Lead Bullet Hardness

We are often asked by a customer "How hard are your lead bullets?" When we answer "14 to 16 on the SAECO scale", we see a nod, but are never sure that the information we are putting out is actually getting through. People often don't know either what the SAECO is, or don't know what that number means.

The SAECO Scale

SAECO is one of the premier manufacturers of casting equipment for individual use. While we use almost exclusively Magma Engineering equipment to cast our bullets, SAECO still makes very good quality ancillary products, including their hardness scale.

SAECO's Hardness Tester

SAECO's hardness tester easily allows casters to test the hardness of their alloyed bullets. It uses their own scale to determine the hardness, where a pure lead bullet is scored at "0". A bullet alloyed with wheel-weights, the hardness that most hand-casters use, scored at 8.

To give a good example of how hard our bullets are in comparison to other bullets styles of bullets on the market, we tested three of the most common pistol bullet styles available: jacketed/plated, moly coated, and hard-cast lead.

Jacketed and Plated Bullets

By far, the most commonly available bullet used in off the shelf ammunition is a full-metal jacket bullet. For hand-loaders and reloaders, plated bullets offer a less expensive alternative. Both work well, and are good bullets in their own accord. We tested these, because customers have often had bad results with lead bullets, and we wanted a baseline measurement to compare.We decided to combine the results for jacketed and plated bullets, as a good quality plated bullet will be almost identical to a jacketed bullet. The only major difference is how the copper crust is applied.

Testing a plated bullet

We sampled 10 bullets from both Hornady 9mm 115gr Jacketed bullets, and the Frontier 9mm 124gr Plated bullets found on our website. Of the 10 bullets we tested, they averaged out to 18 on the SAECO scale.

Moly Coated Lead Bullets

Moly Coated Lead Bullet

Moly coated bullets seem to wax and wain in popularity. One year they are the greatest thing in the world, and everyone wants us to make them, and the next year, we don't hear a peep about them. The concept behind the moly coating is like that of heat treating bullets: by putting a hard coating on the outside of the bullet, a less-expensive alloy can be used to push a bullet to faster velocities.

Testing the Moly Coated Lead Bullet

 
Like the jacketed and plated bullets, we sampled 10 bullets to find the hardness. We didn't know the manufacturer of these bullets, but it seems that they were using a softer alloy, as the hardness was only a 10. This was not surprising as the tester uses a small pin-like device to hold the tip of the bullet in place, and most pierced through the moly-coating. This reinforces what we've been telling customers for quite a while: the moly coating will not necessarily decrease the amount of leading in the barrel, as the rifling will most cut the moly coating, exposing the lead, and putting the potential of lead smearing.

Our Hard Cast Lead Bullets

And of course, we had to test our own hard cast lead bullets. We already test these when coming off of the casting machine for hardness, with a hardness goal of between 8 and 10 on the SAECO scale. We then allow our bullets to cure for 3 weeks before we package and sell them.

Testing Slash K's Hard Cast Bullet

We tested a 10 9mm 115gr Round Nose bullets that we cast 3 weeks ago, just before we packaged it. They averaged 15 on the SAECO scale, with almost no deviation.

What about the Brinell Scale?

A Brinell to SAECO conversion chart

In most other industries, the Brinell scale is used to measure the hardness of a material, so we are often asked about the Brinell hardness of our bullets. There doesn't really exist an exact scale to compare the two numbers, but the chart included with SAECO's hardness tester gives a very good idea. As you can see on the chart, it bottoms out at measuring in the 12.0 SAECO range, but that offers a hardness of 35 on the Brinell scale. Since our bullets average 15, we are well above a 35 on the Brinell scale.

Loading for the .40 Smith and Wesson

As an ammunition manufacturer, we load a lot. We also have a vested interest in making sure our ammunition will function correctly in as many firearms as possible. One of our staples in handgun loading is the .40 Smith and Wesson. In reloading circles, there is a lot of myths around the brass from this cartridge, particularly the brass shot from a GLOCK. This is an attempt to dispel some of these myths.

We load on Dillon 1050s and use Dillon dies. These dies are set up according the Dillon's instructions. We use no other extraordinary means in our loading process. Before we set our ammunition out for sale, a second person performs a quality assurance check on every individual piece of ammunition. For ammunition for an semi-automatic handgun (9mm, 40 S&W, and .45ACP) this includes case gauging every loaded round. If the round does not fit properly in the case gauge, it is set aside, and later roll-sized. The brass we use has been shot out of who knows what, who knows how many times.

Since we case gauging every loaded round, I can give you an exact number of cartridges that have a bulge at the bottom of the case, or the infamous "GLOCK bulge." Out of our last run of .40 Smith and Wesson that I did, I loaded 3,000 rounds. 18 rounds did not case gauge. This is a less than 1% failure rate.


In the interest of data gathering, I took these and loaded a magazine for two different pistols before we roll-sized the rounds - a GLOCK 23, and a Kahr K40. I hand-cycled each round through the action, and they all went into battery just fine.

By comparison, when I last loaded 9mm, I did 3,000 rounds. Like the .40, the brass is from a variety of sources, and we have no idea how many times it has been shot, or what it has been shot through. By the time it makes it to the reloading machine, even the tell-tale H&K fluting marks have gone. Again, we use Dillon dies on the Dillon 1050, and case gauge each round. The above-mentioned batch had 23 that did not case gauge, still less than 1%, but slightly more than the .40 Smith and Wesson.

What does all of this mean? Simply put, .40 Smith and Wesson brass should not give you any issues, even if it has been shot from a GLOCK. If you set your dies up according the the manufacturer's instructions, there shouldn't even be enough of an issue to notice.

Myths, Legends and Half-Truths about Lead Bullets

We've been casting, selling, and shooting lead bullets for over 20 years. During this time, we've heard a lot of wrong information about shooting and loading lead bullets. This is an attempt to dispel some of these myths.

• Loading lead bullets is more dangerous to your health.
  Ingesting lead is not conducive to your health. Lead can be transferred through your skin. However, bullets aren't the only place that you can get exposed to lead. Since your primers contain a lead-based compound (lead stefanite) even loading jacketed bullets doesn't make you safe from lead exposure. This is why we always recommend that you wear latex or nitrile gloves when loading ammunition.
• Lead is too soft to push to very good velocities.
  Depending on the hardness of the lead, this may be true. Slash K's Hard Cast Lead bullets are hard enough that you can push them to a decent velocity. Between the alloy of the lead, and the lube we use, we have been able to push some of our bullets to upwards of 1800fps without noticing any leading.
  As a local shop, we have noticed that often times, a customer will have a bad experience with lead, but not ours. He bought bullets from some guy at a gunshow, who cast them in his garage, out of random things he thinks are lead.
  
• Lead bullets require me to clean my gun more often.
  Shooting lead bullets will sometimes require you to clean your pistol more often, but not by the margin that people seem to think. I tend to clean the pistols I shoot lead through every 500 rounds, whether it needs it or not. I also clean my pistols I shoot exclusively jacketed bullets through every 500 rounds, whether it needs it or not. I don't notice a significant difference in accuracy between the first round and the 499th round.

What are other incorrect assumptions that people make about shooting lead bullets? Let us know in the comments.