heat treat 44 devistator

[lead chucker]

Has any one tried heat treating the lyman devistator. I was wundering if it would make it too britle. Im throwing them at 1550-1570 fps 44 mag rifle. Right now im mixing 50/50 ww to lead. Not getting concistent groups 2-3 inch at 100yds Im thinking 50-50 ww to lead is to soft ? I want a good expanding bullet for deer & black bear. Any insight here would be great. Also any one experiance having to shoot 2 to 3 shots after cleaning your gun before your groups tighten up.

[Lloyd Smale]

Why dont you cast them out of ww plus 2 percent tin or #2. That is what they were meant to be cast out of according to lyman. I shot a 1100lb bison with one cast out of ww/tin and it dropped it in its track. The velocity of that load was about 1200 fps. the bullet lots its nose but the shank gave full penetration. Pretty good wound channel too.

[pt4u2nv]

I have been working up a load for 357 SIG with this boolit and have been casting them with ww and approx 2% tin. I tested a few in wet phone books the other day and got no expansion at all and the nose completely disengrated leaving only a partially round ball not much bigger than the original base dia. I am driving them at about 1100 fps. I am going to try a mix of a little Pb mixed with the WW to get it a little softer and if that doesn't get 'er done maybe drive it a little faster.

[lead chucker]

I live in a small town in alaska and have limited amount of ww so im trying to stretch it out with lead to make it go further. Thats why i was thinking of heat treating.

[BABore]

Water drop the 50/50 WW-Pb and you'll be fine for 20-22 bhn. Decrease the WW amount to about 35% and it will still heat treat. Hardens to about 16 bhn is is very ductile. Much better alloy than straight WW's IMO.

[cbrick]

Also any one experiance having to shoot 2 to 3 shots after cleaning your gun before your groups tighten up.

Yes! Absolutely and probably more than 3 or 4. If I clean the bore of my match revolver I need to put at least 25 rounds through it before the long range (200m) groups come back in.


Has any one tried heat treating the lyman devistator. I was wundering if it would make it too britle.

Adding antimony will make them more brittle, HT will not. But that aside, you want malleability in a HP not per se alloy strength so HT would be counter productive. Straight WW should run about 11-12 BHN and is plenty for HP's in your velocity range. As was mentioned, cutting the WW by 1/3 to 1/2 should also work well for a HP.


Not getting concistent groups 2-3 inch at 100yds

You didn't say what rifle or load, a levergun? Open sights? If so I wouldn't call 2-3 inches at 100 bad. Yeah, it could probably be tweaked and improved but . . .

Rick

[pt4u2nv]

I live in a small town in alaska and have limited amount of ww so im trying to stretch it out with lead to make it go further. Thats why i was thinking of heat treating.

How is the boolit expanding with what you are using now ? That should help determine what hardness you need it to be .

[Larry Gibson]

lead chucker

Has any one tried heat treating the lyman devistator. I was wundering if it would make it too britle. Im throwing them at 1550-1570 fps 44 mag rifle. Right now im mixing 50/50 ww to lead. Not getting concistent groups 2-3 inch at 100yds I favor the 50/50 WW/pb alloy in rifle cartridges up through 2200 fps with a good GC'd bullet. The key to consistent accuracy with such soft bullets for hunting loads is to clean the barrel every 7 - 10 rounds. To me that is fine as I don't shoot that many rounds when hunting anyways. I use the same bullets out of WWs + 2% tin (as mentioned by Lloyd) and WQ'd for the higher velocity loads. However with your loads in the 1400 -1500 fps range WQing should not be necessary.

Im thinking 50-50 ww to lead is to soft ? I want a good expanding bullet for deer & black bear. Any insight here would be great. That is the right alloy for what you want. I suggest you try using the 50/50 bullets just for hunting out of a clean barrel. The bullets cast of WW + 2% tin and AC'd should do also for hunting in a pinch. Many use that alloy for hunting but it never gave consistent expansion (I like HPs and expansion for deer/B bear bullets). However that bullet even without expansion then gives the terminal effectiveness of a SWC.Also any one experiance having to shoot 2 to 3 shots after cleaning your gun before your groups tighten up. Many times 2 -5 "foulers" prove necessary in a clean barrel before best accuracy can be attained. I've found over the years that, with a proper lube, the first bullet out of the clean barrel will hit to group over practical hunting ranges. Javelina lube, the classic NRA 50/50 formula, has always done well for me. Some years back I had a M94 trapper in .44. With the devesator bullet cast of 50/50 alloy over 23 gr H4227 it ran 1510 fps. The first 5 shots from the clean barrel would go into 2-3" at 100 yards (using a Lyman receiver sight) which was pretty good for me with my old eyes using the short sight radius of the 16" barrel. The next 5 shots would progressiviely open the group to 4-5". Clean the barrel and she shot 2-3" groups again for the next 5 -7 shots. I've had this happen with many rifles. Also if your rifle does need the foulers. maybe just the first and/or the second are out of group. Then you'd have 2 -5 more accurate shots for hunting. I used Lymans 429244 cast of WWs + 2 % tin for practice over the same powder charge. Zero remained the same.

Larry Gibson

[lead chucker]

Thanks every one for all the info. This is a great place to learn more about shooting lead.