hardness - water quenching?

[interlock]

Guys,
I seem to have read somewhere that if a lead bullet is quenched in water it is harder than air cooling?

I am having some dificulty in finding the ingrediants to make "hardball alloy" without resorting to Midway... this scheme is all about avoiding midway...

i Have some whel wieght and some pure lead. I have access to some tin. My plan at the moment is to make a batch up in wheel wieghts. and make another batch up at 20- 1 and see how they go.

This will be from a 7mm08 rifle and using a lee 130 gr gas checked bullet, home made felix lube.

If i water quench the bullets will this make them harder?

Thanks.

steve

[40Super]

Your ww may have enough antimony to allow hardening as is. If you add 1-2% tin to it and then drop from the mold into a buckets of cold water you probably will end up with 18bhn (maybe up to 20bhn once aged a week). To get consistant hardness you'll need some Lynotype or monotype to add antimony.

[largom]

Most all of my cast boolits are for rifles. All of my rifles are for hunting. I do not water quench any of my cast boolits. If you mix your wheel weights and soft lead 50/50 and air cool them they will be great for hunting. However, they must age harden for a couple of weeks before loading. These boolits, with Felix lube will be good for over 2000 fps velocity, IF your boolit fit is good.

If you want to do some shooting right away you can water quench some for that. Drop them from the mold into the water and they will be hard, too hard for hunting IMO. I have killed all of my deer for the past 4 yrs. with age hardened boolits as above. The deer were killed with 30, 35, and 45 cal. boolits. Numerous ground-hogs have been killed with 22 cal. boolits with the above boolit alloy. I do not care for hard boolits for hunting. One of my alloy's is made with 60% WW and 40% lead with about 2 % tin added.

Larry

[paul h]

Ditto's on Larry's post. Air cooled ww's, or ww's cut with lead can be accurately launhced at 2000-2200 fps from a rifle, and will perform best on game.

Now if your goal is accuracy at 2400+ fps, then I'd consider water dropping your bullets to increase their hardness. But hard bullets aren't always needed nor are they always the best choice.

[375RUGER]

to answer your question about hardball alloy, it is generally accepted to be 6% Sb and 2% Sn plus just enough Pb to equal 100%.

Mix 50/50 lead and lino will get you there.

[bumpo628]

You can buy Hardball here:
http://www.rotometals.com/product-p/hardballbulletcastingalloy.htm

or here:
http://www.missouribullet.com/details.php?prodId=92&category=12&secondary=&keywords=

[runfiverun]

@ 50-50 waterdropped will get you your 15 bhn.
my main mix is 75-25 ww's soft waterdropped for my rifles.
my other alloy is ww's lino and tin mixed together for about 4/6/90 alloy.

[Defcon-One]

Steve:

If I were you I'd buy some Linotype and make my own Hardball Alloy like 375RUGER said!

"Mixing 50% lead and 50% lino will get you there."

Or make up some Lyman #2 and really enjoy the casting as well.

Water dropping only works if you don't size the bullets afterward. The minute you size the hardened bullet down the sized section begins to work soften, sometimes it gets softer than the original alloy would have been. So, to do it right, you need to cast the bullets, size them to final size then harden them using the oven/quench method and then lube size and add gas checks to the hardened bullets in a .001" oversized die.

That is more work than I want to go thru. Good alloy gets you the hardness that you want without all that hassle and it is repeateable for the rest of you life.

[btroj]

I water drop and size afterwards. I don't seem to have any issues.
I don't think this "work softens" area is deep enough to be an issue. I also think it depends upon how much you are sizing down.

I like a heat treated bullet for hunting. I can get it hard enough to allow for velocity but have a bullet from an alloy that can expand without being brittle. A solid Linotype bullet is not my idea of a good hunting bullet.

My suggestion, try it and see how it works for you.