is there a Bhn Chart for rifle bullets

[sleddman]

Please excuse me for I am real new to the casting part of reloading. I have been using WW for most of my casting of 45 colts and 38's for plinking. They seem to be working just fine. However I an starting to look at loads for my 30-30 and 35 rem. Both my molds are set up for Gas checks. I will be loading them for lighter deer loads and plinking. Hope to be able to use for hunting anyway. My question is what BHN should I be looking for? Is there a all around BHN for rifles that will be safe or should I say not to soft? I have ww lead , pure lead and lanotype to mix into it.

[Dean D.]

Find a copy of the Lyman 3rd or 4th (newest) edition Cast Bullet Handbook. There is a chart inside that lists BHN applicable for each application. Plus it's chock full of more valuable knowledge.

I'm at work and my copy is not handy or I would answer your question more fully. Honestly though, no caster should be without that book IMHO.

[runfiverun]

try what you have before searching for answers.
many [including myself] cut ww's with soft lead and waterdrop the resulting alloy.
50-50 is good so is 70-30, some go even more, to 30-70 even.
i like to add a bit of tin to the ww's first then add the soft lead.

[trapper9260]

First I would say do what was stated to get the Lyman cast bullet manual and then go form there if you get a Lee tester for BHN it will give you what you need to know when you see what the manual gives you and you will be good to go . But as for you have gas checks that you will use and have WW I just use that and it works since you use Gas checks and if you do not you will have to go with the test and it will help you also with what you will have later after you do your mix and what your bullet will be.

[sisiphunter]

Bhn is a factor but proper boolit size to bore ratio is very important i have found. You want. 001-2 over groove diameter. As for bhn you want the boolit soft enough and maliable enough to deform on impact. So dont go to a hard boolit alloy. Try 50/50 ww/pure add tin to help in casting and maliability. Has worked well for me. Also a thought of split nose casting for your specific hunting bullets..excellent article on that in handloader a couple years ago. Ive cast some split nose but have yet to test on animals. Best of luck.

[williamwaco]

try what you have before searching for answers.
many [including myself] cut ww's with soft lead and waterdrop the resulting alloy.
50-50 is good so is 70-30, some go even more, to 30-70 even.
i like to add a bit of tin to the ww's first then add the soft lead.


I like this plan.

[44man]

Nothing set in stone!
Hardness is going to depend on the velocity you shoot and the powder you choose. The very most important thing is to get just the right expansion for deer without losing penetration. The smaller calibers need some nose upset so I would experiment with a 50-50 to 75-25 WW to pure.
Nothing makes a better hole punch with lost deer then a hard boolit in a small bore rifle. Even a hard boolit in a 45-70 will fail if shot too fast.
Instead of BHN readings, there should be an alloy chart for each caliber and velocity for deer because it varies. As animals get larger so will the alloys change.
You must think of cast the same as choosing a jacketed for the animal hunted with the caliber you use.
I am an accuracy nut but hunting has to leave some of that behind because it is more important to get boolit performance in the animal.
You are getting some good info from the guys.

[JIMinPHX]

+1 on what has already been said, but in addition:

WW + 2% or 3% tin works well in the .30-30. Accuracy is often a little better if you water drop them, but terminal performance is usually better if you let them air cool. If your boolit does not have a big fat meplat, then leave them a little on the soft side. A little extra tin increases malleability & gives easier expansion with less fragmentation.

A general rule of thumb for plain based lead boolits is that PSI / 1440 = bnh. You can cheat on that a fair amount if you add a gas check into the mix. This is just a very general rule of thumb. It's a place to start. It is far from being an exact science or gospel of any sort.

[Wolfer]

I use 1 part WW to 2 parts lead with a little tin thrown in. I run this same alloy as slow as 800 fps in my 32 mag and as fast as 1800 fps in my rifles. The rifle loads are gas checked.

[sleddman]

After reading the posts I think I was way off. I was thinking that straight WW wiuld give me what I needed. I was thinking that it would even be too soft. I was going to add in a little Lanotype to give it a little more hardness. I picked up the lymann book, very interesting, thanks.

[leadman]

I would not dismiss the WW alloy. Try it air cooled, if it leads or not accurate water drop it. This will make it harder but not brittle so it will still expand.
I'm using 11BHN alloy in my 30-30 Contender carbine with Lyman 311041 at 2,300 fps with no problems. These do expand.

[blikseme300]

The trouble is that not all WW alloys are the same. Apparently the mix was quite consistent years ago but no longer. Things I have learned here from the experienced folk is that there is no single recipe for success. I'll give an example.

Got bitten by the 300 Blackout bug but not really being into rifle casting I knew this would be interesting. First came the brass conversion. Time consuming but therapeutic. During this time I searched and read all I could about reloading this cartridge. I first developed a number of j-word rounds that worked well. Then onto casting.

Using 3 different molds, all Lee with GC, I could not get accuracy. No visible leading and only very small flakes of alloy in the BCG. After much reading the forums here and elsewhere with quite a lot of head scratching it dawned on me that maybe the powder used, Lil Gun, is too fast. The boolit was being accelerated too fast and the gas check was masking this, I thought. I cast some straight Lino with same outcome of shotgun pattern on target. Switching to H335, because I have it, cured the accuracy problem. Went back to the alloy I use for all my pistols and still good. No flakes of alloy in the BCG anymore.

The collective knowledge and wisdom on this site is an awesome resource. You just need to absorb but this sometimes takes time and patience is needed. Thanks to all of you who share here.


Bliksem
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