soften cast boolits by heating them

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

what temp can I heat cast boolits (cores for swaging actually).
I don't want to melt them, just lower the BHN.
the alloy is 100% clip-on WW, they were cast months ago.

I was originally going to swage with soft/pure lead,
BUT, I've been reading here about how slow cast boolits harden after
they've been cast. I'd prefer to swage a bullet with softer lead,
but then I would like the hardness of WW lead after the six week
hardening period.
Jon

[RobS]

400 degrees for an hour will get you what you are after. The trick is to leave them in the oven when the time is up; just leave them to cool for a few hours............until they are room temp would be perfect.

[runfiverun]

gives you about 7-8 days till the come back to alloy bhn.

[sagacious]

I'd prefer to swage a bullet with softer lead, but then I would like the hardness of WW lead after the six week hardening period.
You may not get what you're after. Annealing cast ww cores will soften them only to the base hardness of your actual alloy, and not softer.

Swaging after casting involves significant cold working, and the alloy may not recover it's as-cast hardness after cold working. You may wait six weeks and not see any appreciable increase in BHN.

This is why lead pipe with 1-2.5% Sb is fairly soft when in pipe-form (cold-worked), but when melted and poured (as-cast), the ingots test at a higher BHN.

You may need to reheat and quench your finished swaged bullets to see an increase in the BHN to base ww alloy hardness or above. I'd recommend a several-week test with your materials before you conclude that the core BHN will in fact be that of aged air-cooled ww alloy. Good luck.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

thanks everyone for the info.
I need to think about this some more.

I guess it's not a real big deal if the cold worked (swaged) bullets don't get as hard
as aged cast bullets. mostly I am wanting to swage these cores (WW) that were cast months ago without overly abusing my press, which is the case when I swage with them now as aged case cores.

Regarding the aged/finished bullet, I just thought it would be a bonus to have a harder core as an option (more penetration), most of what I swage, I use soft/almost pure lead core, which makes for a fine expanding bullet.
Jon

[runfiverun]

jon iv'e been trying to work out melting the core in the jacket thing too, so i could anneal at the same time.
seems like i either waste a lot of electricity or cast into the jacket, but it's hard to control.
if you do the cores and drop and swage right quick [same day or so] you'll have the softer lead.
but....
might could do a test with a saeco tester on the nose.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

#1... so i could anneal at the same time.
#2... if you do the cores and drop and swage right quick [same day or so] you'll have the softer lead. but, might could do a test with a saeco tester on the nose.

#1... I anneal in a wood stove in my livingroom (wintertime) so I get by on the cheap.

#2... that's my plan, but I mostly swage Hollow points, I suppose I could peal back the brass jacket for testing, but I don't have any type of tester.

[runfiverun]

pocket knife in the hollow point would at least be a guess.
or one of those spring loaded things for marking where you wanna start a drill bit.
you'd have an idea anyways.