best BHN for the job

[Oklahoma Rebel]

hey, I have the lee 312-155-2r (a pointed boolit) and was wondering, if I were to use it for hunting, what would be the best bhn to shoot for (oh sorry it is lyman #2), for toughness, so that it will not break but instead bend or ,doubtedly, mushroom. I figure if it hits, the nose bends, it will tumble and that would cause almost as much damage as a mushroomed boolit. right now I have them too hard, but they are for targets. I shot water jugs with them, and they do tumble when the hit, but as bad as they are they are fracturing I was only finding maybe half or a little more of the boolit. so , to recap lymaan#2, pointed boolit, SKS, best bhn. and if you know how long in the oven at 400-425 to get there it would help to. thanks!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

oh velocity is 1850+ but not much more then that

[Yodogsandman]

Cut your Lyman #2 alloy in half with pure lead. Then oven heat treat at about 450*F for at least an hour before quenching. This would increase your hardness and make the boolit more ductile on impact. More likely to mushroom as opposed to fracturing or breaking apart..

[Oklahoma Rebel]

ok I didn't think it would treat if I diluted it that much, I was going to mix it half and half with ww's

[runfiverun]

you can only draw down the bhn to the air cooled BHN.
it will come out lower for a day or so then climb back to the #2 alloy.
cut the alloy in half with soft lead.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

ok I was worried about slumping, no need to worry?

[popper]

Not at that fps/psi.

[runfiverun]

400-f in an oven is probably lower than the mold temp of an aluminum mold.
if you want hard there are a hundred way's to get there.
at your 1800ish fps you don't need hard it gains you nothing.
I would just drop from the mold into a bucket of water and use what that gives me.
a 2.5/2.5 alloy will get to about 18 bhn that way.
or be about 13 without it.
your not putting enough kick behind it or slamming the action closed hard enough to damage it.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Hunting with a SKS...
I'd be more worried about a softer boolit becoming damaged/deformed (and becoming inaccurate) from the action of that self-loading rifle, than what's happening inside the game animal. So I'd want a boolit to be at least 18 BHN for an SKS. R5R's suggestion of diluting Lyman #2 with 50% pure Pb and then water dropping, sounds like the best idea.

[birddog]

Use them as cast, do not harden. Little over kill and if you want the boolit to mushroom cast as is!!
Charlie

[Oklahoma Rebel]

ok it cycles fine with no signs of contact on the boolit after a test cycle, birddog you mean leave it as lyman#2 (it is supposed to be the do-all alloy and has been around for a long time) and when I finish my imr4198 I am going to go to a slower powder to get more velocity without gaining pressure,i actually have rel7 right now, but it isn't much slower, will have to check loads. andif I get up to 2200fps,is lyman#2 as cast w/no heat treatment going to be ok. it is 15bhn thanks guys, any more tips would be appreciated.i will keep you updated. have a good one!

[runfiverun]

cutting it in half is the 13 bhn I was referring to.

for hunting your meplat is going to influence the outcome, a little more velocity allows you to use a smaller meplat.
at some point your controlling the damaged meat with the meplat diameter and alloy hardness.
1800 ain't even close 2100 is little different.
so you have to adjust to your velocity limitations.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

ok, thanks run and if you have any more tips or opinions I'd love to hear them, since this boolit tends to tumble inside of the waterjugs I shoot I would assume it would inside a deer/hog also, would you consider that a good thing, I mean it would leave a larger wound channel, but then again technically that would be a performance failure in the eyes of a design engineer.

[44man]

I would leave the boolit hard but cast a soft nose on them. You don't want it to tumble, straight through penetration with a mushroom is better. A boolit can go off course easy. My friend shot 2 deer with his .44 using the LBT 320 gr, both hit behind the shoulders and both were gut shot bad from nicking a bone and turning 90°, through the guts and recovered in the hams. One side of the meplat was flattened.
Just turn your boolit into a Nosler, I have had good luck with a soft nose.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

sounds like a reasonable solution, and I know how to do it, thanks!

[Oklahoma Rebel]

luckily I wont have to do more than 10 or so!