Guns, Dogs and Blades QnA

Sublime one said

So I need a bit of help from those of you that cast lead. I have aprox 300 pounds of raw lead, hardness unknown. When I was younger I would use wheel weights then cold water quench for hardness. At that point having zero knowledge of Brinell. Barrel didn’t lead I was good to go. Back then just a budding pistol guy competing against folks like Bill Wilson etc. No real idea what I was doing, lots of raw talent with no real thought behind it. Forward thirty or forty years. I want to test for hardness and modify my raw lead accordingly to achieve brinell as required. Note to self, antimony and tin are pricey, but required to make raw lead more suitable for shooting. Clearly rifle rounds need to be a bit harder but I am casting primarily for pistol. This is my very long winded way of asking do any of you guys use a brinell tester and if so what brand and model, and do you like it? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

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LEE makes a pretty accurate and affordable hardness tester. I have one and use it regularly. There are other more expensive ones but they all push a pointer into the bullet under a known spring pressure and you either measure the indentation or the spring loaded arm gives you an indication. The LEE requires a flat spot to measure using the provided loupe so on end of bullet or file a small flat and sacrifice one. The use of this has helped me avoid mistakes with unknown alloy. For accuracy, bullets don't need to be real hard to shoot well, especially plain base. I usually aim for 11-13 bhn for lower pressure or velocity around 1000fps. Don't shoot a lot of rifle stuff like .308 yet, but they need to be harder and usually want a gas check. I have also started powder coating and it is easy and the results are great. No fouling at higher velocity up to 2500fps easy. I use the shake and bake method. Look it up on google or ping me.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010214285/?pid=731364