Recycled Factory Bullet Cores Effectiveness for Defensive/Woods Bullet?

[Southern Shooter]

The local shooting range recycles the factory lead cores of the bullets they collect, there. It is plentiful, $1.35 per pound, and seems to cast acceptable bullets for low velocity shooting (.38 Special, .45 Colt).

My questions are:

1) Does water-quenching/cooling this mix of lead cores offer any benefits to the bullets?

2) In my .45 Colt revolver, I shoot the Lee 452-255-RF (dropping at 265 grains) bullet at 925 fps for a general duties/woods protection round. Would this mix of lead cores fired at this velocity make an effective slug for this purpose? Or, is it too soft...too weak to penetrate? Would they have enough Bhn to penetrate a wild hog or a black bear at close distances...out to 30 yards?

[Goatwhiskers]

Lead cores are basically soft lead, useful but should be alloyed with something harder, say, 50/50 with WW. Water dropping will have no effect. It's gonna penetrate, but being that soft is likely to lead your barrel. Speaking of that, remember that FIT is king, use something in the hardness of WW or slightly softer. GW

[Southern Shooter]

That was a concern and something that I am still mindful of. But, with a hundred or so of these bullets fired through it, no leading.

[Jimro]

Or, is it too soft...too weak to penetrate? Would they have enough Bhn to penetrate a wild hog or a black bear at close distances...out to 30 yards?

Buffalo hunters were launching pure lead bullets faster and killing bison just fine.

The best way for you to find out though is the "wet newspaper" test. If you get 16" of penetration and the bullet holds together, you should be plenty good.

Jimro

[zxcvbob]

I collect lead from the indoor shooting range. I get the lead free, but it's hard dirty work. Anyway, most people shoot .22's there, and the rest are a mix of factory wadcutters, plated bullets, and cast bullets. Very few jacketed bullets because they are against the rules. So it's almost all soft bullet cores; don't know how close that is to yours.

The resulting alloy almost looks like pure lead, except it doesn't tarnish. (I bet it has a significant trace of copper in it) I usually water-drop them out of habit or routine, and I haven't tested the hardness but they seem harden a little. I use it mostly for .45 Colt, .38 Special, and .41 Magnums. I have recovered some of my .38 bullets that I shot at a 45° angled steel backstop, and they were still recognizable and didn't break apart but the noses were squished.

If you really want to make lead of unknown alloy quench-hardenable, add some magnum shotgun shot (for the antimony, and even more so the arsenic) But if you get it too hard, the bullets may shatter on impact and make them much less effective.

[Mike / Tx]

Head over here and spend a few days reading up on the different alloys as well as plenty of other info. It is a GREAT resource, LASC Homepage

Also as mentioned, it will probably be good enough for general loads and probably even hunting loads with the Lee 452-255 that your using. On a decent feral hog at 30yds your probaly not going to recover many of them, can't say on the bears, though I have shot a few hogs that were about as big as some. I just haven't had the chance to do it with my 45 Colt yet.

Also as mentioned adding in a little magnum shot will stiffen things up pretty easily and not overly expensively either, especially if you know someone who shoots trap or skeet, and can get you some cheap. Worse case is you get it a bit too hard, but that is easily fixed. To be honest though I am not quenching any of mine and haven't had an issue with penetration yet. I am using a mix of range lead and WW though, so they might be a bit harder.

Hope this helps, and good luck.