Cast bullet hardness

blacksmithden

blacksmithden

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Ok. I wanted to put this one to bed once and for all. Pure wheel weight bullets are plenty hard enough without anything added to them.

I'm shooting a Ruger Redhawk in 44 mag

I've fired about 1500 of those Excel pure lead bullets that WSS sells with no leading problems. These are commercially made bullets, and I'm going to say that they are hard enough. Hopefully everyone agrees.

Since the last batch of those I bought, I've cast a few thousand of my own 240 grain bullets. They're made from wheel weights. Nothing added....no tin, no antimony, or anything else. Pure, nothing special about em wheel weights.

Yesterday I was out at the Genesee range making up some garbage barrels out of 45 gallon drums. After I cut the tops off, Randy and I had to make some vent/drain holes in them.

I had about half commercial 240 grain bullets, and half of my cast stuff loaded up. We took turns blowing holes in the barrels.

The commercial Excel bullets would go completely through, (in one side and out the other) two barrels. They would put a dent in the third, but wouldn't go though by any means.

The wheel weight bullets would go into the third barrel, and make a dent on the far side. A good portion of the slug was still intact in the bottom of the third barrel everytime. There was nothing left of the commercial bullets. Just small crumbs and fragments inside the second barrel and on the ground between the second and third. (Somebody is going to say that they were too hard and they shattered...I know it ;)). Annnnnyway.........

My conclusion from my very "un"scientific experiment is that cast wheel weight bullets were plenty hard enough with nothing added to them....even harder than the commercial Excel bullets. Neither bullet left any leading in the barrel. I was shooting 10 grains of Unique for a charge. Plenty of power and recoil.

Feel free to discuss.
 
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I have never cast my own bullet, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I have read that knock on WW cast at a BNH of 12. Water quenching these same bullets can bring them up to BNH of 18. This link has some good info about maximum chamber pressures for different hardness of alloys.

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm

I shoot cast bullets of a BNH of around 21 in a 45-70, when they hit the gong I sometimes find them underneath flattened out like loonies, they don't seem to shatter.
 
My information shows that pure wheel weights are bhn 9 which is less than Lyman #2 alloy which is the std. and bhn 15. Most commercial casters claim that they use this same alloy(Lyman #2), and i believe they do, it flows well and would be less troublesome in their high volume machines, and gets to market well without getting dinged up. I don't use wheel weights for making bullets, because it is always inconsistent as to content and is very dirty. In our tests, any hardened lead including pure wheel weights could be made to shatter at high speeds on large beef bones. The best way to keep a bullet from shattering(other then lowering velocity) is to add tin, which makes the alloy more ductile and tends to give you that classic mushroom look. We add tin to our hunting bullets(both hard and soft) and use Lino type/monotype/lead mixtures for high vel. target bullets to Bhn 22-29.
Low velocity and black powder loads are another bad place for wheel weights as they are too hard to obturate in your barrel, here we use 25-1 and 30-1 Lead/tin mixes. The price of tin turns off most people, but we find it a vital component in most of our casting, as is pure lead.
 
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blacksmithden said:
Ok. I wanted to put this one to bed once and for all. Pure wheel weight bullets are plenty hard enough without anything added to them.

I'm shooting a Ruger Redhawk in 44 mag

I've fired about 1500 of those Excel pure lead bullets that WSS sells with no leading problems. These are commercially made bullets, and I'm going to say that they are hard enough. Hopefully everyone agrees.

Since the last batch of those I bought, I've cast a few thousand of my own 240 grain bullets. They're made from wheel weights. Nothing added....no tin, no antimony, or anything else. Pure, nothing special about em wheel weights.

Yesterday I was out at the Genesee range making up some garbage barrels out of 45 gallon drums. After I cut the tops off, Randy and I had to make some vent/drain holes in them.

I had about half commercial 240 grain bullets, and half of my cast stuff loaded up. We took turns blowing holes in the barrels.

The commercial Excel bullets would go completely through, (in one side and out the other) two barrels. They would put a dent in the third, but wouldn't go though by any means.

The wheel weight bullets would go into the third barrel, and make a dent on the far side. A good portion of the slug was still intact in the bottom of the third barrel everytime. There was nothing left of the commercial bullets. Just small crumbs and fragments inside the second barrel and on the ground between the second and third. (Somebody is going to say that they were too hard and they shattered...I know it ;)). Annnnnyway.........

My conclusion from my very "un"scientific experiment is that cast wheel weight bullets were plenty hard enough with nothing added to them....even harder than the commercial Excel bullets. Neither bullet left any leading in the barrel. I was shooting 10 grains of Unique for a charge. Plenty of power and recoil.

Feel free to discuss.
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You're right, the wheel weight bullets were actually softer,hard cast cast bullets will often fracture like you witnessed.
Yours are better.........:dancingbanana:
 
blacksmithden said:
I've fired about 1500 of those Excel pure lead bullets that WSS sells with no leading problems. These are commercially made bullets, and I'm going to say that they are hard enough. Hopefully everyone agrees.
Click to expand...

I have never cast a bullet in my life, but something doesn't sound right.

I have always and forever avoided pure lead bullets because they would be WAY too soft for anything over cowboy velocity loads. I certainly would expect massive leading from a pure lead bullet in a .44 magnum.

Any bullet made of a wheel weight alloy should be considerably harder than any pure lead bullet.
 
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