Author Topic: Alloy hardness  (Read 827 times)

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Offline Halftime

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Alloy hardness
« on: May 09, 2008, 04:43:42 PM »
Hi Veral,
 In your chart on page 49 of your book, you show 30% wheel weight 70% lead heat treating to 18 BHN max. Elsewhere you've mentioned that 16 BHN is the highest hardness that will expand. It looks (p. 113) like the best alloy for cavitation control
and penetration is 50-50 wheel weight-lead. Is that alloy best used at 16 BHN? And is it also limited to 18-20 BHN water dropped or heat treated? Also, is straight wheel weight best for the shank of a softnose bullet, heat treated to the max for penetration?

Thanks,

Halftime

Offline Veral

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Re: Alloy hardness
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2008, 06:21:23 PM »
   The best alloy for cavitation control at high velocities is about 30% WW 70% lead, and I spelled out that alloy primarily for those who will be using a single alloy bullet for hunting and want to drive it at the highest speed possible and still retain enough weight for good penetration.

  Straight WW is excellent for softnoses, with the shank hardened much as necessary to control breakdown at the velocity of interest.  In other words.  If one is only interested in  2000 fps loads, air cooled WW with a pure lead nose would be optimum, but for higher speeds up to about 2800 fps make the shank hard as possible.

  If shooting real hard lead at temps below about 0 F, without a softnose, one can expect the bullet to disintegrate into powder on impact.  I'm most experienced with 30 caliber bullets and tend to speak accordingly.  Larger bullets stress the alloy more than small, so one has to expansion test whatever he is loading to be sure the bullets will withstand the impact he is putting on them.
Veral Smith