Lead hardness tester

[ET-Ret]

The machine in the pict looks good. But that said why is there so much effort put in to the hardness of bullets?
I have cast bullets and shoot them at cans paper target and very little at animals except 22lr factory bullets I have in my youth killed a lot of feral
cats and dogs. Dont' get to excited back then a case of rabise was a very real for the area of my youth. Better the dogs die than one child bitten.
the linotype machine was very picky about the metal and the user was forever sending it to a lab for correction. mix in any thing else and the machine would chock up and not cast a slug.
bullet casting is not that picky.
I have bought plumbing lead .Mixed it with some tin and antimony went on .
I grew up in a type shop where we had some metals off the back of electrotypes .
Linotype, monotype, sterotype and foundry. of these I have cut lino with soft lead and never had trouble making
bullets. I bought lead wire and used Speer half jackets and swaged bullets with a C&H swageamitic. Some times jackets would come off
in flight. that is why the factorys moved on to bonding.
I like copper plated bullets but there are gone for a while. So I get to start casting again but i am not going to worry about how
the bullet is. I saw where a guy broke his sizer and lube handle so I don't want them to be too hard.
ET-ret

[ghostrider]

Cool toy, Andy.

I'd be interested in any results you're willing to share. eg. for a particular 'lot' of cast bullets: water quenched vs air cooled?

will you be testing any commercial cast bullets as calibration samples?

[ghostrider]

Water quenching really only works if there's a tiny bit of arsenic in the alloy (eg from clip-on wheelweights)

that's good to know, thanks.

[WildBill]

Never mind that I paid for an alloy with 4% tin and 12% antimony - but received a far lower grade alloy of only 2.5% tin and 2.5% antimony... but I'm sure ET-Ret would be just fine with that cuz, y'know "Boolits is boolits, hur-dur".

Linotype was used to make type for printing processes. I don't think many people use it now. Back in the late 70's our local newspaper changed from linotype to electronic typesetting. My dad and some members of his shooting club bought all of the metal from the newspaper. We had tons of the stuff. We also went to an indoor range and "mined" lead from the pistol range. I cast many bullets back then. I even used them for .222 Rem, .308 Winchester and M1 carbine low velocity rounds. I would use brass gas checks on the base to prevent leading of the barrel.

[ET-Ret]

Andy must have got up on the wrong side of the bed. Men and boys and the price of their toys.
Just to let you know on the Cast Boolits forum. There is a download of a PDF of a book by Glen Fryxell .If you wand some good info
on Cast bullets . Also if you do a search on the net The second ed of Lee is out there for free. I am going back to bed now.
ET-ret

[flechero]

Andy, I'm surprised that you're catching flack [on both sites] for this... I had no idea that a lead tester was such a controversial purchase. I though toy cap primer refills might draw some suspicion but not a stinkin' lead tester... Maybe I'm missing out!?!?!?

[srothstein]

I was unaware that I have to justify my purchases to anybody, but here we are...

You don't ever have to justify your purchases. Well, unless you are married and the spouse is the one questioning it. I guess you might have to explain it to the IRS if you took a deduction for it, but that more of an explanation than a justification.

I remind you of the quote from Robert Heinlein (which I will paraphrase because I don't remember it exactly). He said that when a sentence begins with "It is none of my business but" that the appropriate punctuation is for you to supply the period after the but, using whatever force is necessary. I add to his that if the sentence should have started that way, it is the same.

[ddstuder]

I for one applaud this purchase

I have used the Lee tester but my eyes don't see that chart as good as they used to.

I am anxious to hear how you like it, and will be purchasing one as well (with your approval )