fps for soft lead gc bullet

[corvette8n]

Is there a graph or chart on fps/bhn.
In other words how fast can I push a .30 cal gas check bullet
made from almost pure lead, will the gas check take care of leading?
I have about 25lbs of lead pipe made into ignots.

[imashooter2]

No, there's no chart. How fast any projectile can be pushed in a particular weapon is the result of many variables.

[BruceB]

As a limited experiment a couple years back, I fired a dozen or so pure-lead gaschecked 365-grain RCBS bullets through my Ruger .416 Rigby.

These were loaded to 2000 fps, and gave no apparent leading whatever. The 100-yard groups were around 2.5", as I recall. Wheelweight bullets shoot better than that, but the pure-lead ones were certainly useable for "hunting" accuracy at reasonably short range.

If I had fired more of these, perhaps some leading would have appeared, but I had learned what I needed to know, and no more pure-lead shooting was necessary.

The continuation of my hunting-load project led to developing my method of making soft-point cast hunting bullets with harder shanks.

[cbrick]

Such a chart would be impossible. The velocity that any lead bullet could be pushed would be different for every single firearm/load combination. Even identical firearms would have different chambers, throats, bores, rifling.

I would think your limiting factor with such soft lead would be the bullets ability to grip and take the rifling and twist rate would come into play also. Larger bores such as the 45-70 seem to work better with softer alloy than smaller bores. Best results should come with the slowest possible powder for the cartridge but still fairly slow.

Perhaps you could come up with some wheel weights and either blend it with your lead or just use the wheel weights and save the soft stuff for more appropriate uses.

Rick

[PPpastordon]

During the early '70's, friends and I fired thousands of rounds through the then cheap Schmidt-Rubin rifles and carbines. Most of these were cast from almost pure lead as that was all we had available where I was at the time; Adak, Alaska.
The boolits came from a Lyman mould. It seems it was about 170 grains, and of Louverin (or however it is spelled) design. I do not remember anyone having trouble with leading. Oh, and Javalina was the lube choice of almost everyone.
I know these boolits were very soft. After returning to the lower 48, where my swaging dies were I discovered they could easily be used in swaging them to a lighter weight. The alloy definitely flowed from the die's bleed hole as easily as any "pure" lead ever did.

[Ricochet]

I have seen a chart relating Brinell hardness to impact velocity for hunting boolits, hollow point and otherwise. I think I most recently saw it on Cbrick's website.

[cbrick]

I have an article on terminal ballistics & alloy strength. It doesn't relate to muzzle velocity & alloy though.

http://www.lasc.us/TaylorBulletWeakEnough.htm

Rick


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[randyrat]

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm Check on here it will help you out a great deal....Glen E. Fryxell articles

[Bass Ackward]

Corvett,

Understand "why" the limitation exists and then it will be obvious "how" to load around it as much as possible. Learn to .... "see" what a bullet sees. Two problems right off are: that the bullet is in it's softest state so that it will have to be started off easier with slower powders or you will go erratic sooner than you expect. And second, is that ipure lead has absolutley no springback what so ever. So if your bore isn't perfect dimensionally, you will have a lower velocity ceiling than you otherwise would. Simple fouling will cause problems too if there isn't enough pressure to re-obturate the bullet or your lube can't keep the fouling soft.

I shoot pure lead fairly often to get an idea what the bore condition is like in guns I am not familiar with. This comes right after a good scoping with a bore scope. This is so I can see what my bullet sees before I lead the barrel up so bad that it takes for ever to get it clean again.

Is the problem from bore finish or a dimensional problem? If you are using hard lead, the bullet will spring back up to .0015 depending on caliber. Which is exactly why some guys can't shoot soft lead at high velocities. Then you won't know the problem is there, you will just know that your guns craps at a lower velocity than you would like it too or that you can only shoot hard bullets. This is why I advocate jacketed bullets first because most guys won't do this step. Jackets will correct most minor problems in a bore from the manufacturing process.

You will probably do better with your grease grooves filled to prevent deformation from pressure. Regardless of how you lube your bullets, you might just get a little bit more velocity if you use a light coating of LLA over the bullet. Try it both ways once you get to where your limit is.

The exact limitation on velocity with cast is the barrel condition and the reloader, not the lead bullet. This is a secret, so don't let it out.