Hardness testing results before and after PC

[Tripplebeards]

I've been patiently waiting for my lee tester to come in the mail. It's given my boolits time to age. I made them around the middle of June.

I used 100% NIB Sears COWW dropped into ice water right out of the mold.

So it's been a good three weeks I'd have to say.

I tested the PC'd boolits first with the lee tester. 5.2,5.1,5.2. Which averages close to 19.6 BNH.(I tested w/o removing the PC)

The next test was on the same Sears WQCOWW that I didn't PC. All tests were at 4.0 which has a BNH of 33! I knew that was some old school lead that was made a little harder in the late 70's,but man!

Big difference between the two. I can't believe how much lead softens after PCing. I'm using the PC'd in my 44 mag rifles and pistols and 450 bushmaster. The 33 BNH I haven't loaded up yet.

Is there any way to keep my COWW at 33 BNH after PCing without mixing in harder lead?

After doing some more research on this us awesome site I'm going to make some COWW AC lee 310's PC them and AC again and test them out. Just got into casing boolits a couple months ago and got hooked on reading about WQ to keep from leading. I believe I'm a little overkill for hardness on my applications?

[Bzcraig]

Why do you want to shoot boolits of 33 BHN? Your 19.6 is probably a bit hard for most hunting applications.

[rancher1913]

seriously doubt the pc'd reading. to get a reading on the lead you would need to file off the pc or all you are reading is the indention in the coating.

[454PB]

You could try dumping the baked PC boolits into cold water. When you baked the PC'd boolits, you removed the heat treating.

[GrayTech]

Quench again after PC bake.
Use ice water for max hardness.
Too hard boolit can lead too. The PC prevents leading, so look for the hardness ideal for your application, PC and shoot....

[Tripplebeards]

seriously doubt the pc'd reading. to get a reading on the lead you would need to file off the pc or all you are reading is the indention in the coating.

Took your advise and filed off the PC in the side and meplate. Took four readings, two on the side and two on the top. 5.8,5.8, 5.8, 6.0. Which says I'm a hair over 15 BNH. Less than half BNH after PCing and WQ again.Big difference. Glad I bought a tester. Sounds like I'm too hard for my applications for deer and black bear, unless I'm trying to shoot over 2000fps in my bushmaster.

[fredj338]

I would suspect the 33bh reading. The LEE tester can be tricky to get good readings with. Yes PC in an oven for 15-20m will soften the alloy a bit. I water quench the bullets from the oven. It seems to help.

[TXCOONDOG]

Yep, done these tests over a year.

You need to file a flat spot to be accurate. Also, size before heat treating because heat treating then sizing will soften the lead.

Drop your PC'd boolits in ice water straight out of the oven.

[MyFlatline]

COWW at 33 sounds high to me but, I'm not there. I'm dropping straight ww into room temperature water, and getting 23 BHN and after powder coating getting 21 BHN using the cabin tree tester. I have the Lee and gave up trying to read it, wish I would have bought this one first, not that much more $$

[ole_270]

I was curious about this, so ran a small test last week to see what happened.Took a few 45-200swc and 45-200rf bullets poured from an alloy that should be close to 1.43Sn, 2.96Sb with a small amount of arsenic, and added a bit more Sn. PC was at 425 for 30 minutes for a little more heat treat effect. No I'll never need the hardness for a 45acp, but it's the only thing I had before and after PC bullets available. Both batches of bullets run about 13 Bhn with my Cabine Tree tester air cooled. After PC I dumped into a tub of tap water, and waited a few days, they test 19 for the RF bullet, 21 for the SWC. Guessing the SWCs smaller nose allowed more through hardening with the limited heat temp and time than the RF. Both bullets had a flat spot filed on the nose for testing.
When I get the NOE SC311-165-RD mold I have on order, I'll retest with a 30 caliber flat nose bullet.

[Tripplebeards]

I dropped these test subjects in ice water right out of the oven after PCing at 400 degrees with smokes powder for 20 min. The non PC'd were dropped from the mold into ice water. The 33BH sound like clinking steel when dropped on concrete. I have two other generations newer of COWW that were from Sears I'll have to test. The newer ones were PC COWW and I can tell by the sound they make on the concrete their softer.

[Gohon]

size before heat treating because heat treating then sizing will soften the lead.

I've seen this stated before but I have a hard time believing it. If traveling through about a half inch restriction of a sizer die softens the cast then what does traveling down a 20 inch barrel do? A lot of heat and pressure is radically applied to that cast in those 20 inches and I don't think the travel time in the barrel being fast has would eliminate anything. If that were the case then I could just take 60-120 seconds to push the cast through a sizer and eliminate any softening. Just doesn't make sense to me. Where am I going wrong?

[MyFlatline]

I size before and after, so I'm screwed.