Lower hardness for 7.62x39?

[sh00ter787]

I have both Lee molds for the 7.62x39, I currently water drop them from range lead and they come up "about" 28. I am working on 5744 at about 17gns and was thinking of air dropping them - they would come out about 14.

Pressure will be "about" 35k which is more than 14 would take (about 18k), my question is does the gas check negate this difference, and is it worth pursuing this idea?

[303Guy]

Not sure my input is relevant but I use scrap lead drain pipe with some of the soldered joints added. I've no idea of the hardness but I would say it's not all that hard at all. I use this for rifle boolits as in paper patched in a 303 (several actually) driven to 2250 fps, being 192grs so pressure is not that low. I works. Paper patched boolits are normally plain based and in my case smooth sided so there are no lube grooves to collapse and more boolit shank to engage the rifling. But with a 1-in-10 twist 303 Brit, this might give some idea of what might be happening.

I'd suggest that apart from rifling shear, alloy hardness is a moot point. (Paper patching seems to prevent any rifling shear).

[sh00ter787]

All input is gratefully received! Im still a new caster so have not even considered paper patching yet, intriguing though!

[Ole]

I have had success in the past with using the 2R155 Lee/CE Harris boolit in my SKS with 50/50 WW/Pure lead water dropped from the mold.

My 50/50 WD usually runs around 17-18 on the BHN scale with my tester.

That 2400 load works as good as anything i've tried and it saves $$ on powder. :mrgreen:

[sh00ter787]

Thanks for the info Ole, i will also be trying 2400 again, I've had success with it before but kinda got sidetracked onto other powders!

[onondaga]

With Boolits .002 over groove, a gas checked BHN 14 alloy 150 gr FN does 2154 fps for me in a 7.62X39mm with 28.9 gr H4895 in my single shot Remington Spartan and groups .885" at 50 yards. This is a worked up load for my rifle with a custom collet neck size die to fit the boolit size. It is a compressed load and over recommended MAXIMUM but shows no signs of pressure in my rifle.

If you have an alloy that air drops at BHN 14 like mine, you are as lucky as I am, but mine is alloyed from wheelweight:Linotype at 7:3 and tested with the Lee tester at 2 weeks.

Gary

[sh00ter787]

Gary,

Many thanks, thats exactly what i was looking for. I'll be pushing them less than 2000fps so I will have an experiment with air dropping them. I dont get a lot of range time at present so didnt want to waste a days shooting by leading up my rifles!
I guess I am fortunate, no matter which batch of alloy I test from the range lead I have it all comes up around the 14bhn. The range I mine from has mainly commercial lead bullets in it with less than 10% jacketed and .22.
I always expect it to test lower but yes, I guess I am lucky!

[JIMinPHX]

I've used alloy as soft as 12bnh in that cartridge with a gas check. The accuracy is not quite as good as it is with the harder boolits, but the down range performance on game is better. I doubt that I could get away with 12bnh @ 2,000fps if I didn't have the gas check on there. I haven't actually tried them bare base though.