Lead mixture

[smaj100]

Hey all,

I recently got several k lbs of range scrap dropped in my lap. I've been melting out the copper and trash and pouring into ingots. This lead is i'm guessing almost pure as it is super soft, can almost gouge it a finger nail.

I have a stash of ww ingots and some linotype.

My question is how can I mix in the range lead with either ww or lino and get a suitably hard mixture for my 308 and pistols, 40 & 380. I haven't tried adding tin or any other metals to the range scrap but i'm not opposed to it. Was just trying to use what I have on hand.

Also I've read some folks saying that if you water quench and then size you are defeating the purpose of quenching. Is this true if so i'm wasting my time?

:castmine:

[snaggdit]

Well, this is very open to opinion. for the 40 and 380, you are in the 800-1000fps range. If you are sizing your boolits to be .002 over bore (you need to check by slugging the barrels) you can get by just fine mixing it 50/50 with WW or probably even cast with it as is (and let them air cool). For the .308, I would say make the 50/50 mix then add a pound of lino for every 10 pounds of 50/50 mix. This will get you 16bhn as is and will water drop for mid 20's.
You can water quench then size and you will not lose much if any hardness if you size within a day, 2 at the most. There is another thread active right now discussing this. It is mentioned that if you place the water dropped boolits in the freezer right away you can wait days to size. The freezing slows down the hardening process which takes several weeks normally to reach peak hardness.

[fredj338]

I don't load lead bullets in any rifle rounds much over 1700fps & find straight ww water dropped work fine or add 50% lino to ww & air cool. I treat range scrap as pure lead (although it may be a bit harder) & use it for HP w/ 25-1 tin or mix 50/50 w/ ww for handgun bullets to 1200fps or so air cooled.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

You got good info , you might also go to the "LASC" site if you want a lot of info on mixing your alloys , your range scrap is probably close to pure lead to treat it as such , and mix with WW or Linotype as suggested above. Just as a note , water quenching pure lead does nothing to it, but make it wet....:bigsmyl2:

:cbpour: :redneck:

[Beau Cassidy]

I just mix it 50/50 ww to scrap. For every 50 lbs I throw in a roll of solder. I don't know the hardness and the deer can't tell the difference. Use it in everything from .38 to .450 Marlin.

[jleneave]

Me and a cousin came into a couple thousand lbs of indoor range scrap recently. When we first got it I would pick up piece of flattened out lead and could bend it easily. So I figured that it was going to be really soft lead and I would need to alloy it with WW or something to make it harder. After "smelting" several hundred lbs of it down I was suprised at how hard it was. I have some pure lead that came from flashing on a roof and when I drop this lead on concrete it just made a low thud sound, but when I dropped some of the range scrap ingots on concrete they sound exactly the same as WW ingots and have a high pitch ring. I don't have a BHN testor (I need to get one I guess) but I believe that this lead is just a tad softer than WW. I recently cast a couple thousand .45ACP bullets with it and plan loading some up to see how they do. I did water quench most of them just in case they need to be a little harder and I air cooled some also. As soon as I get a chance I am going to load some up and see how they do and compare the water quenched bullets to the air cooled bullets and see if there is a difference between them.

Take Care,

Jody

[runfiverun]

jacketed can be from 0 to 5% antimony.
i usually try to sort some of the obvious cast out as i go along.
22's are usually about 1.5% antimony.
i usually melt range scrap in my ww's at about 25% and either water drop for rifle or air cool for revolver.
hell you don't know whats in most ww's anyways nowdays so a mix of more unknown ain't gonna hurt.
i usually throw a fw let them sit for a week and measure and weigh them then do a hardness test if they need something else i then mix as i go and just kinda wing it.
if i need super accuracy like in a target rifle or for 22's keep the known alloys separate and use just them for the important stuff.
mix big batches and cast big batches figure out a load and make a bunch of them and don't worry about it.
i usually keep picking at 100-150 lbs of lead in a mold then work on something else.

[R.M.]

All my range lead, that is 75/25 .22/cf pistol (non-jacketed) comes out at about 12 BHN.

[captain-03]

Range lead is about all I shoot now in my pistols/revolvers - 9mm, 40S&W, 38/357, 45acp, 44spec. --- I have melted it with regard to any type sortation -- water drop, normally sized within 24 hrs, age for a week or two, load down, and shoot .... Saving the WW and lino for the rifle stuff!!

[WHITETAIL]

100 Welcome to the forum!:castmine:
What I do is melt all my scrap in a duch
oven.
Then when the ingets are cool enough
to handle.
I mark each batch with a steel stamp.
Pure lead gets a L, and mixed batches
gats a number. Then when I make my boolets
I check the hardness.
That is when I might add tin or some shot
to the mix.:redneck:

[Larry Gibson]

I have shot a lot of scrap range lead as you describe. As mentione d by others it has a BHN of around 12 and if WQ'd will many times harden to 20-24 BHN. This, as runfiverun states, do to the antimony content. I have gone through all sorts of gyrations alloying it with WWs an linotype trying to come up with an alloy similar to #2. I really have not had good success. The problem being the amount of antimony usually already presant. What i finally discover is that by simply adding 5% pure tin the alloy is then very similar to #2 alloy. It has a BHN of 18, casts like #2 and is as accurate as #2. So that is what I do, simply add 5% tin to the range lead. Pure tin is not that expensive and is available from several sources shipped to you. Given the cost of the range lead you have I would suggest you give that a try. The other alloys can be used for their own bullet purposes.

Larry Gibson

[45r]

Plus one on adding the tin,3 to 5 percent tin added makes a better alloy and helps fill-out.In the old days 16 to 1 was used a lot,20 to 1 is very good.Lyman number 2 is excellent.I like too go for 3 percent tin with WW and 5 percent tin with pure lead.A little too much won't hurt.I think Elmer used 16 to 1 and we know how well he did with his boolits.