Pure lead PC speed

[Wally44]

How fast can you shoot pure lead 30 cal with pc

[geslayton]

Following out of curiosity for others experience

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[popper]

More details please. PC has no speed limit we see but PB bullets cast with pure do. 11-1200 is my guess.

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Not a .30, but a while back, I shot a very nice group, near MOA, with pure lead out of the Ruger 77/357 that was PCed with HF Red using enough Promo for 1200 fps or so. After the first group, things fell apart. I figured it was fouling, but after much more shooting with the rifle, I think it is very sensitive to heat. Not sure how the faster twist rate of most 30's would affect things, but probably not favorably.

[MUSTANG]

The Powder Coat is not the limiting factor - most will prevent leading up to the velocity limits of a similar weight jacketed bullet; but your accuracy will deteriorate as velocity increases somewhere in the 850 to 1200 FPS velocity range.

THE LIMITING FACTOR is the strength of the alloy the boolit is cast from. A pure lead boolit will not hold up to the shear of being driven through a barrel at higher velocity. As one changes the bullet alloy; increasing velocities can be achieved while retaining some level of accuracy.

[Wally44]

It is a gc Lyman 160 grain bullet

[Dieselhorses]

Like Mustang said and also the "size" of bullet (fit in a specific barrel). "Obturation" is the bullets ability to expand thus trapping gases BEHIND and not allowing gas cutting around the sides of the bullet. In other words, take a Pc'd bullet and "slug" your barrel with a wooden dowel.

[Dragonheart]

I personally have fired PC pure lead in handguns in excess of 1400 fps., never tried it in a rifle. It is the copper jacket that withstands the torque of spinup in a standard jacketed bullet, not the soft inner alloy. I think the key for PC rifle bullets is to increase the polymer jacket thickness. When I got into PC a polymer physicist estimated 3+ mill build out for 50K of chamber pressure. This is where I believe having undersize molds designed for PC would be an asset. If I shot more rifle I would go for a custom mold.

I double coat for rifle and shoot range scrap (bin 11) at full power. Bullet design and fit to barrel is the real key to PC cast accuracy.

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

If I wanted to push pure lead to its limits I'd size and recoat a number of times. If you can get pure lead to survive through the bore the limit is upwards of 2200 fps. They get that with paperpatch.

[Misery-Whip]

Ive fired powdercoated 20-1alloy in a henry 357 with a max charge of 296 into water jugs at 50'. Made a real nice mushroom. Rifling marks near base of boolit looked perfect.

I dont own a chrono, and it was a lee tl358-158-swc. Soon ill follow your your path. Just getting other projects finnished up.

[RoyEllis]

The Powder Coat is not the limiting factor - most will prevent leading up to the velocity limits of a similar weight jacketed bullet; but your accuracy will deteriorate as velocity increases somewhere in the 850 to 1200 FPS velocity range.

THE LIMITING FACTOR is the strength of the alloy the boolit is cast from. A pure lead boolit will not hold up to the shear of being driven through a barrel at higher velocity. As one changes the bullet alloy; increasing velocities can be achieved while retaining some level of accuracy.

How can I drive a pure lead roundball @ 1900fps with good accuracy? Not to mention pure lead boolits in my .444 marlin @ 1750fps.....fit and pressure time curve make a world of difference.

[Dapaki]

Shot ladders with the 7.62x39 out of my BCA AR-15 pushing PC cast to 2100fps with recovered boolits showing no obvious damage.

[charlie b]

First, it depends on the rate of twist in your barrel. As mentioned above, it is the rotational speed that is the limit. I would not try pure lead but maybe something like 1:20 which is what the BPCR folks seem to use.

Without powder coating most .30 cal lead alloy bullets can get up to the low 2000fps range and not cause problems. With a slower twist barrel you can get a bit higher than that.

Powder coat seems to add a bit to the strength of the bullet. I have fired them at 2400fps in my 10 twist .308 barrel and had decent groups. I am not interested in going higher than that. But, it means if you have a 14 twist you could easily go over 2500fps. Shooting heavy bullets that is in the jacketed bullet range. I am using a hardball alloy.

Someone should try it and see.

[Wally44]

I didn't get pure lead loaded yet I'm out of 5744 but I shot some range lead over 11 grain unique 311672 bullet pc makes the nose fit better than without so that made a good difference course they aren't going all that fast either

[rockydoc]

[QUOTE pressure time curve make a world of difference.[/QUOTE]

What gunpowder were you using to get this favorable pressure time curve?

[Tripplebeards]

I cheated and added 16/1 pewter to my pure lead and shoot sub MOA at 100 yards out of my 77/44 at 1600 FPS. I ran it all the way to max loads without leading. PC’d and GC’d of course. Adding 16% pewter to my mix took the alloy up from 5BH lead flooring up to 7.5bH. Not much of a jump but my HP cast boolits sure hold together better and mushroom very well.