Casting bullets

How can you tell if your homemade cast bullets are the correct hardness?

midway sells a tester;

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/731364/lee-lead-hardness-testing-kit

I've never used a tester. My alloy is scrap wheel weight with some range reclaimed comercial lead bullets and it works pretty good close to Lyman #2 alloy. An old trick told to me was to try and cut a groove in the nose of the bullet with your thumb nail, if you only scratch it it is plenty hard for Bullseye loads. Test on a swaged soft lead bullet and a comercial hard cast and you will be able to get the feel for it. The biggest thing is to weigh each bullet and sort by weight. If they are too light or heavy recyle them back into the pot. Also if you don't already have a Lyman bullet casting manual get one and read it, it's worth the price in info.

Here's an interesting method I have tried that seems to work.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?75455-Testing-hardness-with-pencils

JLK

I don't check anymore, I use mostly wheelweigts, but also use lead/lino 4-1.

 One way to check your ingots is to take an Arrow T-50 stapler using 3/8" staples and measure the penetration of the staple using a dial caliper. Actually you measure the amount that protrudes.
.111 lead 5 Bhn
.188 WW 9 Bhn
.212 2-6 alloy 15 bhn
.245 Linotype 22 bhn
So if you have some pure lead, staple it, measure and use that for your calibration and go from there.

This came from The Cast Bullet Journal No. 129 Sept/Oct 1997 p. 15.