I've never felt the world would be better of if cast bullets were dead, so I've never quanched a cast bullet. I have however, water quenched a lot of them.
Your alloy needs to have some antimony and/or arsenic to harden. Pure lead or pure lead/tin alloys don't harden from water quenching.
Range scrap will usually go from a 8-10 BHN to 16-18 BHN in my experience. I shoot a lot more range scrap now than wheel weights. Wheel weights are hen's teeth anymore. The last wheel weights I water quenched fell right in with jwp475's findings, 22-24. I often alloy my range scrap 50/50 with linotype. They water quench 25-30.
I'm not familiar with the Brendle hardness scale. Is it more accurate than the Brinell scale? If so where do I find a scale or can my LBT hardness tester be re-calibrated to read Brendle?
