wwillson Posted November 22, 2009 Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 I am on a quest to reduce the amount of leading with my cast 45ACP bullets. I believe my WW lead is about 10 BH, which I think is the main reason I'm having so much trouble with leading. I've been loading with Universal Clays at the max load and the leading is really bad. I can load the same bullet with a known BH of 15 and leading is nonexistent. The Lee second edition manual says that at the max pressure for a 45ACP, the lead will need to be at BH of about 16. According to the Los Angeles Silhouette Club's website if you heat treat WW lead for 60 min at 400F you can achieve a BH of 15 after a few days of sitting.Has anyone tried heat treating WW lead? Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsoup Posted November 22, 2009 Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 Wayne. According to the babble on this site Cast Bullets You can alloy your wheelweights with some, unknown to me amount, of tin to make them harder. You can purchase tin here Tin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLH70 Posted November 22, 2009 Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 Wayne, I used to do a lot of heat treating, I went back and looked at my notes. Using an conventional electric oven at 450F I would heat the bullets for 1hr then quench. After 2 days I would get a BH of 20-22. This is using WW lead and the bullets were between 9 and 10 BH before heat treating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwillson Posted November 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 RLH70,The directions I found were to heat WW lead for 1hr at 400F and quench, this will yield a BH of 15. Is that similar to what you remember?Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLH70 Posted November 22, 2009 Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 That sounds about right Wayne, if you are looking to stay around a 15 BH 400F for an hour is where I would start. Let the bullets "age" for 2 days after the heat treating before you test the BH. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwillson Posted November 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 Now I just need a BH tester... Any suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RLH70 Posted November 22, 2009 Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 I have an older LBT tester, but LEE has one out now and I think it is about half the price of the LBT model. I have a couple of buddies who have the LEE and they are very pleased with it. IMO if you cast it is a must have tool.Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wwillson Posted November 22, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2009 Rich,I'll ask Santa... :-)Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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