great for sabots

[mdi]

agree with dondiega
bd

Me too...

[rancher1913]

if you pick and choose the range bullets, it will work but you will need to check hardness on each batch you do. jacketed bullets are typically soft, lead bullets are typically harder due to manufactures having to ship them.

[C.F.Plinker]

I used range lead for casting some round balls. It measured 8bhn so I did not water drop them. They worked fine but were slightly larger than the ones I cast from pure. As a result, I had to use a slightly thinner patch. YMMV

[Bigslug]

You're going to want to separate it out:

If you are able to separate out Foster-type shotgun slugs, you'll be pretty close to pure.

Jacketed bullets will have about 3% antimony.

Anybody else's cast bullets could be anything.

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?269789-Careful-Analysis-of-Segregated-Range-Scrap-Smelt&highlight=segregated+range+scrap

Unless you're outfitting a regiment for the Revolutionary War, muzzleloading is unlikely to be your high-volume pursuit. If you need pure lead, buy pure lead, and save the range scrap as raw material for pistol bullets.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve found that my range scrap, that tends to be pretty hard, works fine when patches are used. Otherwise, you need soft lead to deform with the rifling when loaded. Skirted boolits like minie balls, need the soft lead, so the skirt expands easily. Soft lead with plain round balls probably expands some too and helps to seal if patches are not used in rifled barrels.

[Old Caster]

I would never shoot any kind of lead in a black powder type of rifle or pistol except pure or pure with some tin mixed in. If you take a wheel weight and write on a piece of iron, you can see where you wrote. With pure lead or lead with tin, it will not. This small amount of residue left where the black powder is under it will give you rust. Years ago, one of the BPCR shooters extensively experimented with this and learned and convinced all of us to never do it. He was advised by others to not try it but wanted to prove it to himself and he said it was a disaster basically ruining his barrel for BPCR shooting where accuracy is imperative all the way out to 550 yards.

[rmark]

I’ve used range lead (about bhn 9) for patched round balls, but soft lead is needed for minie bullets.