burbank.jung
Active Member
I do this too. I separate hardcast bullets and add them to my pot to hopefully increase my bhn.
Wheel Weights vs Range Scrap
- Thread starter burbank.jung
- Start date
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
This "hardcast" has been discussed on many forums over the years and some will just say that it is anything harder than Lyman #2 or 15 BHN. The difficulty is whether the hardness is obtained by alloy proportions or quenching from the mold. Most just look to see if the recovered bullets show significant distortion from impact or so hard one almost would consider cleaning them up and loading them again. This is where sorting becomes a questionable practice.
I would agree with sorting out the jacketed and BP related bullets, but cast bullets will be all over the scale on content and hardness.
I would agree with sorting out the jacketed and BP related bullets, but cast bullets will be all over the scale on content and hardness.
Missionary
Well-Known Member
20 years ago a fellow member of our home church who runs a truck / farm tractor Goodyear set us aside a 2 ton pallet of used truck wheel weights. From time to time he sets aside a 50 pound box of stick on wheel weights which I sort to remove the zink.
He hardly shoots anymore so the last batch of 44's we last cast was over 5 years ago.
He hardly shoots anymore so the last batch of 44's we last cast was over 5 years ago.
My brother just found and brought to me what he believes is the last of the wheel weights he and I made into ingots in the early seventies - a 30 cal ammo can-full. He also brought a "brick" about 1 1/2" thick, with interlocking edges - like old silo bricks. Not sure of the composition, but am assuming it was part of a wall for an x-ray lab or something similar. It weighs about 35 pound.
OH! I just though of a Tip-O'-th'-Day!
OH! I just though of a Tip-O'-th'-Day!
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
JonB
Halcyon member
So, there was a time when I would sort range scrap (I hand pick after a rain).
while I won't use the hardcast term, what I think are commercial cast bullets that I've recovered usually have blue lube still intact and also retain the original shape. I no longer sort my range scrap. It's amazing sometimes, when I think about some of the things I do (or have done), that are huge time wasters.
I STILL find it amazing that people like you and me, making comments like that, don't get run off the board.
I love this place.
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
My COWW alloy runs 13-15 depending on how long it sits. It's certainly nothing like Lyman #2 and there's the problem. Lyman #2 is a specific alloy. "Hardcast" is an advertising term, nothing more. It's also a sort of cult and more people have wasted their time chasing the rabbit down the hole in cast than most anything else I can think of.
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What are they thinking? Well I guess Hunter needs some more hooker money. I don't know what Joe is gonna do since Epstein was murdered.
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Ian
Notorious member
Dusty, I'd argue that HardCAST is not the same composition as hardQUENCHED. You can't tell much if it's been quenched or not because when a soft but quench-hardened bullet splats, it splats almost as bad as if it were air cooled. Doesn't take much to shatter the glass toothpicks inside.
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
Well I did say that it is hard to tell visually what the make up of a cast bullet is. And hard bullets can be made either by composition or quenching. I am not sure if you disagree with this or not. That is why I said cast bullets can be a wide range of hardness which makes me question trying to sort hard and soft cast bullet range scrap.
Dusty Bannister
Well-Known Member
Sounds like someone is "complaining" with a big grin on their face.