Air cooled vs water quenched for handgun hunting velocities

[David LaPell]

After reading some of Glen Fryxell's work on casting handgun bullets, it seems as though bullet hardness was very subjective, especially before WWII. Apparently back in the days of Elmer Keith and Phil Sharpe, the bullets that they thought were hard were actually soft by today's standards.
My question is, say I want to hunt whitetail with a heavy .38-44 load (and I do), which would be better, the BHN I am likely to get with an air cooled bullet made from WW's and moving at say 1200-1300 fps or a water quenched bullet for the same velocity? I also want to hunt with my .41 Magnum but I plan on keeping that a moderate load no more than 1200 fps, so the same question applies to that. Am I better off giving up some of the BHN hardness for some extra expansion vs penetration?

[chaos]

I've one really well with water dropped wheel weights out of my .429 magnums on both deer and mostly wild swine

[RobS]

The around again question of soft vs hard. You'll end up with both sides of the fence and no resolution to your question with a whole lot of bickering. I've managed both routes and I've done both to determine what shoots most accurately from my firearms. If you have a wide, flat hunting meplat then that is what's going to do the work. There is of course the exception of HP boolits which won't expand well if at all with hard BHN readings so only a oneway road there.

[onondaga]

Heat treating is not permanent and degrades pretty dramatically over 1-2 years. I suggest alloying your own Lyman #2 or close alloy that air cools and checks 14-15 BHN after one week. That hardness is terrific on deer at your velocity and expands well on game. Alloys harder expand less and less till about 18 BHN where there is no expansion on game at that velocity.

Straight Wheelweight alloy is softer than #2, it expands great and casts well and would be fine at 1200-1300 fps with plain base bullets and excellent accuracy would be expected with a good fit and gas checks.

Mix the right alloy and it stays that way, go for #2 or wheelweight for deer.

Gary