Needed Bullet Hardness?

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  • Last Post 14 May 2009
CB posted this 11 April 2009

Are 240 grain 44 bullets of whee lweight alloy hard enough to be pushed to 1,400 fps in a ten inch barrel?

If not. how hard should they be?

Thanks for any information.

John

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redball2 posted this 11 April 2009

John I didn't know you were a pistol shooter. why does one need  250 grain bullet going that fast? Old Elmer killed a deer at 600 yds with one that started out at about 1250 fs. by the time it got to 600 yds it wasn't going very fast. by the way from the north of my place you can see lookout mtn. on the oregon side of hells canyon where Elmer had a little ranch in the 1920 and early 30s.

I have taken a couple of deer with a 44 contender and Elmers  44 bullet and never recovered either one. they always went completely through the animal. I never loaded them at more than 1250 to 1300 fs and they were wheel weights

Jim Wilcox

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billwnr posted this 11 April 2009

I shot wheelweights and got leading when I got close to 1300 fps in my Dan Wesson. If yours is a TC you might not have a problem. You may if you are shooting a revolver.

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rbdave posted this 11 April 2009

super redhawk was same way with 21gr 2400 but didnt affect accuracy at 225-250 shots

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rbdave posted this 11 April 2009

super redhawk was same way with 21gr 2400

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Notlwonk posted this 11 April 2009

The Lee 'Lead Hardness Testing Kit' has a chart that gives the max suggested pressure level for a given Brinnell Hardness rating. It is probably a little over kill but gives a good starting point.

Up until a month ago most of my lead has been range pick ups, You never know what you'll get from one batch to another. I did segregate by type of bullets, soft Minie ball vs hard commercial (at least they looked like store bought ). Using the tester I was able to get much better control over what I actually had and what was needed. Just blend different batches to get what you want for hardness.

Oh, a month ago? my future son in law gave me close to 400# of wheel weights.

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CB posted this 11 April 2009

I see no reason to use as cast WW for anything when quenching from the mould is so easy. Speeds up the time from cast to target too.

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CB posted this 11 April 2009

1400 fps is really easy to achieve in a Contender, but you have to make certain your bullets fit the throat, which can be a challenge sometimes. I used to hit 1600 FPS from my 41 Mag Contender with 210 gr Lymans. I used Felix lube & unsized water dropped bullets. I have a Star sizer & just order dies to my bullets “as cast” diameter. On the opposite side of the coin, my 1911s really, really hate water dropped bullets, as does my 38 Spl.

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runfiverun posted this 11 April 2009

if you are getting leading then you got issues. other then alloy. i have hit 1600 in a 24” bbl with no problems in both my 44 and 45. with plain base boolits,and no leading.

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CB posted this 14 May 2009

runfiverun wrote: if you are getting leading then you got issues. other then alloy. i have hit 1600 in a 24” bbl with no problems in both my 44 and 45. with plain base boolits,and no leading. What they hate is excessively hard bullets. Around 10-12 bhn they're fine.

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JackG posted this 14 May 2009

pat i. wrote: I see no reason to use as cast WW for anything when quenching from the mould is so easy. Speeds up the time from cast to target too. If you were using the load for hunting I would use air cooled WWs only.  Quenching can produce a pretty hard bullet which will probably shatter if it hits bone.  One needs to leave some ductility in the metal.  I shoot an air cooled WW 265 gr. Ranch Dog 44 mag bullet at 1,600 + in my Marlin 1894P with a 16” barrel.  The penetration is stellar and of course you can't shatter the bullet in a hunting situation.  The bullet is oversized to 0.432” and never leads whether I use LBT Blue or Lee liquid Alox. Making sure the bullet is larger than groove diameter is paramount to prevent leading.

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