what does "Very hard cast" mean? (BB wadcutters)

[John in WI]

I just got a Lee full wadcutter mold (funny--I've been casting about 2 months--and have 4 molds already). I was thinking about cooking up something along the lines of the Buffalo Bore full wadcutter. They are being driven pretty fast for a .38special (1200fps), and are "very hard cast".

I have a couple of questions about this. I my manual has a recipe of 5gr Unique/148gr Lyman wadcutter=948fps. What difference does about 200fps make in this case (a pretty short range round)?

Also, what does "very hard cast" mean? They are claiming that the wadcutter design tends to stay in a straight line, and the hard cast makes it keep going, even if it encounters bone or other obstacles--it doesn't want to deform or deflect on impact.

I respect the people at BB, and I hear nothing but good things about them (they seem to be THE people to try and copy!), but I'm wondering how much of this is sales hype? I realize it's not a new idea, and that to this day a lot of people load up snubbies with target WC's as a pretty effective, low recoiling SD round.

Do you figure some wheel weight would be hard-cast enough? I can't imagine I would see a whole lot of expansion at these low velocities with WW. Maybe add just a bit more tin to harden it (because I have some pewter, not because it's necessarily the best)?

It's an old-school/brute force approach to thumping stuff. Fast, blunt, and fairly heavy!

[Iron Mike Golf]

1. Those are standard pressure loads. There's some chronied data in the item description (Item 20D) They show about 1000 fps from a 4 inch barrel

2. 200 fps difference in muzzle velocity? Depends on what you are using the load for and what the range to target is.

3. "Hard cast" is subjective. Maybe "very hard cast" is moreso. A commercial alloy used for "hard cast" is 92-6-2. Maybe "very hard cast" is something like that, but heat treated.

4. When you ask, "Do you figure some wheel weight would be hard-cast enough?" I have to ask "hard enough for what?" I think you'll find a lot of folks that will tell you air cooled clip-on wheel weights will do most anything you need. You don't add tin to harden an alloy. It's used for two reasons: to aid fill-out of the mold and to toughen the alloy (make it less brittle). Antimony is used to harden boolit alloy. You get that in your WWs (and a little more in your pewter).

[runfiverun]

hard cast come about when the use of antimony became common in use.
it differentiated between just tin and tin/antimony/lead, alloys.