Protoolman,
Yes I am quite aware that the scale of hardness used by SAECO is not the same as the Brinnell hardness scale. And I agree with your statement that exteme hardness is not necessarily the only important parameter. More important than hardness is the avoidance of brittleness, however hardness is obviously, as you know, quite important since we don't want our large caliber bullets expanding and thus losing penetration potential, especially when the game is heavy. However, on the one hand you seem to say that oven hardening is the best because of your belief that it provides the greatest hardness and that hardness reigns supreme, and then go on to state that it doesn't necessarily. If our practice of dropping bullets from hot molds into cold water was as ineffective as you like to claim, we would have problems with barrel leading and impact effect. We have neither. For eleven years now our products have been the first choice among a great many distinguished members of the print media and the Safari Club International, and their claims regarding the superiority of our castings has been quite definitive. As to our lube, I must assume that you draw conclusions based on its color. This is the finest formula we've tested, first created by Paco Kelly. If there is a better lube out there, then so be it. Protoolman, if your practices work for you, then great. However, we have found that our practices work best for us, and the field reports from our customers, now numbering in the thousands, demonstrate the effectiveness of our products beyond any doubt. As John Taffin of AMERICAN HANDGUNNER just reported to us the other day, our 44 Magnum cast bullet rounds are giving him 1-inch 5-shot groups at 50-yds without leading. Also, as reported by many others in the print media, our 44 Magnum bullets are producing 3-feet of penetration in wet newspaper. During the four hunting seasons when our 44 Magnum ammo was the only 44 Magnum ammo legal for elk hunting in our home state of Washington, virtually all of our customers reported complete penetration on our heavy elk. I'm not sure much more than that can be achieved from a revolver. Rather than pursue "theoretical perfection" I am much more interested in what gets the job done reliably in the field. I like our procedures not because I "know" that they are best possible (God hasn't spoken to me regarding this subject), but because field experience has demonstrated beyond a doubt that they work extremely well, and our procedures are not excessively labor intensive. I have no need to believe that all of our procedures are the best possible, I just need to know that they produce products that are uncommonly effective. Lighten up Protoolman, and don't be so sure of the inferiority of practices you have not had a chance to observe first hand. It sounds like you make good bullets, well, so do we.
Randy Garrett
www.garrettcartridges.com
[This message has been edited by Randy Garrett (edited November 18, 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Randy Garrett (edited November 18, 1999).]
[This message has been edited by Randy Garrett (edited November 18, 1999).]