How soft can you go with Hi-Tek?

[igolfat8]

I cast 120 Lee TC for my 9mm pistol Steel Challenge shooting games. I've had good success with 12-14 BN lead under PC or Hi-Tek coatings. I've not had any leading issues. I just acquired some softer lead in the 9.5-10 BN hardness. Is this too soft under Hi-Tek? I typically load between 1100-1200 FPS.

[runfiverun]

I prefer a little harder alloy in my 9mm even when loafing it along at 850-900 fps or so, but done alright with the softer 10-11ish bhn I was using before as long as I had the right diameter going down the barrel.

[Ausglock]

I regularly coat 8BHN with 2 coats of HITEK in 230gn 45 pills

[Sgtonory]

Have zero issue with 10bhn in 40 shooting minor and major powerfactor out of a glock 35 stock barrel

[dikman]

I've coated pure lead and it's worked fine. I normally use pistol range scrap (12-15 BHN) but I've started mixing it 50:50 with pure lead and that works fine too. (I should add these are .38 and .44-40).

[PBaholic]

I cast 120 Lee TC for my 9mm pistol Steel Challenge shooting games. I've had good success with 12-14 BN lead under PC or Hi-Tek coatings. I've not had any leading issues. I just acquired some softer lead in the 9.5-10 BN hardness. Is this too soft under Hi-Tek? I typically load between 1100-1200 FPS.

I tried BHN 5 pure lead with my 158 grain .38's. I noticed about 10% of them tumbled at the target. This happened in a few different guns.

I normally cast everything at BHN 10, and have zero problems. I suspect I can go softer. I think the BHN 5 - .38s were shrinking too much, as they slipped right through my sizer.

[Lloyd Smale]

been shooting bullets out of the group buy 9mm mold that are going about 150 hollow pointed with an alloy I'm guessing is about 9bhn out of my ar15 9mm with 5.6 grains of hs6 which is suppose to be doing about 950fps out of a handgun. probably a bit more out of the 16.5 inch rifle. No leading what so ever. Havent really put them on paper to see if that allow is holding up for accuracy but was hitting the 50 yard steel targets at camp with no problem.

[Kitika]

I never had much luck with soft bullets in the 9mm they always tumbled and leaded bad what ever size I made them or how fast or slow I pushed them with conventional lubes. When I tried Hitek it instantly fixed the tumbling bullets but I would still get a bit of leading. I eventually dropped my bullets straight from the oven after the last coat into a bucket full of ice water and that fixed everything. My alloy is 50/50 range scrap and whatever else I can scrounge from the scrap yard which is normally roof sheet lead.

[HeavyHev]

I have had problems using soft lead in 9mm semi auto. The coatings held up for me and I notice no leading (I powdercoat, but Hi-Tek from my understanding works basically just as well). The problem I surmised was originating in the seating of the bullet into the resized brass. So these were going to tumble even before I shot them because the brass would actually swage them down 1-3 thousands. Tossing some .353 projectiles down a .356 barrel rarely works out. I got nearly 100% tumbling. I brought my hardness up to about 13 and have had no problems since.

[fredj338]

I do 9mm with range scrap, works fine.

[ioon44]

My range scrap works great for my 9 mm but then all my range scrap is from 6-2-92 alloy bullets.

[prickett]

The best answer (IMHO) is try it and see. Different people report different results doing seemingly the same thing. I tried going softer when using Hi-Tek and PC and found you could load SLIGHTLY softer lead than you could with lube. The problem I ran into was getting keyholing and or missing an 8x11 sheet of paper at 10 feet. Think of powder coated bullets like sausages. You can squeeze the sausage and deform it, but the tough skin won't break. The deformation in bullets means the lead inside changes shape (I don't know if its inside the barrel, outside the barrel, or both) which isn't good for accuracy. If the lead deforms too much, the skin (i.e. the Hi-Tek or PC) will rupture giving you leading in addition to poor accuracy.