Henry Rifle Forums

I was surfing the web and came across this a formula to determine the proper hardness for cast bullets. http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_fil ... 2-414.html.
Pretty simple math to see what BHN cast bullets to buy or cast. I found it interesting that most hard cast bullets (15-18BHN) would be too hard for what I shoot.
looking around I've seen more articles very similar with nearly the same thoughts on hardness

ol'pole
That was pretty interesting. Thanks for the link!

Just looked at my Missouri bullets. .45 Colt are 12 BHN, .357 are 18 BHN. The .38spl bullets, from "Silver State", are 12 Bhn. Thinking I should be good. Thanks for the link.

It's easy to find "hard cast" bullets 15+ BHN, much harder to find the mid hardness bullets 12-14 BHN and when you do their more expensive than hard cast, I wonder why? the most expensive ingredient would be Antimony and there is less in the bullet

Many moons ago I did a lot of revolver shooting with 147 gr. 38 Spl. wadcutters and 2.7 gr. of Bullseye. The bullets we used were swaged hollow based wadcutters. Since these bullets were swaged, my guess was they were as soft as you can get. I never had any lead in the barrel or forcing cone, but the cylinder throats were always coated with lead. I always had to soak and scrub the cylinders throats to get them clean. Only a few quick passes with a damp patch and the barrel was clean as new.

Paul

Rifletom wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:32 pm

Just looked at my Missouri bullets. .45 Colt are 12 BHN, .357 are 18 BHN. The .38spl bullets, from "Silver State", are 12 Bhn. Thinking I should be good. Thanks for the link.

Like them Missouri Bullets,
I sure would like to get a deer with one of those ole Pugnose 180's.

RP