Foundry Lead?

[chemist308]

I'd heard of foundry lead with a hardness of about 31. Where do I get this? Can I use it for normal rifle loads? Would it expand?

One other question. What maximum hardness one can legally cast?

[Jbar4Ranch]

I used to work at an ASARCO lead smelter and cast many bullets out of "foundry lead". Depending on content, they would usually test 25-28 BHN. We would ship out ten pigs of lead each weighing ten tons each to another facility where the gold & silver was separated from the lead. As such, buying "foundry lead" would not be very cost effective, because you would also be paying for the precious metals held in solution.

As far as I know, there is no "illegal hardness limit"...? Maybe I don't understand the question.

[runfiverun]

i think he is thinking of foundry type which is used to add to lino-type to enrich it.
you can make your lead as hard as you want.
but most hard type metals are usually brittle too, don't drop them.
i have broken lino-type boolits seating/sizing them.
35-40 bhn through heat treating is about the practical max.
unless you can run really hot then a silver/ zinc/tin/copper type lead alloy should get you more.

[MtGun44]

"Normal rifle loads" - do you mean full power loads? If so, it depends entirely on
what cartridge. For a .300-.378 Wby, I'd have to say pretty seriously unlikely, altho
I learned long ago to not say impossible. For a .38-40, for certain. For a .30-30, yep,
for a .30-06, unlikely. Not gonna expand, most likely shatter. Ever hit a linotype boolit
with a hammer? Breaks like ceramic or something.

"what hardness can one legally cast" - Huh? I think that in the USof A this doesn't
apply. Not sure what you are thinking the legality issue would be? Since any ordinary
hunting rifle load will go thru any normal BP vest (except for the relatively rare military
and SWAT rifle proof vests), I don't think that has any bearing. Of course, I live in Kansas
and maybe in some of the antigun states there are some weird laws that I don't know
about. No limits around here.

Bill

[Slow Elk 45/70]

You don't need boolits that hard. Just being hard doesn't mean you can shoot them 3,000fps.
There are threads on this , look at the stickies,

If you want velocity over about 2400 fps, I would shoot J bullets, and that is a trick also.
Think boolit: strong/tuff....not hard/brittle

A BHN of 20-22 will get you 2,000-2,200 fps, if everything is just right, boolit fits chamber/throat, seals bore, is gas checked , good lube , etc.
You can add Lino to WW and get a higher BHN heat treating if you must go Faster, but what is the point? CB's are not going to shoot as fast as J bullets period... Have fun

IMHO a boolit harder than that is not going to be good for hunting. If you are punching paper, I guess it doesn't matter, but they will be brittle and shatter on impact.