Water dropped or not

[twoshotc]

I may try my .357 rifle with a 20 inch barrel for deer next season. The lead that I have is about BHN 8. I have read conflicting opinions on what degree of hardness is best for hunting. I am getting about 1400 fps from 14 grains of 2400 under a 158 gr. flat nose bullet.
To water drop or not; that is the question?
thanks

[William Yanda]

my 2 cents-softer, i.e. air cooled, will expand more than a harder boolit. The expansion dumps energy, so if your projectile is tough enough to hold together and isn't deflected by a big bone, you have the probability of an effective kill.
Does your allow have enough antimony to harden effectively, if water dropped?
This can be one of those Ford vs. Chevy questions-then there are the Dodge fanatics.
Bill

[mdi]

Is your bullet leading? Does it fit the groove diameter?

[jonp]

Whitetail at the distance a 357 should be used i vote air cooled. I might also suggest a heavier boolit.

[jeepyj]

Not sure what boolit your shooting however I shoot a pile of Lyman 358156 that's gas checked with a very similar load of 2400. My BHN is almost identical (mostly COWW) I get excellent grouping, decent distance and no leading. I used to water quench but after reading different posts decided to try air cooled. Honestly I don't see a huge difference for that boolit. Although I don't hunt anymore I would believe this would be a very effective boolit for that purpose.
Jeepyj

[DrCaveman]

Im no expert

I recently tried water dropping for quite a few calibers

In my 9mm polygonal barrel, it made a huge improvement in accuracy & barrel leading

In my 38 spl, no change: back to air cooled

In my 4" 357 mag, no change

In my 6" gp100 357, 170 gr shot better water dropped. Near max loads. Expansion not really needed, so im sticking with it

In my 460 s&w magnum, accuracy improved with water dropped. Also barrel leading gone completely

45 acp...no improvement


If your accuracy is sufficient for what you are doing (shot distance, size of deer) then probably go the easy route and air cool

[Mk42gunner]

My two cents- Like everything else in the cast boolit world, it depends.

I think that the velocity sounds a bit low for that load with a 20" barrel; but if that is what you are getting, treat it like an easy to hit with revolver and shoot some stuff. 8 BHN sounds pretty soft to me, but you should get plenty of expansion.

If your air cooled boolits are not leading, you really don't have to change anything. If you want to try it to see what happens, go ahead, the accuracy may improve, it may not.

What diameter are you sizing to?

Robert

[tomme boy]

Put a little tin in the mix and run it a little harder. The tin will hold the lead together and still allow for good expansion.

[rhead]

I water drop everything I cast. Even pure lead that gets zero benifit from it. I have to drop them somewhere. If I want a batch of air cooled boolits it is less trouble for me to anneal a batch than it is to heat treat a batch. The water makes a better cushion than a folded towel and I do not have to worry about dropping a still soft boolit onto another boolit. I use an insert with a slotted bottom that fits another bucket. My hornet barrel insists on heat treating in a hardware cloth tray and being quenched base first and then pan lubed. most of my other firearms do not seem to care. I treat them all like spoiled women. find out what they want and give it to them and everybody will be happy.

[Garyshome]

Always... with everything, good way to get the Boolit out of the mold!

[gundownunder]

I'm with rhear. Water dropping makes a good cushion for your newly cast bullets, so unless you have a gun which has a definite preference for air cooled I'd say water is easier. The only problem with water is you don't want it anywhere near your lead cooking pot, tinsel fairies are ugly critters.

[hanleyfan]

I too water drop simply because it is convenient, no hot boolits to burn myself on, I have a cloth cover over my bucket with a little hole and the boolits drop on the cloth and roll right down into the hole and into the bucket, no chance of water splashing out and into the lead or my mold, also a cloth inner liner in the bucket of water so when I am done I can just pull the cloth liner out of the bucket that has the boolits in it and drain them and dump them on the table for sorting. works for me.

[Shiloh]

If it is wet, it is not hot. The boolits I dig out of berms have expanded.
A soft boolit will, as already mentioned, expand a bit easier than a harder boolit.

Shiloh

[rhead]

I'm with rhear. Water dropping makes a good cushion for your newly cast bullets, so unless you have a gun which has a definite preference for air cooled I'd say water is easier. The only problem with water is you don't want it anywhere near your lead cooking pot, tinsel fairies are ugly critters.

A drop of water splattering into the pot will just sizzle since it cannot get under the surface a drop onto an ingot that gets placed into the pot without being preheated will cause the mess. Another reason to preheat ingots beside avoiding temperature swings.

[44man]

I water drop but the .357 is not one to take kindly to it for deer. The small caliber should be heavy for penetration with some boolit upset. The .357 is actually hard to get right for deer with jacketed.

[mdi]

A drop of water splattering into the pot will just sizzle since it cannot get under the surface a drop onto an ingot that gets placed into the pot without being preheated will cause the mess. Another reason to preheat ingots beside avoiding temperature swings.

Yep, too many old wive's tales about water and lead. I sometimes will spray water on the top of my melt to get a hard surface to quicken cooling, I keep a spray bottle of water to cool my Lee molds. A drop of sweat, a spritz of water; no problem, it's just when water can get below the surface that it turns to a steam bubble...

[LuckySavage]

Took 2 deer with a Rossi M92 with a 20" barrel last year. One at 18 yds., one at about 50 yds. 150 gr. WFN 81% meplat, going 1975fps 10' from the muzzle, pure lead +2%tin. 18 yd. shot bullet recovered, 100% expansion. 50 yd. deer, complete pass thru. 16.3 gr. Lil' Gun, formidable .357 load for whitetails. My point is, a 6-8 brinell is just the ticket to anchor a 150 lb. thin skinned critter like a whitetail.

[rhead]

Took 2 deer with a Rossi M92 with a 20" barrel last year. One at 18 yds., one at about 50 yds. 150 gr. WFN 81% meplat, going 1975fps 10' from the muzzle, pure lead +2%tin. 18 yd. shot bullet recovered, 100% expansion. 50 yd. deer, complete pass thru. 16.3 gr. Lil' Gun, formidable .357 load for whitetails. My point is, a 6-8 brinell is just the ticket to anchor a 150 lb. thin skinned critter like a whitetail.

"Yes, for the ones that I will use for hunting I add an annealing step. Or cast a batch from 20 to 1 and paper patch. I don't need that many hunting loads. Paper patching also makes it easy to keep the hunting loads separate from the target loads.

[WHITETAIL]

Again, You will get both sides, yea-ney for a question like that.
So IMHO load afew of both and shoot them.
Keep loading them faster each time till you see leading, or poor groups.