Are Hornady Ball Pure Lead?

Are Hornady Ball Pure Lead? Or Speer for that matter?
I cast my own and like doing so because of the consistancy I get. I have a bunch of X-ray room sheating I'm happy with.

Unfortunately, One of the more popular prize items for winning a match is a box of ball.
I just plain won't use Hornady, the weight varies so greatly from one box to another, even in the same box and they ain't even round for the most part!
Speer is better, but for the cost my cast are better.
Tween' the boy and I we've got near a dozen box of factory ball,,
If the lead is pure soft, I'll melt'm for cast, but I'm sceptical.
I know I don't want to mix'm with my good pure, I'd rather sell or trade'm than waste time casting.

Anyone know for sure the hardness of factory ball or have any experiance,,tip's??

Their regular muzleloading roundballs seem to be pure lead, however their buckshot are an alloy & are noticably harder. In regard to your comments on Hornady v. Speer, I've had the exact opposite findings. For general shooting I just take them straight from the box, but if I'm in a serious match I'll weigh a batch to +/- one grain, for my .535" balls, especially if it's a 100yd event.

necchi said:

Are Hornady Ball Pure Lead?
Or Speer for that matter?

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Hornady (and Speer) regular lead swaged round balls are 100% pure soft lead.

In recent years, Hornady has come out with and separately markets an additional type of different lead ball...an alloy...which they call the 'Hardball'...the few times I've seen an advertisement about them has been with a matching plastic sabot.
http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=730268

If you don't get a definitive answer, you could just do some "old timey" tests. If you have a scale, you could weigh the difference bewteen your known good ones, and the factory balls. Pure lead will weigh a hair more.

You could also do a "squash" test in a vice. Place your ball against the factory ball and squish them together and see which smashes the most. If they smash close to the same amount, their hardness is close to the same.

Then there's the blind scratch test. Mark the factory balls with a magic marker or such, place known good ball and factory ball in one hand and roll them around until you're certain you don't know which is which. Without looking, scratch each with your thumbnail and then observe to see which scratch is deepest. Do this a number of times to be sure of the results.

I'm thinking if they come out real close with these tests, then melting together with some pure lead, say 50/50 mix, will not show any telltale difference from pure lead. Probably alot purer than some of the "mystery" metal found in scrap yards and such. Bill

snowdragon said:

"...definitive answer..."

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No sweat, not necessary to take my word for it...here are Hornady and Speer's own words:

HORNADY http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=699672


SPEER http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=402420

I have a Cabin Tree tester. It uses a dial indicator so I can read several levels of hardness. Some testers will say if the dent looks like this is it 5 BHN or 8 BHN. On my dial the range for 5 BHN is between .015 to .035 so there is room in there for a soft 5 BHN or a hard 5 BHN if that makes sense. I know my rifle LOVES conical bullets in the .040 to .042 range. I have shot conical bullets as soft as .015 but they did NOT shoot well at all. Here are the hardness results. All the PRB's in this test are about 15 to 25 years old so I am sure they are age hardned.
The Speer PRB's I have test at .027 = 5 BHN
Hornadys test at .031 = 5 BHN
CVA PRB test at .018= 5 BHN
TC maxiball tests at .024 = 5 BHN
Xray lead from the walls in a sheet test at .036
Lead pipe was .042 to .050 = 8.5 BHN

Hope this helps. Ron

Now THAT is interesting,,,so the x-ray actually is harder :shocked2:
Ron I'm gonna send ya a PT, I'd like you to test some current off the shelf ball, my cast and a sample of the x-ray sheet I have. It'll be some current info for us all.
If age hardens lead,, I'm guessing the sheet stock I have is at least 40 years old,,it's from our local hospitals recent remodel job

arquebus;
Hornady v. Speer, I've had the exact opposite findings

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I believe that could be true,, my comparison of those two was 7-8 years ago,, and quality/manufacture process could have changed with both company's, who knows, they may or may not be made in country and/or could be being made at the same plant with different labels, :idunno:

Roundball, I'm a slow writer, your post wasn't there when I first started responding. These two typing fingers are doing the best they can. :surrender: :rotf:

Thanks for the info by the way :thumbsup: . Bill

necchi, pure lead will not harden. Lead that has been age hardened, or quench hardened, will return to it's original hardness after re-melting.

R.M. said:

Lead that has been age hardened, or quench hardened, will return to it's original hardness after re-melting.

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Maybe that's why Ron's test of X-ray sheet lead showed that lead was harder?? :hmm:

Greetings....alloyed bullets get SOFTER with age. It takes years but it happens. I didn't dream this. Check the N.R.A. cast bullet book by Col. Harrison. cheers Paul