Question on lead for casting

[Harrylee]

OK I have a question for all you smart reloaders out there. I have been thinking of trying to get some range lead from my club to use it for casting, then the thought occurred to me there is a lot of jacketed bullets in the mix. Now my question is the lead that is used in jacketed bullets is that a hardened lead or something like Lyman #2 alloy or do they use a pure lead inside the jacketed bullet. I looked around and couldn’t find a answer, so I was hoping one of you guys could answer this for me

[garyb]

I casted lead for muzzle loaders and used as pure a lead as I could find. I do not know for sure about the lead in jacketed bullets, but "highly suspect" that it is hardened.

[pbagley]

Ive been told that the lead in jacketed bullets is soft, especially in hollow or soft points. That makes sense since some of my cast bullets shatter when they hit a steel backstop while jacketed tend to stay in one piece (mostly). Then again I cast mostly wheel weights and tend to make slightly frosty bullets. YMMV. Good luck.

[RevRay]

Ive been told that the lead in jacketed bullets is soft, especially in hollow or soft points. That makes sense since some of my cast bullets shatter when they hit a steel backstop while jacketed tend to stay in one piece (mostly). Then again I cast mostly wheel weights and tend to make slightly frosty bullets. YMMV. Good luck.

A friend of mine casts his own range bullets, and all he ever uses is wheel weights that he gets free from tire stores.

[garyb]

wheel weights ARE hardened lead.

[CJB]

Having 15 years of lead picking, and casting experience....

Range lead will tend to be softer than you want for good cast bullets, and too hard for muzzle loading round balls. Conicals maybe. Minies too are ok with range lead.

Id add about 1lb of used wheel weights to 25 lbs of range when casting pigs for later use as bullet metal,

That gave pretty good bullets to about 1000fps or under.

The 357s and 9s were still too soft at that rate though.

[Harrylee]

I found this article and found it's very interesting and informative. There is a lot that goes into melting lead for casting bullets. All I wanted to know if the lead in jacketed bullets was a harden lead. But read thru this it, very interesting

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

[100percent]

I have been buying a fair amount of "range lead", using my homemade brinell tester, I get 12-13. I cast a 38-9-40-10-45 with them. They seem to shoot fine. Your range lead may be different than yours.

Most store bought lead bullets are pretty hard. I would bet that those that shoot a lot probably use cast bullets and most of those are using store bought cast.

[CJB]

could be the entire composition of loads has changed since I was pickin' lead in the mid 80's.

[muggsy]

I've used wheel weights for cast lead bullets including muzzle loader maxi-balls. Hardness has never been a concern of mine. I just don't give a flux. :)

[garyb]

I found this article and found it's very interesting and informative. There is a lot that goes into melting lead for casting bullets. All I wanted to know if the lead in jacketed bullets was a harden lead. But read thru this it, very interesting

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



Good article Harrylee. Thanks for sharing.