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Thread: Need to reduce hardness

  1. #1
    Boolit Bub wbwilly's Avatar
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    Need to reduce hardness

    Hi Folks,

    I have 13lbs of some Oregon Trails laser cast bullets that I want to melt and mix with pure lead to soften it up to about 8bhn. Google says the Laser Cast hardness is 24.

    Does anyone have any idea on how much soft lead I should alloy in?

    Thanks
    Willy

  2. #2
    Boolit Master
    StuBach's Avatar
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    If you can get the alloy composition why not just throw it into the alloy calculator and see what makes sense for your need

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Have you checked your soft to see what it is? 8 BHN is just about dead soft as it is. Seems to me using 24 BHN for that use is a massive waste of hard lead that could be used for raising the hardness for others like me looking for 14-16.
    The quickest way is to use weiderladens grid checker.

    I went to the alloy checker and used stereotype since it is 23 BHN and I was up to 250 lbs. of pure lead and I could only get down to 9.5 and it wasn't really dropping adding 50 lbs. at a time. I tried the grid but there is extra math involved in going down and not up.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    I think you need to melt that lead down and make a few bullets with it and air cool them and see what you come up with. I will bet that that 24 is water cooled and once you remelt it that all changes.

  5. #5
    Boolit Bub wbwilly's Avatar
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    Thanks, I'm a cowboy action shooter who shoots black powder 45 colt so I like lead on the soft side and have no need for hard lead. I've been buying range lead off ebay and mixing it about 50/50 with soft lead with good results.

    I will melt some and use my Lee hardness tester on it and see what I get.

  6. #6
    Boolit Bub wbwilly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by StuBach View Post
    If you can get the alloy composition why not just throw it into the alloy calculator and see what makes sense for your need
    My understanding is that the composition of the Oregon Bullets Laser Cast is proprietary and it has numerous elements in the alloy.

  7. #7
    Banned
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    Pure lead is around 5 BHN.

    I would guess the BHN of your boolits is 14-16. IF it is 20 they are most likely out linotype.

    I would start by confirming the hardness of the boolits first then figure how much pure you need to add to get 8 BHN


  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy
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    You might want to check Oregon Trail Bullet Co web sight. I see 15 BHN listed for the few I checked.

    With bullets in high demand sell them and buy replacement lead. Lead prices are way lower than bullet prices.

  9. #9
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Paper Puncher View Post
    You might want to check Oregon Trail Bullet Co web sight. I see 15 BHN listed for the few I checked.

    With bullets in high demand sell them and buy replacement lead. Lead prices are way lower than bullet prices.
    Second that! You can buy lead from Rotometals for around 2-3 bucks a lb. depending on what you want. softer is cheaper.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check