What alloy for casting HP bullets?

[lawboy]

I have got several HP moulds in .358 and .452 but my alloy, range scrap, seems a bit hard to get good expansion. Did a little testing in my 45 longslide with a rcbs 45-201-swc I had hollowpointed by Erik. Also shot some in a Kimber Ultra. The longslide load was up over 900fps. the Ultra load was probably about 700fps. I recovered the bullet from the Ultra in the fourth water jug, unexpanded. The bullet from the longslide was not recovered and likely did not expand as it hit the backstop 20yards downrange. My alloy is range scrap. Do I need to mix in some pure lead to soften it up?

[1Shirt]

A few years back as I lubed some of the larger HP's, and had adequate size, I put a copper plated bb in the nose cav which compressed down nicely into the cav. Made a great looking blt. These were fairly hard cast, and what little testing I did with them showed that the front end pretty well came off as the base drove thru on 4x4 wood. These were in 44Kieth, and 375 in 375296. Driven at about 1200 in the 44 Mag, and about 1500 in the 375H&H. When I reduced the vol down to about 850-900 or so in the 44 and about 1200 in the 375 had excellent mushroom. 44 at 50 yds, 375 at 100. One of these days intend to play with two part cast with soft nose HP, and bb in the cav. Anyway, something you might want to play with.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[redneckdan]

The range scrap should work well. Your scrap is probably about 7-9 BHN, lead being about 5 BHN is not going to make a big difference. Add about 500 grains of Tin to a 10lb lee pot and you should get excellent fill out.

[fredj338]

It sounds like your range scrap may be a bit too hard. I like to use 25-1 lead/tin mix for best expansion across a broad vel. range. Harder alloy seems to fragment the nose above 1000fps or so. A 50/50 lead ww mix works better than straight ww if you don;t want to add tin. Of course HP design also plays into it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/44-272.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/44-265.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v703/fredj338/45-215gr.jpg

[runfiverun]

mushy smooshy type lead is the best.
unless you wanna have the petals break off.
look into scribing around the hole to help promote mushrooming and the petal things.

[geargnasher]

I know we just went through this spiel on another thread a couple of weeks ago, I just can't remember the title. Someone was asking about .45 ACP hps.

Lawboy, check out Glen's articles especially this one: http://http://www.lasc.us/FryxellExpansionOfCastHP.htm.

Gear

[1Shirt]

You might also want to look at Paco Kelly's recommendation on what he uses for alloy. Works well for me, and has a Mag Shot base, and expands.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[lawboy]

Thanks, all. A couple years ago we tested our range scrap at 9bhn. But somehow I think this latest batch is harder. I need to find myself some pure lead to mix into this alloy. Anyone want to trade a few lbs of lead for something?

[fredj338]

Thanks, all. A couple years ago we tested our range scrap at 9bhn. But somehow I think this latest batch is harder. I need to find myself some pure lead to mix into this alloy. Anyone want to trade a few lbs of lead for something?

Good source of near pure lead are tape wts., you get quite a lot in most buckets of WW. Another out of the way source are stain glass window companies or classes. I bought 50# from a local stain glass place for $15. A bit high, but no smelting required, very clean mat'l.

[runfiverun]

if you get desperate for pure go to the home depot and get some roof flashing lead.
they come in rolls of about 100 lbs and is usually dead pure.