When do you test lead hardness?

[Suburban]

Beginning to get into casting. I've read that dropping bullets into water makes them harder, and at least Jerry Mikulek thinks they get harder yet after aging a week or so.

So, my question is, when you test the hardness of your alloy, do you test it after quenching and aging, or just as it would be after pouring into ingot molds?

All the lead I have is range scrap, and I'd be making pistol bullets, if it matters.

[Stooperzero]

honestly, unless you buy a hardness testing kit , IF a nickel doesnt gouge it too much it's hard enough .




or bite it like a pirate.

[DucatiRon]

If your not shooting Magnums, 357 or 44 I wouldn't worry about it. People shoot swaged lead bullets everyday that are made from dead soft lead. More important is lube and proper diameter.

You don't have to worry about lube if you are going to coat them though.

I cast about 150,000 bullets a month commercially. Feel free to ask any questions.

[cephas]

More important is lube and proper diameter.

Truth.
Cheap way to test lead hardness: http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.ph...rdness+testing
Conventional wisdom states there needs to be at least 2% antimony in the mix for decent results.
Couple weeks seems to be the agreed upon curing period.
Range lead mix can be hodgepodge. If it casts I shoot it.

[Suburban]

If your not shooting Magnums, 357 or 44 I wouldn't worry about it. People shoot swaged lead bullets everyday that are made from dead soft lead. More important is lube and proper diameter.

You don't have to worry about lube if you are going to coat them though.

I cast about 150,000 bullets a month commercially. Feel free to ask any questions.

I only have a 9mm bullet mold right now. Molds for .40, .45 and .38 may follow, some day. The plan is to polycoat, because I don't like lube smoke very much.

[Suburban]

Truth.
Cheap way to test lead hardness: http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.ph...rdness+testing
Conventional wisdom states there needs to be at least 2% antimony in the mix for decent results.
Couple weeks seems to be the agreed upon curing period.
Range lead mix can be hodgepodge. If it casts I shoot it.

I read about the pencil test somewhere, maybe here or castboolits, and I bought a pencil set a little while ago. Sounding like I don't really need to bother though.

[Tacgunner]

My method: when planning on a casting run, I already have ingots of the lead I'm going to use. I check the hardness of these with a Lee lead tester. This gives me a ballpark number for the hardness for that batch of lead. Oh, and those are tested 24 hours after making the ingots (so they can cool). I magic marker the hardness number on the ingots so I don't have to recheck them later.

After a bullet casting run (with water quench), I wait at least 2 hours before doing a hardness test on some bullets from that batch. Usually one of the malformed ones that will be recast anyhow back into an ingot.

That batch gets labeled, if not used right away. Label will have date and hardness. If not being used right away, I don't size them just yet. If they have sat for a year or so, I recheck the hardness. Sometimes bullets will harden, or go slightly soft (depends on lead blend and storage).

[DucatiRon]

If your going to coat use the Hy-Tek coating from Bayou Bullets. Buy the powder form. It's the easiest to use. The liquid form is ok but easier to make small batches with the powder.

Remember to size after coating and not before.