How hard for 357 Henry Big Boy at 950 fps?

[PeteB]

I just cast my first batch of hard alloy, following the Lyman No 2 recipe, 4500g of Lead 250g of Tin and 250g of Antimony. I've achieved 16 BHN and cast using the Lee TL358-158-SWC mould.

They look good and I have sized them at .358" pre-Powder Coating and will resize to 358 after coating. These will fly at around 950 fps from my Henry Big boy.

My question is this, do they need to be this hard?

[Frosty Boolit]

No. I shoot 10-12bhn at up to 25k psi or about 1250fps in .357 mag without any leading.

[dannyd]

No, I use 10 to 12 bhn in my big boy out to 100 yards and at 1261 fps.

[Froogal]

No. I use 1-20 lead. Somewhere around 10bhn. Never have any problem with leading.

[mehavey]

At that velocity/pressure -- pure lead would do just fine.

[Pablo 5959]

I’m not sure about the Henry, but my Marlin JM is no good at .358. It loves .362 though at any hardness, ( range scrap).
I wouldn’t size all of them until you know for sure.

[Winger Ed.]

Going that slow, Pure Lead that was swaged and had a decent lube would work fine.
For casting, I'd add just enough 'goodies' to pure Lead to get a good fill out in the mold.

[MT Gianni]

They may be too hard for what you want to do. I would try them at 1600 fps or so. I am not familiar with Henry's bore or twist rate but pure will do OK at 800 fps with most revolvers. BHN 10 is a good place to start.

[Hick]

I’m not sure about the Henry, but my Marlin JM is no good at .358. It loves .362 though at any hardness, ( range scrap).
I wouldn’t size all of them until you know for sure.

My Henry in 357 handles 0.358 very nicely without leading.

[mdi]

I'm glad to see a bunch of knowledgeable casters that don't buy into the "harder is better/hardcast" baloney. My "Mystery Metal" bullet alloy, a mix of wheel weights, pure and scrap lead, runs about 11 BHN and I use it for nearly all my handgun cast bullet needs...

[old beekeeper]

I can remember my first 38 special, an old used police model I bought at a pawn shop in 1962, and it was the first handgun I ever owned, long before I started shooting and reloading, and I remember the bullets I bought were pure lead and had a waxy coating on them and I don't remember them leading the barrel, and ever since I have been reloading I have found that a properly fitted cast bullet of around 8 or 10 bhn will work ok without leading so long as the speed stays reasonable because the lead is soft enough to form to the barrel. I found this to work well in a microgrove barrel and never have I had problems with my Marlin's with microgrove, great accuracy and when experimenting with different recipes, I found that when i loaded them hard by adding tin, things went to pot and anything over 1300-1400 fps need a gas check. Have loaded my Marlin 357 beyond 1700 fps with gas checks and maintain good accuracy out to 100 yds and since our range only goes to 100 yds, I can only speak about accuracy at that distance. A little better with my 44 magnum I would think. Always wondered why some folks wanted to cast with almost pure linotype and water drop to get the hardest cast bullet they could and I never could understand how a deer shot with a 20 hardness is any more dead than one shot with one of my 160 grain semi-wadcutters. Fit is king and solves a lot of problems with cast bullets. I am 84, still shoot with lead from ancient molds, and if I could see, my accuracy would be better, but looking through a peep sight is getting harder every day, but I refuse to put a scope on my 357, seems obscene to me to put a scope on a lever action. Mother nature has no sympathy for age. Hummph.