Two part lead and smelting question

[David LaPell]

I am just getting into this wonderful art of smelting and casting bullets so bear with me. My first question is this, I am being given 15 pounds of reclaimed lead, recovered .22 lead bullets, Federal to be exact. What do I have to add and how much to get me to around a BHN of 15-16 for some hard cast .357 bullets?
My second question is, when I start smelting wheelweights, what do I add to that to get to a BHN of 15-16? Does that go by pound as well?

 

[pps]

Here is a site that has all the answers you seek, as to these questions. Make sure to flux, flux and flux again before skimming the dros, if you want to keep the antimony tin and arsenic in your mix.

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

 

[mikld]

As a beginning caster/leadshooter, don't worry too much about BHN of your alloy. More important is bullet fit; the same or .0005" smaller than cylinder throats and a bit larger than groove diameter. Slug your barrel and cylinder throats (I have used soft bullets, lightly oiled, swaged through cylinder throats and measured). I used WW alloy almost entirely for my first few years of casting for my .44s, Mag and Special. Shot 'em from "cat-sneeze" to "T-Rex Killer" loads. On another forum a fellow shot .357 Mag, WW air cooled, tumble lubed to 1674 fps measured, with very little leading...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?p=1194728#post1194728

 

[sixshot]

David, when casting bullets you always have to decide on a velocity before you can decide on a hardness (BHN) a hardness of 16 is about the same as Lyman #2, that works fine for most rifle loads but can be just a tiny bit hard for most handgun loads unless you plan to lean on them pretty hard.
With the reclaimed 22 bullets you are going to be quite soft, perhaps 6-7 BHN, if you decide you have to run them at 16 hardness you'll need to add around 3-4 lbs of linotype to your 15 lbs of lead.
Bullet fit is #1, but still you have to decide what speed you plan to run them then start melting, casting, sizing & shooting, you'll figure it out real quick.

Dick

 

[GP100man]

David

The first part of your ?? is that most of the time 22lr is swaged soft lead , maybe a little tin to tuffen up the 22s they may be bhn8 at most has been my exp with recovered22s

The 2nd part is where the link to lasc will explain more than I care to type !, but the easiest is to add your recovered stash with wheel weight maybe 50/50 or 40/60 , depending on the contents of the WW ya should maintain bhn of 11-14

If ya need harder then get ya recovered shotgun shot (cheaper than new) & add 1/2lb to 10 lbs. to give it some arsenic so you can drop the boolits from the mold into cold water to make em harder !

Be aware that the boolits after being WD will harden for up to 90 days & longer but the process is so slow to wait on I usually shoot em at 2wks. old

 

[Paul B]

"If ya need harder then get ya recovered shotgun shot (cheaper than new) & add 1/2lb to 10 lbs. to give it some arsenic so you can drop the boolits from the mold into cold water to make em harder !"

That's OK up to a point. You don't quite need a half pound of shot though. I use one-third cup of shot and that seems to be enough to provide the arsenic. You really only need .05 percent arsenic to do the job. A little goes a long way It's like adding tin for easier casting fill out. The proper amount is about one percent tin to the mix. While more tin will help harden the alloy, it also keeps the antimony and arsenic from doing their job in hardening the mix. One thing to remember, use chilled or magnum shot no larger than 7 1/2 and if you can get an even smaller size so much the better. The smaller the shot the higher the percentage of arsenic in the mix. The arsenic is used to help the shot form into spheres as it falls through the shot tower. Smaller shot are more dificult to get perfectly round so more arsenic is needed for them.


"Be aware that the boolits after being WD will harden for up to 90 days & longer but the process is so slow to wait on I usually shoot em at 2wks. old"

That's correct. I use an alloy of ten pounds wheel weights, one pound of linotype, one-third cup od chilled shot and a three foot pice of 95/5 percent lead free solder to make my alloy. It'll run from 12 to 14 BHN air cooled and will age harden to 30 BHN in two weeks. The one thing left out is it's will be right at 21 BHN immediately upon hitting the water. Final hardening seems to stop at about 6 month when it reaches about 33 BHN.
I usually make up my bullets and let them air cool first. The I size then to whatever size I want but do not lube. I have a special tray made up of screen material that I place one layer of bullets and "bake" them in an oven at 25 degrees for one hour minimum. Longer usually doesn't hurt but one hour is fine. I quickly remove the bullets from the over and drop tray and all into the bucket of water. When the bullets dry I lube them with a sizing die .001" larger than what the bullets were sized. Bullets are stored and allowedto continue hardening until I need them.
Anyway, that is what works for me.
Paul B.

 

[Iron Mike Golf]

I have a special tray made up of screen material that I place one layer of bullets and "bake" them in an oven at 25 degrees for one hour minimum. Paul B.

Paul, what's that temp? 325 or 425?

Jeff

 

[Paul B]

I have a special tray made up of screen material that I place one layer of bullets and "bake" them in an oven at 25 degrees for one hour minimum. Paul B.

Paul, what's that temp? 325 or 425?

Jeff

OOPS! I missed that one. I need a new keyboard as sometimes this one leaves out letters or numbers. It should have been 425 degrees. If you can find a copy of the RCBS cast bullet loading manual there's a picture of the basket like the one I made. I also bought a toaster oven so that I wouldn't contaminate the better half's oven. I used an oven thermometer ot "calibrate" it and marked the spot on the dial. Not the best system I suppose but it's worked for me.
Paul B.