hard or soft cast ?

[rebs]

which bullets are more likely to lead your 45 acp barrel, hard or soft cast ?
which are more accurate hard or soft cast ?
what is the benefit of plain base or bevel base cast bullets ?

[TimSr]

Soft for .45 acp. Harder or high velocity or magnum.

Most cast bases are beveled, even if ony a tiny bit. It helps you start seating the bullet without shaving the edges off.

[243winxb]

Use alloy consisting of 2% tin, 6% antimony and 92% lead with bullets sized to the correct diameter. (.452") Bevel is more accurate with softer alloys. The base is deformed less. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/castbullets.jpg I have never tested alloy for hardness. I do add linotype to scrap to suit my thumb nail test. Always check diameter of cast bullets as soon as they cool. If undersize add linotype that has antimony to increase diameter. Harder alloys keep the bullet from skidding or slumping.

[pete2]

I buy cast bullets from Dardas, The Bulletworks and Rucker. They are all pretty hard but not as hard as the Lino metal I cast for mag loads. Bottom line is all 3 companies bullets work very well in the 45 ACP and 38 Special.

[mikld]

As I understand it, "Hard Cast" is a term used first by casters way back when to differentiate cast lead bullets from swaged lead bullets. Hard Cast is pretty meaningless as what determines hard? Some say 12 BHN is hard, some say 12 is soft. Some will even try 18-20 BHN in their handguns believing that will solve leading problems. Commercial casters will advertise "Hard Cast" to give the customer what he wants, (some new lead shooters mistakenly think harder is better) regardless of actual BHN although some is around 18+.

For several years I shot my home cast lead bullets with my alloys of wheel weight lead, and range lead. I had no idea of BHN for the first 10 or 12 years until I got a hardness tester for Christmas. My WW alloy runs about 12 BHN, and my range scrap runs about 9-11 BHN depending on batch. I shot hundreds if not thousands of cast 45 ACP rounds with my range scrap and as long as the bullets fit the gun, there was no leading...

jes an old guy's thinkin'...:p

[mehavey]

Properly-sized soft-cast (8-12 BHN) leads least (if at all) and is mosts accurate.

Hard cast (22-25 BHN) at 45ACP velocities/pressures is almost guaranteed to give you some
leading to clean out, and if not sized 0.001/2" over can be an unremitting nightmare.

[243winxb]

I have run tests with hard oven heat tread 45 acp bullet. They do not lead. The barrel may look bad, but it cleans right up with Hoppes on a patch and accuracy never changed. True leading will produce very poor accuracy. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/40shots.jpg http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/IMG_4480.jpg And at 140 with no change in accuracy. http://i338.photobucket.com/albums/n420/joe1944usa/IMG_4494.jpg At 200 rounds fired, no change in accuracy.Sluged bore @ .451" 45 acp 5.0Gr 700X Lyman 200gr BB tumble lubed with Xlox. .4515" to .452" as droped from the mold. Alloy scrap 75%WW rest pure lead, a guess. Oven heat treated @ 450 for 1 hr. then put into tap water. Thumb nail test shows bullets to be very hard. Leading is the same 40 thru 140 rounds. Accuracy did not change during test. Air cooled cast bullets sized in Lyman 450 are more accurate and lead a lot less. I knew these might lead, but wanted to see if accurace fell off. It did not.

[Unclenick]

Rebs,

The thing that cut leading and improved accuracy most for me was loading to headspace on the bullet. It doesn't affect jacketed bullets one way or the other, as far as I can tell, but with swaged lead, for example, my group sizes dropped a whopping 40% and leading reduced appreciably.

With hard cast bullets loaded this way, I've fired up to 3500 rounds from a 1911 (over a three day period) without cleaning. At that point fouling drag on the slide started to cause function failures, but leading in the bore showed only a little bit just ahead of the throat (where the bullet is when pressure and friction peak).

http://thefiringline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=60385&d=1275658843

[rebs]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it.

[OverPressure]

Rebs

Your getting great technical information. I have been shooting Oregon
Trails and now SNS in 38/357 in velocities up to 1350 fps with no leading.
I clean my revolvers every 100 or so rds only because the power
accumulation at the cylinder.

You can check SNS Casting website for their product range.

My 45 Gold Cup has never leaded, My Colt Defender has never leaded.
SNS 200 gr LSWC is a great target load, i have run 35000 through these
two guns and never seen a sign of leading. Powders, Clays/Titegroup/
Greendot/800X/Win231. Velocities between 800 and 900 fps.

I was spoiled early on and only started to experment beyond Clays and
Titegroup once my choices were limited for 45acp loads.

200gr LSWC 1.250 OAL , my Colts Love Them!!!

I have PB and Titewad , but have been too lazy to develope them properly.

It'll Come.



If i see unburned powder, i figure out how to get rid of it. 800X is next on my
list!!!