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alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 2:03 am
by BruniX
Hello everyone
I want to do some tests with the mold Lyman 457122, 330Grs, hollow point type.
457122.jpg
457122.jpg (7.54 KiB) Viewed 1535 times

intuitively, I will tend to use a softer alloy, for example 13 or 13.5 BHN rather than the 18 BHN that I use for other types of ammo.

Because it seems to me that this would be conducive to a better expansion of bullet.

Does this reasoning seem logical to you?

Do you have an experience on it?

see you soon....
BruniX

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 2:51 am
by 220
I cast my hollow points from 2:2:96 so about 11bhn.
At 1650fps out of my 45/70 on water jugs I got 27.5" pentration. Bullet pretty much blew apart with only a little bit of shank left.
Have shot a couple of young sambar stags with them probably about 500lbs on the hoof, complete penetration with good sized exit wounds when placed behind the shoulder. Complete penetration on a couple of 80-100lb hogs with the bullet going though both shoulders.

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Fri May 10, 2019 3:53 am
by 220
I should have said the mould I use is a Noe 405 WFP as a HP they throw 370gr, it is a massive HP.
When i said the one in water blew apart what I think really happened was the the HP section expanded rapidly and was shed, the remaining shank continued to penetrate and expand with the expanded section again being shed and in the end all that was left was a small unexpanded shank.

I have a very similar mould for my 357 that throws 170gr as HP on a couple of occasions I have recovered a lead donut under the skin where the expanded nose has been shed and the shank has exited. This has been on animals 100-150lb with shots behind the shoulder the same alloy and a similar MV.

I think you are on the right track with a softer alloy. If you look at hard cast that has been fired into steel plates it often shatters and shears off while softer alloys will expand and stay intact. With HP bullets I think this lets the expanded section hold on longer and get to a bigger diameter before it sheds from the shank.

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 5:57 am
by Firefly
You need to be careful not to pay soft bullets too fast, you can get leading and base deformation if you do. The 13.5 gun should be ok up to 1500 FPS but you will have to range test to be sure

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 10:57 am
by wingnut
... rather than the 18 BHN that I use for other types of ammo.
I'd stay with the 18 BHN for first testings. Its what you know. Adjust 1 factor at a time if wanted/needed after that.

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 12:53 am
by MJ151
If it was me I'd powder coat them. During the baking process they will most likely come down to 10ish bhn depending on alloy. With the powder coat you can then push them pretty hard without leading and also get killer expansion. You could also do a duplex hardness when casting. I have never done it but have seen it done and read about it in handloader a number of years ago. I'd have to dig the article up. I know some folks are doing this with large bore revolver rounds. I don't think it's necessary if you annealed the bullets during powder coating.

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 3:48 am
by Firefly
That actually sounds like a pretty good idea, a little more work but the powder and a toaster oven are pretty cheap. Several sites on the internet show how to do it.

Re: alloy hardness for hollow point bullet

Posted: Wed May 15, 2019 8:44 am
by JEBar
wingnut wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 10:57 am
I'd stay with the 18 BHN for first testings. Its what you know. Adjust 1 factor at a time if wanted/needed after that.
that sounds like a good recommendation to me .... load a few 18 BRN hollow points and test them .... based on actual results you will quickly learn if you need to go harder, softer or stay with 18