Lead for Bullets?

[paulvallandigham]

As I said, if it works for you, use it. My testing on lead alloys characteristics has been done most recently with an old friend, a bullet caster with 50 years of experience, who has designed his own shotgun slugs. We have tested them against steel plates to see how the lead flattens, and you can see the difference between pure lead, and lead with antimony, vs. tin, in the size and length of tears at the edges. He has test slugs from other soft mediums, including ballistic's Gel, and slugs recovered from deer he has killed with his slugs from range of a few yards out to over 130 yards. He also has rifle bullets cast with various alloys of tin and lead, or tin, antimony, and lead, and you can see the difference in performances between the various alloys in the shape of the spent bullets.

Your experience with pistol bullets, at those velocities is similar to our own. Hard bullets are desired by lots of shooters because it reduces the amount of leading in the barrels of our .45s.

 

[Idaho Ron]

As I said, if it works for you, use it. My testing on lead alloys characteristics has been done most recently with an old friend, a bullet caster with 50 years of experience, who has designed his own shotgun slugs. We have tested them against steel plates to see how the lead flattens, and you can see the difference between pure lead, and lead with antimony, vs. tin, in the size and length of tears at the edges. He has test slugs from other soft mediums, including ballistic's Gel, and slugs recovered from deer he has killed with his slugs from range of a few yards out to over 130 yards. He also has rifle bullets cast with various alloys of tin and lead, or tin, antimony, and lead, and you can see the difference in performances between the various alloys in the shape of the spent bullets.

Your experience with pistol bullets, at those velocities is similar to our own. Hard bullets are desired by lots of shooters because it reduces the amount of leading in the barrels of our .45s.

The 45 cals I am speaking about are rifle slugs for my .45 cal ML. My 385 gr is actually a 459-405-HB Lee. Mine will only throw 385 gr with lead that is between 5 BHN and 8 BHN. At 12 BHN they weigh 377 gr.
I don't shoot 45 cal pistol bullets. Mine are also paper patched for the most part. I still don't think a guy that has lead that is 8 BHN hardened by lead shot is going to see brittle bullets compaired to lead that is 8 BHN made from tin only. 8 BHN is soft, real soft. I won't wave the :bull: flag but 8 BHN lead of any kind is not going to be brittle. Ron

 

[bbairborne]

Okay... nobody laugh but while out visiting garage sales I scored big. Guy was selling his Scuba equipment. I bought the 'lead' weight belt for $2.50. I think I got 20lbs of lead less the impurities.