Soft lead vs hard lead for revolvers

[James B]

A friend of mine who cast bullets for Moses , (he has been at it for a while) Was telling me that IHO soft lead bullets with softer lube is better than hard cast for revolvers. Is there something to this and if so, what is the reasoning behind this theory?

[John Traveler]

In theory, soft lead bullets  swage up to the cylinder mouth diameter before entering the barrel.  If there is a mismatch between cylinder chamber mouth diameter and barrel groove diameter, the soft lead bullet is more likely to swage to a proper fit.

Hard lead bullets, on the other hand, don't swage up to fill the chamber mouth, and are unable to swage to barrel groove diameter for a proper fit.

Soft lubes (traditional 50/50 alox/beeswax) are more effective than the crayon-like lubes favored by commercial bullet makers.  The harder lubes simplify volume loading of ammunition and trade off lubrication efficiency.

I've found this to be true, that soft lead bullets with soft lube generally gives superior accuracy in most guns.

HTH
John

[Lloyd Smale]

Ill got with the soft lube part as its vastly superior to any hard lubes. the soft bullet deal i dont agree with though. How can you expect a bullet that is deformed from bumping up through a chamber and forcing cone and down through a barrel to reamain accurate. 9 times out of ten a harder bullet will out shoot a softer bullet. The only exception to this is if your gun is out of spec badly like in a case where your throats are smaller then your bore and the bullet is swadged down in the chamber and is to small for the bore. then maybe, MAYBE a softer bullet will help. Bottom line is that if your bullet is hitting the forcing cone off center because of an alignment problem nothing is going to shoot exceptionaly well in it. I get a kick out of the softer is better for accuracy croud. Ask them how jacketed bullets shoot in there gun and they for the most part will say great. Now what is harder a hard cast bullet or a copper jacket! Jacketed bullet will usually shoot well in a crappy gun because the resist deforming.

[James B]

Thanks Gentlemen. Thats some food for thought. I ordered some beartooth bullets to try next. I am working with a Ruger Blackhawk in 45 LC.