:confused:what the easy way to check the hardest of lead. for madeing 148 wc for 38.:p
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:confused:what the easy way to check the hardest of lead. for madeing 148 wc for 38.:p
There are lead hardness testers that you can buy if you're into it. Lee makes a decent inexpensive one, and Saeco makes a better but more expensive tool. They work by pressing a ball bearing into the alloy with a measured force and comparing the size of the indentation under high magnification to a chart. If the alloy is unknown, you can compare it to a known alloy buy pressing a sharp tool into both with the same amount of force and seeing which embeds deeper. Personally, I have been casting for over thrity years and have never seen the need to bother actually testing a batch other than by firing a few and comparing performance (group size and fouling) to a known alloy. I keep different alloys separate when I smelt them (lino, ww's, and pure) and mix ingots together as necessary in the casting pot for the desired hardness. When given a bunch of unknown alloy I usually just cut it way down with pure lead and use it for handgun bullets. For handgun hunting bullets and rifle bullets for both hunting and target I am a lot more particular, but I still have never need to buy a tester. I cast and shoot somewhere around 10K cast bullets per year.
WC's should be as soft as possible for best obturation using the very light charges they work best with. An alloy of 1:4 or 1:5 (WW:pure) is all you need for shooting out to 50yds and for small game hunting (wc's make excellent small game bullets for revolvers and Contenders in .38spec, .357mag, .357max, and even in rifle rounds like the .35rem and .358win). Some casters use pure lead with 1-2% tin added for good and consistant fillout, fine for min BEYE loads in .38/.357, but that mix can lead up a barrel with hotter loads.