Bullet alloy for hollow pointg bullets.

[emorris]

I did a search and scrolled through several pages of posts, but I couldnt find what I was looking for. I know what Im looking for is out there, but I couldn't find what im looking for. I recentlly got a NOE hollow point mold in 40 cal 180 grain and 9mm 128 grain. My first few tests left me with somthing to be desired. Im trying to get these to open up and stay together. I decided to start with soft stick on wheel weights. I Shot these into wet news print and they did open up, but the nose sheared from the base of the boolit. The load was worked up to a strong upper mid range charge. I have played with the powder charge to to the point that I dont think that velocity is my issue (too fast or slow). Im getting good fillout, but im wondering if I add a little tin to the mix, will it help hold the boolits together? I would like to mix up some 25-1 or 30-1 to see what happens, but I would like some suggestions first. By the way even with pure lead, I didnt get any leading. Boolit fit is king, not hardness. Thanks for any help.

[RobsTV]

Watching for replies, as I am about to enter this new world.

Note that many modern SOWW are the same BHN as COWW. You need to either know them or test them, then you know them.

[knifemaker]

Why don't you try a 50/50 mix of wheel weights and pure lead. I have used that mixture for 45acp, 44 spec. and have taken the 44spec. up to 1200 fps with no leading. Using my lee hardness tester my alloy was giving me a reading of 9-10 for hardness. The added pure lead should give you a more mallable bullet that will expand and not shear off as easy.

I re-read your post. What happen with the pure lead bullets. Did they also shear off. If they did you may have too much velocity or your Hollow point may be too deep and wide to allow a controlled mushroom expansion and breaking off due to thin side walls.

[Kull]

Check out Fryxell's guide. He talks about alloys for hollow points, mentioning 20:1 and 30:1 a couple times.

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

[Oreo]

What will be interesting is to see how the alloys with copper do, as those guys experimenting with that develope better alloys. I don't think Fryxel had anything to say about that.

[AricTheRed]

I've been doing some hollow point 44spl&mag and the softer the alloy the better it holds together at higher velocity. Impact velocity up to 1200fps works well with 25:1

[AricTheRed]

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?187086-Anyone-using-Vihtavouri-N-350

Check out my results...

[41mag]

Well your where I was about this time last year I guess maybe a little later.

I was also looking for a good alloy specifically for HP'ed boolits that I am pouring for my revolvers. At the time I hadn't made the jump over to my auto's just yet.

I also don't/didn't have much pure lead nor wheel weights, I'm still working on that issue as well. What I DID have was a decent supply of the large Isotope cores. Most of what I have read puts them in the 1/3/96 range. So I put Bumpo's alloy calculator to work, along with my little shareware program Convert, since I ain't got the patients to work it out with a pencil.

After a bit of playing and posting here I decided to go with trying to get the tin up to and equal to the antimony, and see what I ended up with. Well there are actually several ways to get the two to match but I was trying to keep things malleable in order to keep the noses from blowing off as well.

What I started out with was a 2/2/96, which my friend had some luck with. IT shot great, but still lost the noses. So I dropped it down to a 1.5/1.5/97. This works great for both the 45 ACP and my revolver loads which stay within about 1000fps.

But I simply couldn't let well enough along. I had to try and split the difference and see what that was gong to do as well. So a bit more with the calculator and Convert, and I had a working recipe to blend up some 1.75/1.75/96.5 alloy, or as I call it my Magnum alloy. What it does is gives me just enough hardness to get up to about 1300fps, but still retains enough strength and malleability to hold together "IF" the HP cavity isn't overly large.

Most all of the bullets I am casting with these alloys are using MP's great molds. Most of the magnums are simply the Keith type with a small HP, where as the slower ones use the 640 design he has done so well with and can have either a small hole or a cavernous one. The bigger the holes the slower I run them.

IF I had a big supply of pure, and wheel weights I would probably do what has been suggested here and simply go with a 50-50 blend and see what happens. No matter what you end up starting out with, it is still probably going to be a balancing act between the velocity you want to run, and how much expansion you want to get.

IF you look at the link below my sig there are some pictures there in a sub album titles Alloy Testing. Most of those were shot from my 45 Colt at 25 and 50yds. I don't have the exact velocity on them but I am guessing at impact somewhere in the neighborhood of 850 - 1000fps. Also here is a post I made on what I ended up with,
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?164591-Latest-HP-Alloy-Blend-might-be-a-winner&

I recently tried out the "Magnum" alloy with the MP 358-640 and the large pin, which gives right at a 160gr lubed bullet. I have to say pushing them out of the GP100 over a stiff dose of Blue Dot, it almost became my favorite after only 10 rounds. But I told the wife they were for her, and I have the big calibers to play with.

Hope this helps.

[DLCTEX]

I shoot 45 ACP with hollowpoints that expand nicely in wet sand. The alloy is 50/50, WW/Pure. with a little tin added. I try for 1% adding solder. They consistently mushroom and stay intact. Don't know how that will work in another cal.