COWW in a 450 marlin and 45/70

[Budmen]

Just wondering your thoughts on straight COWW in a 450 and 45/70?

Should I water quench?


I will be casting Lyman 4571228V and Lyman 457643B boolits no gas checks.

The main purpose for these bullets will be whitetail, moose and bear. Of course the majority will be spinner targets and gongs! What good is a lever without some fun right?:lovebooli

[zuke]

I use air cooled WW exclusively in my 45-70's.
I also paper patch them.

[fredj338]

Try both. My GG is a bit fussy, but seems to like quenched ww alloy @ 1600fps. I cast the Lee 240gr & the RCBS325 (casts @ 335gr w/ WW alloy).

[Budmen]

I cast up 250 each of the Lyman 457643 and the 457122. Cast the with air cooled ww. Cast a few up with water quenching and tested them to be 21-23 BHN on the Cabin Tree. The air cooled unaged came up to be a 12BHN so for now it should be ok I may just have to buy those fancy rubber tipped bullets for moose hunting.

[Larry Gibson]

I will be casting Lyman 4571228V and Lyman 457643B boolits no gas checks.

With the 457122 you'll get a lot better results from that big HP by casting them a lot softer and not WQing them. I suggest your COWWs +2% tin and then add 50% lead. You should be able to push them to 1500 -1600 fps in either cartridge and they will give awesome terminal results.

With the 457643 just by adding the 2% tin to the WWs you will get a bhn of 14-17 (16-17 is most common) after they age 10 days or so. That is entirely sufficient for upwards of 1800 fps out of either cartridge. That alloy (WWs + 2% tin) will also WQ very well. Wait 48 hours for age hardening on those. You might get decent hunting accuracy upwards of 2000 fps with those.

Instead of buying those "fancy rubber tipped bullets for moose hunting" I suggest a GC'd mould and 1K of Hornady GCs. That 1K of GCs should last for many years of moose hunting. If you want a FN in the 400 gr weight area then the RCBS 45-405-FN is excellent. Cast of WWs + 2% tin + 50% lead and AC'd you can drive them to 18-2000 fps (assuming a rifle capable of such?) and expansion, penetration and terminal performance will be all you need. If your rifle (?) keeps you in the TD psi range then you can still drive to 1500+ fps and still get excellent terminal results.

Larry Gibson

[Kraschenbirn]

As Larry wrote, even air-cooled, straight COWW alloy is going to be a lot harder than you need. For moderate velocity smokeless loads, I use a 50/50 mix of COWWs and range scrap (sweetened with a touch of 60/40 solder and air-cooled) in two 45-70s, a 38-55, and a .44 Mag 1894 Marlin. Loaded in the 1350-1400 fps range, these boolits produce sub-2 MOA accuracy from the Highwall and the Rolling Block with essentially zero leading.

Bill