...for hardness, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Last week I cast a bunch of bullets from 1-20 tin-lead alloy for my Trapdoor Springfield, an 1888 model. The next day I checked them for hardness and came up with 10.5 Bhn. That's a little harder than 1-20 should cast. I had mixed the alloy from tin acquired from a friend and "pure" lead I have scrounged over the years. One chunk was a machine counter-weight I acquired about 25 years ago that must have weighed 700 lbs. I have some melted from lead pipe as well. It's all stamped "PL" and stacked together in the garage. When I melt down scrap and cast ingots, I overflow the little 1-lb pockets so the 4 ingots are tied together. This results in fewer pieces to handle, and they are readily broken apart if necessary. My RCBS 20-lb. pot will easily take 2 of these 8+ pound ingots at once.
This weekend I wanted to cast some slightly softer bullets for the Trapdoor, so I started checking my "pure" lead ingots for hardness. I grabbed 6 of the 4+ pound ingots, broke one off of each one (keeping them separate) and checked the hardness. Three of them checked 5 Bhn and 3 checked 10 Bhn. Well I guess that might explain the "too hard" 1-20 alloy. I put an equal number of each in the pot, cast a bunch of bullets for the Trapdoor (Lyman 457193, Lee 405 HB, and some from a 500 gr semi-pointed mould I made years ago). The next day both the bullets and the ingots drained from the pot measured 7 Bhn.
Well at least I know I can check the "pure" lead ingots before use and get useful information.
Glenn
