Unidentified Lead

[Grenadier1758]

Actually, the top band of the T/C (and Lyman) Maxi-Ball are over T/C bore sized so the top band will engrave on loading. The other bands are T/C bore diameter to align the Maxi-Ball in the bore. The REALs bands are over bore sized and relatively narrow to more easily engrave the expected soft lead.

 

[mooman76]

Yes the REALs are oversized in fact tapered for easy and straight loading. the bottom on is bore size and the top is .017 over. The middle one or two depending on the size are in between.

 

[JCKelly]

Cast metal for modern bullets use lead with a few percent of antimony added.
If you cast an ingot which freezes first at the edges, the last stuff to freeze in the middle will show little crystals. That is the antimony.

metallurgist/shooter

 

[toot]

the old finger nail test is a RULE OF THUMB!

 

[mooman76]

Even alloyed lead. you can make a dent with the finger nail so it would be best to have some known samples for a comparison of how deep a dent your fingernail makes.

 

[11th corps]

Drop an ingot on a cement floor from knee level. If its a high pitch ring, its hard lead. A dull thud, soft enough for muzzleloaders.

I found one of my ingots I purchased from my nephew who worked at a metals recycling shop. It was marked "pure lead". Found it while digging through a bucket full of ingots. Sure enough I got the dull thud. Thanks.

 

[11th corps]

I cast about 40 .390 round balls. Fired about a dozen today, couldn't tell any difference in the 2 lead alloy's I have. One is the "pure lead" the other (different pots) is range scrap.

 

[Griz44Mag]

I will offer here as I have done on other forums,
If you do not want to invest in a hardness tester but want to know what hardness it really is, send a couple of your balls or bullets to me and I will check it with my cabine tree hardness tester.
Although not as important as when shooting high pressure loads it does make a difference in muzzies too.
Lead that is too hard will allow blow by around the bullet - and will flame cut lead droplets from the side of the bullet and blow them ahead of the bullet, where it will get ironed into the rifling. Getting the lead out of the rifling can be done, but it's going to take some work and a lot of brushing and patches.

 

[Redlemur60]

some people have used ZINK WW'S, and run into a real problem when they DRY BALL, because when you jam a ball puller into it, it just crumbles, and will not allow the screw to go into the UBER hard ZINK ball, and there for is very difficult to extract! so there is a substile difference in LEAD, ZINK witch is not the same.

Zink? Wat you talkin bout willis?
If this was an ol guy the aforementioned alloy would almost certainly be antimony zink?nah!