A question regarding lead

bernie · Mar 25, 2020

About 20 years ago I toyed with bullet casting. I was given some pure lead, and a batch of wheel weights. I cast both up into ingots, marked them appropriately with a permanent marker, and then began a life with children. For all of this time, the ingots have sat outside in the weather. Needless to say, the permanent marker is now all worn off and the ingots are quite weathered. Is there a relatively easy way that I can determine which ingots are pure lead and which are wheel weight material? Now that the boys are out of the house, I am beginning to cast bullets. However, I need to know the difference between the two. I do not want to run .41 mag bullets that are pure lead, obviously.

troy fairweather · Mar 25, 2020

Pure lead you should be able to dig in with your finger nail, not as much with ww. Tho I never tried since I chew my nails I just scratch with a nail or something. Make sure the oxide is off before you test.

AJC1 · Mar 26, 2020

Any type of dent test should show one to be softer than the other. I use the lee hardness tester tested to be very accurate and works with your press. If your serious about casting it would be a good investment.

blue32 · Mar 26, 2020

Drop each ingot on concrete from a height of about 1'. The WW will make a higher pitched sound. Pure lead will be more of a thud. If you still don't know, the pure lead ingot will have a larger mark at where contact was made.

edwardware · Mar 26, 2020

A ball peen hammer (or really any object you can strike with consistently) should show a difference in hardness. Dropping and listening for the thunk vs ping should also be a clue.

243winxb · Mar 26, 2020

Both pure & ww are to soft for full power 41 mag loads. Imo. Add linotype. I add 2" of Rotometals linotype to my Lee 10 pound pot. https://www.rotometals.com/linotype-alloy-alloy-5-pounds-4-tin-12-antimony-and-84-lead/

If you have a good local source of pure lead, blend it 1 to 1 with Linotype alloy to produce Hardball alloy. The Brinell Hardness of this Linotype alloy is about 22. Hardball Bullet Casting Alloy consists of 2% tin, 6% antimony and 92% lead.

A guy gave me 80 pounds of pure. The internet said pure works in 45acp target loads. I gave it a try with a mold that could produce the correct diameter for sizing.
The soft nose deformed on chambering & some stuck on the feed ram. Never had a jam in the GC like that before.

bernie · Mar 26, 2020

I am not going to be running hot .41 loads with these bullets. My fire-breathers are 210 gr XTP's.

lightman · Mar 26, 2020

Like the others have said, either do the scratch test with your thumb nail or do the drop test. A dull thud will be soft lead and any king of a ring will be harder lead. I've recently started stamping my ingots with a set of steel stamps. I wish they were all stamped.

kmw1954 · Mar 26, 2020

search, test lead hardness with a pencil, maybe that will help you out.

Highland Lofts · Mar 26, 2020

All that time outside don't take any chances, send it to me and I will dispose of it for you safely.

bernie · Mar 27, 2020

I have seen the pencil test, but they are so oxidized that I would have to cut or scrape all of them to test them. The "thud" test sounds like what I am going to try first as it seems simpler. Lightman, I had already decided to get the $10 stamp set at Harbor Freight when this social distancing craziness is over. I will not make the same mistake twice.

bernie · Mar 28, 2020

I just did the drop test on the ingots and I now have them all sorted! Thank you guys so much for the advice. As an aside, the pure lead was much more oxidized than the wheel weights.

A question regarding lead

bernie

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troy fairweather

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AJC1

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blue32

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edwardware

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243winxb

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bernie

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lightman

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kmw1954

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Highland Lofts

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bernie

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bernie

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