water quenching/sizing

thinking about water quenching and have a question about sizing afterwards. does water quenching harden only "skin deep"? and would sizing .001-.002 affect the hardness??

anybody??

I don’t think it should. It is only .001-.002. Set your calipers to .002 and take a look.

FME water dropping hardens more than skin deep , I size all cast bullets right after casting , the bullet can get hard in less than 24 hrs and even harder after 2 weeks , depends on how much you are sizing the bullet to and what size your mould cast bullets at with your chosen alloy sometimes sizing the bullet down 2 to 3 thousands requires considerable handle pressure on the L/S if you let bullets get too hard !
sometimes spraying the bullets with case lube (lanilon) will help them to be sized with less effort

I had hoped someone with more expertise than me would have replied.

Disclaimer: I am not a metallurgist and I don't play one on a internet forum, LOL.

The short version:
A boolit alloy with at least 2% Antimony when cold water quenched will harden/strengthen 95+% of it's eventual hardness in the first 24 hours(NOT skin deep, but the crystallization goes throughout the boolit ...the remainder of hardness will take a few weeks. This boolit alloy can be work-softened, from sizing...what's happening is you are crushing/breaking those crystal structures...how much, depends on how deeply, the alloy is worked/sized. I suspect that if you size/displace .002 ...you are likely work softening more than that .002 likely it's .005 or .010 ...but that's just a guess. Another guess of mine is...when a boolit is fired, the pressure waves and obturation likely work soften the alloy considerably, and maybe throughout the entire boolit, depending on the amount of pressure created in the chamber.

The long version:
http://www.lasc.us/HeatTreat.htm

I water drop everything after PC. It does make bullet harder so you dont want to let it sit around so make sure you size as soon as you can. Its not a surface hardening like you would with steel knifes and such. It affects the whole bullet but i never noticed them getting any softer after sizing. I dont like to wait when I size so try to size same day I PC. I always let my bullets age for a week before I load to make sure they are as hard as they should be.

One time I cast few 158gr SWC out of straight lino just to prove to my friend that you can go too hard. Somehow i never sized those and when I realized that and finally started sizing those i though i was going to brake my press. Those were soooooooo **** hard but I as suspected they werent accurate at all. Softer batch did much better.

Nothing wrong with letting them age harden while in the brass.

Water quenching then sizing does two things :
1.) makes the boolit harder to size.
2.) sizing the boolit down cold works the boolits surface....cold working lead....softens it.

When you do it this way you wind up getting back to the about same hardness as if you air cooled and age hardened.
And the added stress on a lube/sizer will eventually damage parts.

The absolute best way is to size first, then heat the sized boolits, quench in cold water and now they are harden...then lube without additional sizing down of the boolit .

I cast all my gas checked bullets out of pure LINOTYPE. RIFLE or HANDGUN. Drive them at max velocity. I also cast all bullets intended to auto-loading pistols from LINOTYPE too.
It may be weeks or even years before I get around to Lube-Sizing them.

Sure they take a bit more force to size them then it does to Lube-Size the BULLETS I cast from 20/1 for Black Powder Cartridge shooting.

And I water quench those LINO Cast BULLETS too.

Maybe you're trying to size them too far down. I think about 3 thousands is about as far down as I ever go.

I rarely, as in never, WQ any of my cast. Whether rifle or pistol. I just don't see the need for "harder" boolits. Of course I'm not pushing them to the limit (2k fps+) but with proper fit, air cooled has worked for me.
Semper Fi

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I water quench most of the time. If it is done right wheelweight bullets will be harder than Linotype bullets. Sizing may and I said may cause a surface softening but the through hardness will not be affected.
If they are hard to size spray them with some Hornady case,lube.
No problems.

Again I mean no harm, hurt, anguish or turmoil to anyone on here. I am making a statement based on my knowledge, experience and/or belief and mean no harm. I am not baiting, trolling or calling out any individual, group or entity in any way. Thank you.