COWW hardness

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Moose_Master

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Now this is something I can't figure on my own no matter what. Everyone claim that clip on wheel weights bullets quenched gives 12 BNH hardness. Well, not for me.
Casted two calibers, both quenched in water with ice and the hardness is still 9.5 (on the dial is 0.065 +/- something)

My question is what's your COWW bullet hardness quenched? Just curious to see maybe I'm doing something wrong. The SOWW were not smelted together with COWW.
Thanx
 
I use COWW and don't know what the hardness was after quenching (definitely harder than air cooled), but they are considerably harder after aging. If you let them age a few months or longer they will gain hardness. Plethora of info on this over at castboolits site.
 
My AC'ed COWW are basically 12 BHN an will harden up a couple BHN over a couple weeks. If I water quench straight from the mould using the same COWW's there at the same or slightly harder BHN as age hardened bullets within 24 hours usually somewhere around 18 BHN depending on the alloy batch.

WW alloy can vary somewhat so the final BHN might vary as well. I have a batch I WQ'ed this past Saturday and I'll check them this Saturday and let you know what BHN they came out at.
 
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My findings have been the same as yours. Around 9, whether quenched or not.

I bought these from a tire store last year.
Maybe they used to be harder and with more antimony in the past?
 
Thanx Boolitcaster. I almost reached the point where I was thinking that I do not know how to measure the hardness with my tester. So at the end of the day I didn't do anything wrong.
On a side note, the COWW I used where at least 7 years old. The thing that made me realize the age of the WW is the fact that in 4 full buckets where only about 5 lbs of Zn and Fe marked WW. The new buckets I got are half Zn and Fe. So the newer batches of WW the less lead. It is what it is I guess.
 
Was looking back at some notes from about 5-6 years ago. I tested individual coww for hardness. The softest was 9, and the highest was 12. Most of them were in the 11-12 range.
 
I couldn't find not even one with 12 BNH in mines. Someone has been sucking all the antimony out of my WW. The mechanic I got the WW cheated me on antimony, ha ha. I should sue him.
 
Ok I have to admit I jumped to early to conclusions. Junkdude above was right. My initial measurement was one day after casting. Now, three weeks later I tested a bunch of 9mm and 45LC and they all show 83-85 on my Cabin Tree tester, which in BNH means over 12. I will repeat the measurement in another month and see what I will get.
A lil bit of patience pays of I guess. I feel kinda embarrassed right now for whining prematurely.
 
I juste check the hardness of my COWW muffin ingots yesterday with my Lee hardness tester , i melt that in 6 batch and that give me a result between 13 and 15 Bhn
 
hatman1793 said:
This is my question in my quest to achieve harder bullets:
Dropping the just cast 9mm bullets in water creates "some" extra hardness. Does the sizer remove or reduce this water-quenched hardness when the bullets are put through it?
Click to expand...

To some degree yes,WQ'ed bullets are basically like mixing your lead in a bowl with a spoon the different elements of the lead based alloy and not bound together as well structurally when WQ'ed so they tend to break down and become softer faster over time after they reach there final hardness.

Oven heat treated bullets on the other hand are like taking your lead based alloy and running it through a blender the grain structure is more tightly packed and this is where the benefit of the arsenic in the alloy comes into play,the bullet is equally as hard from the surface area to the interior where as with the WQ'ed bullets it is not or can be spotty depending on the area and depth tested.

Water quenching straight form the mould and heat treating bullets are just two different way of going about obtaining a harder bullet vs. air cooled bullets from an alloy like clip on wheel weights. My COWW alloy generally run around 11 to 12 BHN air cooled,if I water quench them straight from the mould there around 18 BHN within 24 hours and harden slightly move over the next couple weeks or months. Water quenching straight from the mold has it inconsistencies as well as the actual bullet temperature when it hits the water can vary so the BHN will vary as well,probably not enough that most shooters will notice. On the other hand batch heat treated bullets will all basically hit the water bath at the same time and in the same temp range so there more consistent BHN wise which does tend to effect groups as well as extreme spreads.

Another things of note is that when you size your bullets after WQ'ing you loose some of that bullets surface hardness as lead based alloy will work soften as opposed to other metals like brass that work harden,it really just depends on how much your resizing the bullet,all is not lost as you still retain most of the benefits of the WQ'ing. If you need your bullets to have a hard surface area it''s best to size first then heat treat and quench.
 
Also something to note.. The difference in actual hardness between 9.5 and 12 Brinell is tiny... Like so small it would be within a factor of error
 
Yikes!
My "range lead" ingots have proven to cast 9mm bullets that lead the barrel. And, I am pushing them under 950 FPS. Want to harden them up but it appears water quenching is not reliable.
I have seen pewter candlestick holders at the 2nd hand store. If I cut pieces of these & drop them into my casting pot, stir, will I get a harder bullet? Thanks...��
 
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