Author Topic: Softening bullets? (Read 466 times)

jpuke · « **on:** March 17, 2004, 10:43:56 AM »

I cast all my bullets out of wheelweights, mainly because it's what I can afford. I've been experimenting with a cast hollowpoint from Lyman and I've found after shooting them into wet phonebooks that they fragment rather than expand. Is there a way to soften bullets after their cast? I'm shooting them in a 45 ACP so the velocity/leading issues shouldn't be a problem.

Leftoverdj · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2004, 03:08:45 PM »

If you air cooled them, they are about as soft as they are likely to get. If I've got it right, and there are folks who know a lot more than me, the brittleness is caused by the presence of antimony in the alloy. You can cut WW with lead to get the antimony content down, but if you want cast bullets to expand at .45 ACP velocities, you are going to have to go to pure lead or lead with a small amount of tin added, say 30-1.

Joe Kool · « **Reply #2 on:** March 18, 2004, 02:11:02 AM »

To anneal bullets place them in a 350 deg. oven for an hour, then turn the oven off and let then cool to room temperature in the oven. They seem to age harden very little if at all. I mainly use wheel weights and 2% tin. Bullet dropped from the mold and air cooled will age harden in about two weeks. But the same bullets, that I annealed, seem to remain soft even after a year. I've hollow pointed the annealed bullets, and at 900 fps they expanded well, with little or no weight loss. I also discovered that bullets that I let air cool out of the mold would vary in hardness depending on the air temperature. The bullets that cooled in 90 deg. air temperature were softer then bullets cooled in 60 deg. air temperature. Annealing will make the bullets as soft as possible.

jpuke · « **Reply #3 on:** March 23, 2004, 10:33:18 AM »

thanks for the info, I'll give it a try tonight