Metallurgy JSB/FX- JTS- AEA

[rangur1]

JSB and FX are same company both are pretty soft lead. AEA appears to be a harder mix from china. JTS - now I have heard conflicting comments about these. Some say they are very close to AEA in makeup, others say they are re branded FX/JSB? Which of these brands are hardest - softest. I’m guessing FX/JSB softest, AEA hardest, JTS between them.

 

[dgeesaman]

I guess it’s time I hammer some flat and measure their content on our PMI gun.

It’s not chromatography but it would show significant differences.

As far as hardness the Chinese made pellets (AEA, JTS) are harder than JSB but seem to have less damage. Dimensionally you have to test to see which will work for you

 

[TimeRabbit]

I guess it’s time I hammer some flat and measure their content on our PMI gun.

It’s not chromatography but it would show significant differences.

As far as hardness the Chinese made pellets (AEA, JTS) are harder than JSB but seem to have less damage. Dimensionally you have to test to see which will work for you

Please do , that would be very interesting.

 

[Centercut]

In my experience the AEA and JTS are just like the JSB/FX. Same pellets, different label.

 

[dgeesaman]

In my experience the AEA and JTS are just like the JSB/FX. Same pellets, different label.

In some sizes they're similar. In others they are very much not. Check the head diameters on JTS 8.4gr pellets and compare them to the rest, for example.

 

[Centercut]

I’m talking .30 cal 45 grain and .22 cal 21.9/22.07. Both identical in all ways.

 

[DrPutz]

@dgeesaman Have you had a chance to check the metallurgy of the AEA/JTS pellets? We are curious to know if there is elevated tin content in them.

 

[dgeesaman]

Thanks for the reminder I’ve prepped some samples and hopefully we can do the PMI this week.

 

[dgeesaman]

H&N 99.63 Pb / .37 Sb
JTS 99.87 Pb / .12 other
JSB 99.99 Pb
AEA 99.77 Pb / .22 other

I didn’t bother to dig around the PMI gun settings but I assume the “other” in the JTS and AEA is antimony.

If anyone else does this beware that whatever you use to hammer the pellet flat will contaminate the sample. The good news is hammering a piece of lead will pull whatever loose contaminants are on your hammer. I was fortunate that the first sample I prepared was pure lead wire and it absorbed a bit of iron copper and zinc that didn’t appear in the other samples. It would also work to hammer the pellets flat between two hardened stainless plates.

I did not bother with FX or Air Arms because we know they come from JSB and have the same composition.

 

[DrPutz]

Awesome - many thanks for getting these results! Really eye-opening. I heard rumors that AEA/JTS were using tin, but these results seem to show antimony. It is wild how little antimony increases the hardness so much.

 

[dgeesaman]

Awesome - many thanks for getting these results! Really eye-opening. I heard rumors that AEA/JTS were using tin, but these results seem to show antimony. It is wild how little antimony increases the hardness so much.

I don’t know if it’s tin or antimony and if it really matters I can try again and hope to find a setting where the PMI gun shows the element in that remainder. Whatever it is, it’s not much.

 

[TimeRabbit]

There is supposed to be some antimony in the JSB pellets also according to this video of the JSB factor tour. They never give the percentage but they do talk about it at 2 minutes in .