Zinc...and pennies?

[dornjmd]

I came across this company while I was looking for some Zinc for another project. I'm not sure about pricing, however they have lead in stock and ready for sale.

http://www.rotometals.com/Bullet-Casting-Alloys-s/5.htm

 

[chris in va]

Many of the bullets that the factories (Speer, Hornady, etc) sell are swaged lead and are very soft.

Those are swaged cores inside a jacket. The lead doesn't touch the rifling.

 

[TXGunNut]

Many popular handgun bullets are swaged pure lead, loaded and fired many thousands of HBWC's from my friends in Ruleville, MS.

 

[Unclenick]

Chris,

It's true that cores are swaged, but so are whole bullets. Take a look at the gray bullets on this Hornady list, or at the Corbin bullet swaging site, here.


TXGunnut,

They aren't all pure lead. Hornady or Speer used to claim theres had a couple of percent Antimony. Corbin sells pure lead wire, but he also has a calculator for figuring pressure for swaging different alloys up to about BHN 8-10.

 

[chris in va]

Would 45 acp have a low enough pressure to fire pure lead without problems? I couldn't imagine doing so in 9mm.

 

[Unclenick]

Yes. I used to participate in bulk purchases of swaged 185 gr. LSWC's for gallery match loads. No problems with them. I recall the reduced Law enforcement level loadings of the 41 Magnum used swaged bullets loaded to around 1000 fps (4" revolver), so the pressure there was probably under 20,000 psi, like a .45 Auto.

 

[snuffy]

YES

Would 45 acp have a low enough pressure to fire pure lead without problems? I couldn't imagine doing so in 9mm.

Back about 30 years ago I shot some combat type of shooting at an indoor range with my 45. The ammo I was loading was zero bullets that were 200 grain swaged lead. Back then, zero only made pure lead swaged bullets. They had a funky dry wax coating that worked for about 200 rounds, starting with a clean barrel. After 200, the barrel would start building leading.

I once took a bunch of those swaged lead bullets, spread them on a newspaper, sprayed them with pure silicone. They were so slippery, I could barely pick them up. BUT they stopped leading!

A cast lead pure boolit, should be lubed with a good quality boolit lube. Then, if they fit your bore, you should be able to shoot quite a few before leading begins.