Gas cutting with PC

[Traffer]

Question:
I would like to try harder lead in my 22lr loading experiments. Commercial bullets use 7bhn to 9bhn lead. Which is near pure soft lead. I have use up to approximately 11bhn with powder coat and have not noticed any ill effects. I would like to go to 12 to 14bhn mostly because that's what I have the most of.
From what I have learned, harder lead is more susceptible to gas cutting. Do you think that it is a non issue with boolits traveling under 1400fps? Does the powder coat have any effect on gas cutting? Or any other input?
I also will eventually be reloading 22WMR and driving powder coated bullets in the 2000fps range...

[Conditor22]

If you size the boolit 1 to 2 thou over groove diameter you won't have a problem. (I didn't with 15bhn)

Yes the harder the lead, the less it obturates.

[Dragonheart]

PC will protect the bullet from gas cutting. The temperature of ignition is extreme, but it is also of such a short of duration it is of no consequence to PC and cannot burn through a properly coated and cured coating. Not my opinion a fact confirmed by a PhD in polymer physics. Also the polymer encases the alloy like any jacket and is hard enough to resist the torque of spinup so hardness of the alloy is not an issue. However, it does appear accuracy is better with a harder alloy.

[mozeppa]

unless i'm wrong....the 22lr is a "heeled boolit" that is the same size as the bore ....i would be thinking that 1400 ft/sec
won't cause any thing to worry over ...don't know about WMR at 2000 ft/sec.

[Traffer]

PC will protect the bullet from gas cutting. The temperature of ignition is extreme, but it is also of such a short of duration it is of no consequence to PC and cannot burn through a properly coated and cured coating. Not my opinion a fact confirmed by a PhD in polymer physics. Also the polymer encases the alloy like any jacket and is hard enough to resist the torque of spinup so hardness of the alloy is not an issue. However, it does appear accuracy is better with a harder alloy.

Yay, Thanks Dragonheart. That is exactly what I needed to know. My suspicion is that harder lead in 22lr is going to pay dividends in consistency/accuracy. We will see