BHN for .38 wadcutters?

[FN in MT]

How hard or soft can one go for 148 gr wadcutters driven to no more than 800 fps in a .38 special?? I've got a mess of ingots at 8.5 BHN.

FN in MT

[Leftoverdj]

How hard or soft can one go for 148 gr wadcutters driven to no more than 800 fps in a .38 special?? I've got a mess of ingots at 8.5 BHN.

FN in MT

They'll work fine.

Anything from lead with just enough tin added for fillout to air cooled WW will make good WCs. Your ingots are in the middle of that range.

[cheese1566]

I guess than I shouldn't be so anxious to get rid of the stick on wheel weights I am acquiring in the WW from the tire shops. I was under the impression they were too soft, except for blackpowder or fishing sinkers.

Will the pure lead also be good for round nose profiles in 38 at the low velocities stated above, or just the wadcutter design?

[mooman76]

They should and I don't believe the stick ons are pure anyway. They are sof but I think they have a little bit of tin in them so should work good for low velocity loads in pistol or you could mix with WWs. I wouldn't be anxious to get rid of any usable lead.

[Shiloh]

Mine are range lead and other scrap. Pretty soft, sized to a hair over .358 and they are fine. Accurate with no leading at the timeless 2.8 gr of Alliant Bullseye loading.

Shiloh

[Shiloh]

....Will the pure lead also be good for round nose profiles in 38 at the low velocities stated above, or just the wadcutter design?



I don't know what the "Fingernail Test" is as far as hardness goes, but the aluminum cased CCI Blazers 158 gr RN can have a hunk scooped out with a fingernail. Pretty soft stuff!!

I have some LEE 158 gr FP that were loaded at 820 fps. from the same alloy/pot as the above mentioned wadcutter batch. No leading.

Shiloh

[AZ-Stew]

Consider the Speer and Hornady swaged lead bullets. Tooling costs $$, and they don't want to have to replace it prematurely, therefore they use the softest alloy possible (near, of not pure, lead) to make these projectiles. At reasonable speeds they don't lead barrels. Velocity, lubricant and proper fit to the gun do more to control leading than does a couple of points of BHN.

Regards,

Stew

[JIMinPHX]

General rule of thumb for figuring the optimum hardness of a proper fitting flat-base boolit is BNH x 1440 = PSI. Hollow based boolits need to be a little harder.

8.5 x 1440 = 12,240psi. 8.5BNH lead should work best with a chamber pressure of around 12k psi. The .38 special has a maximum SAAMI working pressure of 17k psi. The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook lists .38 Special charges for the 148 grain wadcutter that come up anywhere from 6,700 to 16,800 CUP.

Your 8.5BNH lead should be perfect for moderately loaded .38s.