What do ya think

[Hipshot]

Have been casting for a number of years but my collection of alloys has been limited to WW and anything else that I can scrounge which I label as WC (which indicates it is pretty soft and good for low vel. pistol bullets)
But the main question is what is my better option -----water quenches or air cooled for the wheel weights for moderate velocity rifle bullets in the .30-30, 375 Win. , .35 Rem., and 45-70 1600-1800 FPS. for hunting ammo ?

Thanx !!!
Hipshot

[Marlin Junky]

If you're talking about old Ballard rifled Marlins all you need is clip-on WW metal and enough Cowboy Action waste (range scrap) to achieve BHN 13 to 14. That air cooled alloy, at BHN 14, has taken me to 2100 fps accurately (1.5MOA with aperture sights) when poured into RCBS 30-180FN form and shot out of old 336's chambered for the 30-30. I can't even do that in my dreams with my Pre-64 M70 in 30-06.

MJ

[Hipshot]

MJ,
Thanx ! The 30-30 and the 375 are Winchesters. The 35 and 45-70 are Marlins (both microgroove).

Hip

[Bret4207]

This is just my opinion based on my observations. With AC WW vs WQ WW what I see is the ductility of the alloy remains about the same, but the shear strength of the alloy is increased. Not sure that's a good explanation so I'll put it like this- if I WQ my WW alloy the boolit will still expand about the same but it'll handle more pressure on firing better, or differently anyway.

Clear as mud, eh?

[leftiye]

If you want the best of both worlds (BTW your alloy above is very similar to 50/50 WW/pure), heat treat them to BHN28 (it goes that high) and anneal the noses (use tempil crayons to indicate temp of anneal).