I am just dipping my toes in the water on this expansion of my gun hobby. I haven't cast a bullet yet, but have all the reloading dies and just bought a bullet mold.

I have about 70 pounds of lead from two different lots. One is a 20lb inverse pyramid shaped boat anchor, and the other consists of 2 scuba weight belts that my brother and I cast 25 some years ago. I don't remember the origin of what we melted down, but suspect it was a hodge podge of wheel weights, fishing sinkers and whatever scrap bits we could scrounge. (he did most of the scrounging, I just helped him cast...)

I'm not old, but I'm not young either, and given the amount I shoot this may just be enough raw material to last until I'm in the grave. Given that I don't plan to use anything else for my bullets I don't see a need to do frequent hardness testing. I know they aren't that expensive, but once I establish a baseline the tester would either sit in a drawer or get sold on ebay.

So, on to my question: I'm open to feedback that might sway me into buying a tester, but first I thought I'd ask if anyone would be willing, (for a small appropriate fee) to test a few samples for me? Shoot me a PM or reply here...

Thanks.

I am going to offer another of my "simplistic remedies", preceded by the statement I have been casting since 1980 and have never found a use for a hardness tester.

There are a world of different recipes for bullet alloys out there. My personal experience is that commercially cast handgun projectiles are cast too hard, and the lube used to "grease" them has the same flaw. Those things are done, in my estimation, to make sure the bullets arrive in pristine condition, with no dents, and the lube is not go gummy as to stick to one's fingers as each projectile is handled during the loading process. That results in very unseemly bullets, as they tend to stick together and the lube goes everywhere if it is too soft.

But your question is about alloy: I will offer this opinion: Try to get roughly 20# of alloy from your supply, assuming you are using a 20# casting pot. If not, ~10# will work.

I would then add one lb. of 50/50 plumbing solder, and cast some projectiles. (The solder will add the required amount of tin to the melt. Tin is required for good mould fill out.) Weigh them, then mike them prior to sizing, and see what your results are. Too hard is MUCH worse than too soft, and too small is MUCH worse than too hard. Lead will compress slightly, as will all metals, Otherwise it would be impossible to re-size a jacketed .416" projectile to .411" and so forth.

I suspect you will be within the ball park for both desired size of cast projectile, and for "nominal weight" from that mould. My personal recommendation would be to try to size down no more than .002" all the way around, or .004" overall, as it may result in lube grooves that are too shallow and do not hold enough lube.

If your alloy is too soft, or your as-cast projectiles are too small, you may have to add some hardening agent. By too small, I mean the as-sized projectile should be a minimum of .001" over groove diameter.

Now: everything I have above is based on the assumption that you will be casting handgun projectiles. If you are thinking of using this lead for rifles, almost all of what I said above needs to be thrown out the window.

If you are going to cast for rifles, send me a PM. I may be able to help. I cast for rifles, too.

Best of luck.

Doubless,

All very good feedback, I appreciate it. And yes, I will be casting for handgun projectiles. There are a few points that didn't really get addressed by your post though:

quote:

Try to get roughly 20# of alloy from your supply...

...I would then add one lb. of 50/50 plumbing solder, and cast some projectiles.

If your alloy is too soft...

I already have all the lead that I need, and there very well may have been some spools of plumbing solder already tossed into the melting pot years ago. The main question is how will I know if my alloy is too soft? Without some way to measure it is purely subjective.

What I need is some kind of baseline. Some measurement that says I am OK to proceed, or that I am X% too soft and should add something to the mix.

What I would say is this: even pure lead is shot out of handguns; the trick is to keep the bore full (and by that, I mean don't allow gas to slip past the projectile as it travels down the bore). If you size to .001" over bore size, you shouldn't have a problem, assuming the throats are not off. That is a whole other story.

I really know of no way to get a "baseline" other than to either spring for the bucks to buy a tester, or send a sample out to be assayed, and that is more pricey than a tester...

I am going to send you a pm. Maybe that will explain a bit better.

Got your PM, thanks. I will respond tomorrow.

Montea,Doublas knows his business on casting;I have bought several moulds from him.Now the old theory of formula for a Lyman #2 alloy was 9 lb. of W.W. to 1 lb. of 50/50 solder.That may be a problem now as our current potus has outlawed wheel weights (REALLY).But you do have a pot of lead that is of questionable mixture? If you want to,I do have a Saeco hardness tester + if you like send me a couple of cast bullets from your current alloy + I will check them for you,no charge. P.M. if interested.Best,Randy

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
Montea,Doublas knows his business on casting;I have bought several moulds from him.Now the old theory of formula for a Lyman #2 alloy was 9 lb. of W.W. to 1 lb. of 50/50 solder.That may be a problem now as our current potus has outlawed wheel weights (REALLY).But you do have a pot of lead that is of questionable mixture? If you want to,I do have a Saeco hardness tester + if you like send me a couple of cast bullets from your current alloy + I will check them for you,no charge. P.M. if interested.Best,Randy

One more instance of just why I hold this website and its members in such high esteem.

Randy, my personal thanks for the kind words, and especially for offering to lend the needed hand.

I owe you one!

Scot

montea6b--I've cast since 1967 and I don't recall that I ever saw a hardness tester, nor sent off any bullets for someone else to test. Before I started casting, I read the Lyman manual and when I got to the part of making Lyman #2 with 95%(or 90%--doesn't matter) wheelweights (an unknown) then carefully weigh in 5% this and 5% that and come up with an exact, I'm thinking say what?? 90% unknown and 10% known make a known?? I decided that wheelweights might already have those exacts, who knows? So take that stuff you have and cast some bullets and shoot them. Were they accurate? Did you get leading? If they passed the test--if it aint broke don't fix it--why would you need a hardness reading? BTW--You can't temper alloy and the reading a tester gives you depends on how long it's been since it was molten. Testers only measure the surface and how deep the hardness goes is not known. Cast some bullets and go shooting--it's not rocket science so don't try to make it such.

Thanks to all of you, especially Doubless for his patient explanations and perspective via PM on the side!

Yeah, not trying to make this any harder than it is, I just want to get started off on the right foot. I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask since I really don't know what kind of alloy I am starting from. Since I have two lots of lead I think I will cast a few from each, then weigh them to see if there is any variance. From there I may decide to take you up on your offer Norman C. Out of curiosity as much as anything...

Thanks again!

Not a problem,glad to do it.

I have read about a way to measure lead hardness with pencils. You can buy pencils in sets of varying harness.
On a sample use a soft pencil, try writing on the sample, If it writes try the next harder. Keep going till the pencil won't write but scratch the sample.
What I would do is start by separating the lead you have into lots by this pencil method.
You can use ingots as samples.
To get ingots I would use a torch to melt what you have into ingot molds. Once you get the anchor melted into ingots, sort into equal stacks. If you get 20 1 lb. ingots make 10 stacks of two each.
Do the same with your Scuba weights , If you get 50 1 lb. ingots add 5 each to the stacks of anchor ingots.
Now if you fill your lead pot with all of one stack you should get ten pots of equal mixtures of ingots.
You can further even the mix by repeating this process by pouring each pot out in ingots and sorting again.
Now use the pencils to test a sample from each pot. They should all be very close to the same, If not repeat the process till they match to your satisfaction.
Now cast and shoot.
Have fun.
Leo