Re-casting lubed bullets ?

[Az Rick]

I have several hundred .41 cal lubed hardcast bullets. I no longer own a .41. I'm wondering can they be melted with the lube on? Will this contaminate my new alloy?
Should I remove the lube?
Also, I believe the BHN is 20-22, so I will need to add pure lead to them to get the hardness down. Does anyone have a guess as to what ratio of hardcast bullets to plain lead I might use? Somewhere around WW hardness would be great.
I tried to do a search but couldn't come up with anything, I need to improve my searching, computer skills.

Thanks

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

what are they sized too, what Lube is on them.
they are a little hard for my liking,
maybe you could trade them in the sellin' and swappin' section.
Jon

[geargnasher]

boolit lube = good flux. That's about the ONLY thing most commercial lube is good for anyway. Just be sure and start with a cold pot, don't just drop them in molten alloy because they will sink straight to the bottom and the Tinsel Faery will ride down there with them!

Those may be alloyed that hard or possibly heat treated. Try melting one in an old spoon and letting it air cool, then check the bhn in a couple of weeks to see what it really is.

Gear

[Az Rick]

Geargnasher, thanks that's what I was hoping to hear! Don't own a hardness scale though, can't afford one right now. Maybe just make ingots and mark them, test later.

JonB, I thought about that also, but it's expensive to ship, I just figured the cheap way was to recycle them. They are 215gr., sized 210. I shot them fast outa my Mag.

[lwknight]

They might be linotype. I'd do a specific gravity test.

[wallenba]

If you don't have too many, put them on a tray with paper towel under them and pop them in the toaster oven at about 250-275 degrees for about 15 minutes. It will cut down on the smoke from the pot, a concern if you have your pot in the garage like I do.

[Az Rick]

Thanks L W, your post lead me on a search for specific gravity test and I found several things to try. I should be able to come close enough to remake plinkers.

Dutch, I'll keep the smoke in mind. Thanks

Rick

[lwknight]

If it turns out to be linotype , you can cut is at least 50/50 and maybe even thinner depending what you mix it with and what you want to end up with.

[skimmerhead]

last year i aquired 1500 hard cast boolits, they were lubed with some dark blue lube that's hard and keeps breaking and falling out of the lube grooves. i have never loaded any because of that fact. now i have a bhn tester, they tested 16bhn which is to hard for my purpose and will melt and add soft lead to get to softer mix. but shooting 45acp at 16bhn is not what i want, and .452 lc at cowboy loads is too hard for me. i was going to melt the lube off and relube till i tested em. i didn't know the bhn when i got em so now iv'e got alot of casting to do.

skimmerhead

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

JonB, I thought about that also, but it's expensive to ship, I just figured the cheap way was to recycle them. They are 215gr., sized 210. I shot them fast outa my Mag.

if these are these commercial cast and the Lube is still intact and
you have several hundred of them in the original packaging.
I'd sell them on an auction site like Gunbroker.
You'll probably get near retail and the buyer pays shipping.
The only problem is...all the usually krap you
have to deal with in regards to online auctions.

If they are home cast,
there can be issues without a FFL #6... Ammuition Manufacturing license.
the BATFE looks at individual components as Ammunition.
I'd just re-melt them.
Jon

[fredj338]

I remelt bullets all the time, use them as flux & drop a few into a pot & stir w/ a wood stick. Adding 4-5 bullets to 18# of alloy isn't going to affect composition much.

[Az Rick]

Thanks everyone, JonB you could be right they might sell. I went to the garage and weighed them. I have 14+ pounds of them. If I did my math correctly thats 450+ bullets. I also found 89 250gr WFNGC LBT style .41's these are Cast Performance Bullet Co. They are heat treated, pretty hard I imagine. They are in original boxes so I'll post them in the selling section after while. Give Guys here first chance.

Thanks

[fredj338]

Thanks everyone, JonB you could be right they might sell. I went to the garage and weighed them. I have 14+ pounds of them. If I did my math correctly thats 450+ bullets. I also found 89 250gr WFNGC LBT style .41's these are Cast Performance Bullet Co. They are heat treated, pretty hard I imagine. They are in original boxes so I'll post them in the selling section after while. Give Guys here first chance.

Thanks
Keep in mind, heat treating doesn't change the alloy, just it's structure. So remelting a heat treated bullet that is say 18BHN, does not mean it is going to cast a bullet of 18BHN.[smilie=f:

[casterofboolits]

I use old/reject lubed boolits to flux when smelting and casting.

In a recent trade I ended up with about 500 of what appears to be 45-70 boolits lubed and sized. The boolits appear to have been sitting for years and are not a pretty sight so they are scheduled to be used as flux in my next smelting session.

I use a long handled commercial SS spoon and ease them into the melt. No problems if the temp is right.

[Recluse]

I'd smelt 'em and turn them into ingots. Test the BHN when the ingots are cooled off. Shoot, just use the fingernail test.

On occasion, people will give me boxes of old commercial cast bullets and I have no idea what the alloy composition is, what the lube is, etc. I just dump 'em in the Dutch Oven next smelting session and turn them into ingots.

:coffee:

[littlejack]

What type of cast boolits are you looking for? I may have some that you want to trade for.
Jack

[Az Rick]

Thanks, They can be used to flux or drop a few in each batch to use them up, same difference I guess. I think some may become ingots for later use.

littlejack, I'm not looking for bullets, I was trying to figure out how to use some up that I no longer want. Thanks for the offer though.

Rick