Newbie to casting - mystery alloy!

[Jamie]

Hi Chaps,

I've just started playing with casting bullets for my .30-30. (Hopefully muskets, kentucky rifle, 8mm and .45-120 to follow!)

I bought a lot of reclaimed shot from an auction for the best part of naff all. I'm not convinced it's lead tho. It was coated in a layer of oxide and crap, but when I melted it and skimmed it and poured ingots, it set very hard (a piece 4" diameter by 1/4" thick isn't bendable by hand) The ingots 'ring' if you tap them with a hammer.

When it does bend, it seems to 'click' as tin does. It also melts with my lee pot set at minimum, which is meant to be about 450 degrees, the melting point of tin. I cast some bullets with it from a Lee 170 grain mould and they come out at 160 grains or so, so too dense to be tin. What in earth is it? Very hard lead shot?

Can I alloy it with straight lead? What sort of proportions would be a starting point?

Many thanks in advance, Jamie!

[zanes]

Could lead free shot (bismuth/some sort of complex alloy like hevi-shot) be mixed in with the lead shot and be forming some sort of alloy when you melt it?

[TALL]

had a similar problem when melting shot,
through it all away in the end,
I know that's not much help to you,
T

[enfield2band]

As said, it could have lead substutes mixed in.

Have you looked at the possibility of some of it being zinc? Wheel weights and a lot of flashing is now zinc.

If you want to try alloying it with lead start off with small amounts and work your way up. It does not take much tin to harden lead so if this stuff is harder then it might not need too much in the alloy.

If you do try it see if you can test it for hardenss by comparing it with an alloy of know hardness.

I hope you sort it out.

[Jamie]

Thanks gents.

It's definitely fired shot so I don't think it's zinc.

I do have some most excellent cast bullets from Dodgyrog on here so I can compare to those. Also some hardcast from Kranks that I use for plinking. Is there a simple way to get an accurate comparison without buying a testing thingy? Funds are a mite low at the moment!

Cheers

[Simon_S]

Hit it with a hammer

[enfield2band]

Thanks gents.

It's definitely fired shot so I don't think it's zinc.

I do have some most excellent cast bullets from Dodgyrog on here so I can compare to those. Also some hardcast from Kranks that I use for plinking. Is there a simple way to get an accurate comparison without buying a testing thingy? Funds are a mite low at the moment!

Cheers

Years ago I had a go at making comparisons with different types of lead to tell how hard it is.

I got a tube about 4 foot long, and a metal weight of about 1Lb. I put a bullet that I had cast on a metal plate, I put the tube over it and dropped the weight from the the top. I did it to 1/2doz bullets and I then measured the amount of deformation with a micrometer.
Ok, its not rocket science but it worked good enough to let me know whether or not the lead was harder or softer than a bullet of know hardness.

Airgunnut:- I tested airgun pellets as well. They have the same hardness as water pipe.