Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Hardness question

I can get my hands on a good supply of lead that is 93% lead and 7% antimony and I am just wondering if anyone has a good educated guess on the BCH scale where that would fall, I am guessing 15 or so. Any help would be much appreciated. I am wanting to cast some bullets for my 500 Smith. So if any ideas to harden it to proper levels would be appreciated as well. Thanks so much!!

15 sounds about right.

Adding wheelweights or chilled magnum shot (10%of the net) will allow the alloy to be heat treated when dropped from the mould to get above 20BHN, closer to 30 BHN.

What is the source from? Just asking because its rare to find just lead and antimony alloyed without any tin.

Mostly everything a fella could ever want to know about lead, casting and so forth is found right here:

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

If you scroll down a ways you'll find a breakdown on composition of standard alloys.

Thanks guys, this lead is some leftover from the aircraft industry, I am just going off of what the guy said on the alloy. It was used for weights on the wings somewhere.

Counter balance weight for control surfaces of old planes.

you should have nice lead there to use.

if you just Air cool it, it won't be as hard.

if you water quench them they will get very hard.

You have plenty of options there.

I would look at getting some tin, somewhere, you may want to add some tin for ease of casting. It won't take much to help fill out in the mould.

93/7 lead/antimony would be a slick alloy to start with! Can do a lot with that in a boomer. I agree with the others' recommendations: add some magnum shot for the arsenic, and 1% tin for ease of casting, then air-cool for milder loads and water-drop for high-pressure loads.

You guys have been a bunch of help, thanks so much. Lots of resources out there, but you guys make it so easy. When I get to casting I will be sure to let you all know how it goes. Thanks again!

Blessings!

Thanks, BD....

I gotta ask, are you sure you need a sinfully hard alloy? Automatically assuming you need a hard alloy for use in magnum pistols is an old wive's tale. It could be that your gun may shoot more accurately with hard versus soft lead, but not necessarily so. Proper fit of the bullet to the cylinder throats and the use of a premo lube will go a long way toward accuracy and non-leading. I should think a bhn (what's BCH?) of 15 should be dandy, and probably down to 10-12, too.

I always get a little chuckle when I hear guys talking about hardening their pistol bullets into the bhn 20's range without ever trying a "soft" alloy too. (Not guys here necessarily. )

While most here are far greater experts at the alloying and casting of lead, I have an observation that fits right in with gnoahhh's post.

I bought a bunch of Laser Cast 250gr RNFP in .452" (~18-20 bhn) to shoot in my Freedom Arms Model 97 in .45 Colt.
My old, favorite load, using Speer swaged 250's was 9.0 gr of Unique. It was possible (when I was doing my part) to shoot 1.5" groups at 25 yards with this load.

Loading the Laser Cast, 3"-4" groups became the norm.

I still have a bunch of the Laser Cast, but they are relegated to plinking with low charges of Unique.

Ed

I have been casting that alloy for years. No clue how hard it is but it casts and shoots well.

Found you some used up anodes from hard chrome plating? If so make sure they are clean. Chrome 6 is pretty nasty stuff.

I'll second that. Elmer Keith did all his work with the .44 Mag with 16:1 lead/tin. That has a BHN of RFS (Real F'n Soft).

Antimony won't alloy with lead unless there is some tin in the mix, so there is likely some tin in it.

I blend antimony lead aloy down to 3%, and maybe add a little tin. That mix shoots well from standard velocity rounds and is soft enough not to lead if it is at least .002 over bore and is accurate if it fits the throat well.

If I want it harder I water drop it out of the mold.

It might be worth noting the 44 mag operates at 36 kpsi while the 500 operates at 50 kpsi.

While medium hard alloys, i.e. those with a bhn in the low teens work quite well in most handgun loads, one might find that the 500 at max levels requires a harder alloy to resist leading.

As always, there are no absolutes in cast bullets, other than finding the sizing/fit, alloy and lube that works in your guns with your loads.

These bullets will be used for hunting big dangerous game primarily, that is why I was wanting the hard lead.

Well, bears don't come outfitted in Kevlar, but if you think soft lead is out of line then don't use it. I've found nothing remotely humorous in the the dimensions of holes put in critters with soft lead in both measures. Pure lead at a impact velocity of around 1600 fps is good for about 24" of penetration and a bunch of bone before it stops. In one piece. This can be done by paper patching, and it works in revolvers just as well as rifles. It is one way to bypass the conventional guidelines about alloy/pressure tolerance.



18 BHN is about as far as you need to go for the pressures of the 500 Smith and that comes from water quenching wheel weights. You don't have wheel weight alloy apparently, make sure whatever mix you contrive does not shatter when it hits an obstruction such as bone.

I shoot 210gr bullets that are water quenched, with your basic alloy and about 1% tin.

They travel at 2500fps and punched through an 8" poplar tree (basic soft wood) and then penetrated another 3" into another poplar tree 5' behind it, while only shedding about 1/3 of it's wt.

This should give adequate penetration for anything.

Be careful, you don't want to hard a lead as it will shatter and not penetrate, it will "explode" like a varmint bullet.

You want a ductile, "tough" lead. Tin is your friend for this, about 2% at max will work well.