I wanted to get a few opinions on the use of lead from a local stained glass shop. I have a Lyman 370 grain maxi-ball mold for my 50 cal rifles. I have had good success with pure lead but it is on the expensive side here. I am into cheap, so when a friend offered to give me some scrap lead from his supplier for his stained glass work I was elated. I cast up about 100 of the maxi bullets only to find they are almost impossible to get down the bore of most of my 50s. In fact I broke a wooden ramrod on my TC Thunderhawk in one of the shooting sessions. I used my Lee hardness tester and what I found was that the lead must be alloyed with antimony and tin because they tested about the hardness of wheelweights with a BHN of about 9. My plan now is to remelt all bullets, mix with wheelweights and shoot them in my smokeless shooting. Has anyone any experience with this type lead?
lead from stained glass shop
- Thread starter scary1946
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Hawkeye748
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Much too hard for BP shooting. I would use "as is" unless you want extremely hard cast bullets. Shot this type lead in 357 and 44 without any trouble and shot great groups.
Man! That is a way different experience than what I had. I went to a decorative glass shop several years ago and they had buckets of various length (2"-24") of lead shaped like I beams only just about dead soft and perfect for my 44 cap & ball revolvers. It wasn't quite super dead soft for hollow based minies but definately no harder than 1:20 or 1:30. Maybe the alloy has changed but these were quite flexible & soft.
Hawkeye748
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The Stainglass lead is "work softened" prior to the shipment to the glass shop. When re-melted, the lead re-gains its hardness based on its make up. It is okay for round balls, and conicals that don't require expansion like the maxiball, wilkinson and minie.
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