Appropriate Hardness for 44 Mag Rifle boolits

[Urocyon]

If the specified pressure of my 44 mag rifle loads (240 gr LSWC GC) exceeds 37000 CUP, will a BHN of 20 be an appropriate hardness?

[white eagle]

There are far more variables to shooting cast effectively than BHN
bore condition-size,charge and powder used,reloading practices ,brass ect.
If you are just starting down this fine road (sometimes slippery) make note of the stickies
and read on.A whole bunch of good,good people here with a boat load of information.

[Hickory]

It has been my experience that 95% of a persons shooting/hunting can be done with boolits cast to a BHN hardness of between 9-12. Don't get hung up on super hard cast boolits.

[bangerjim]

Yes......and hardness is not nearly as important today as barrel fit.

As said.....do not get lost in the weeds worrying about super hard boolits.

Check out powder coating! I use it for everything shootable. Many have reported excellent results over 2400FPS rifle loads. PC gives you no grease smoke and no leading.

Read on........lots to learn here and lasc.us.

banger

[Urocyon]

Yes, I am indeed just starting down this fine road of casting. I have been lurking here at castboolits for a long time and made it official Last April.
I should have mentioned the variables you brought up. I have a new rifle and I completely understand the importance of boolits fitted to its throat/bore, crimping, lubing, GC etc. Though I have yet to choose a specific powder it will likely be a slower burning powder. What I am concerned about is ....will my boolits have the necessary compressive strength to withstand the pressures I mentioned. My thought is to cast with my WW ingots and see what happens. As a new caster I just need someone to say my plan is a good starting point or I need to rethink everything. I have yet to cast my first boolits. I just really want to wrap my mind around the process and be comfortable when I jump in. And yes, I have been struggling not to get lost in the weeds. Thanks guys.

[Larry Gibson]

Urocyon

Your WW alloy will hold up quite well with that GC'd 240 gr SWC. You might consider improving the alloy by adding 2% tin to it. That will get you an AC'd BHN (after 7-10 days) of 13 - 16. If you have pure lead or SOWWs you can even then mix that at 50/50 with the COWW + 2% tin alloy. I have shot a lot of that alloy in my own 44 Magnum rifles at 1600 - 1700 fps with excellent results. You can always WQ the bullets to harden them if necessary but I've not found it necessary.

Larry Gibson

[snapshot]

Should be OK. Factory bullets like Meister and Magnus run between 15 and 18 with Oregon Trails Laser Cast at 24, 20 should be fine but at the same time like the others have said they're are other things to consider. Be safe.

[trapper9260]

out of my 44mag I shoot with GC about BHN 12 or close to it.If it is not with GC then you can go alittle harder.I shoot Clip on WW in my 308 win in my DPMS with GC and no problems.hope this helps.If you use GC I would not worry about BHN if you use GC on your boolits.Like is stated in post before my about the BHN .

[Cowboy_Dan]

I am shooting the RCBS 44-240 SWC gc (among others) through my father's microgroove Marlin 1894. Cast of 50/50 WW+2%Sn/Pb, sized .430, and lubed with Lyman's version of NRA 50/50 lube it weighs in at 250 gr. Lyman gas check seated during sizing in my #45. Loaded over a book max load of 800x and a CCI 300 primer in mixed brass. This is what I intend to use versus whitetail this fall and it gives me good accuracy and zero leading. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

[runfiverun]

20 bhn is far more than enough. [too hard for hunting IMO]

about 3-4 years ago I was walking my B.I.L. [and littlegirl] through progressive reloading steps with his 24" barreled 45 colt levergun [and her 20" carbine] which is a clone to my 45 colt levergun.
we started with the 452664 [250gr rnfp plain base] and clays powder picking on the pressure some.
I walked him up through progressively slower powders.
red-dot, green-dot, unique, herco, 800-x, Steel and some others [changing nothing else in the load] until we got into the 1650 fps range using 2400 as the propellant.
the entire time we used a big batch of WW alloy with soft lead and some Tin thrown in the mix. [right around 11 bhn]
we stopped short of H-110 just because we didn't have Time to continue since hunting season was at hand.
the groups from all the powders pretty much stayed the same and just the velocity [and recoil] increased as we added more gas volume to the mix.

he chose to use the 19.3grs of 2400 load, and I went with my standard 'everyday' load of 9.3grs of unique using the same boolit, but different case brands.
we ended up taking very similarly angled shots and at distances within @ 5 yds of each other.
the results were the same [dead deer]
with only 1 slight exception.
his had a larger internal wound channel through the middle of the deer and out, showing the higher impact velocity was upsetting the alloy a bit more.
now I could easily duplicate those results through an alloy change or a velocity change [shrug] but the load is somewhat tuned to my rifle [accuracy] and corresponds to my rear sight settings over known distances [1" at 50 and 2" at 100 yds]
so to me it's a non issue and ain't worth changing.

Littlegirl bailed on the lever gun hunt and used her 7.65 argie with a home made half tube jacketed-soft lead nose hybrid cast boolit we worked up at slightly over 30-30 velocity's. [fastest I ever seen a deer go down that wasn't head shot]