Water drop Boolits?

[Hickory]

I've been getting ready for the up-coming deer season.
And have changed the recipe of the lead I use for my boolits. In the past my
boolits (lyman 429640 HP) were made with w-w and about
4% tin. They shot so-so at 75yds. Last week I decided to try 10-1
lead-tin with about 3% shot added for hardness with water drop.

While testing this load, I soon saw that they shot very, very good!
At 50 yds with a tru-glow dot sight, 5 shots were grouping just under 2".
About 100 yds. 5 shots @ 4 1/2 " with the first 4 boolits going in a 1 1/2" group.

The Question is this; Will the arsnic in the shot harden it too much for the hollow point to expand well? And if so, will it be to brittle.

My opinion is that it should be ok for proper expanstion.
I hate to change anything because it shoots so well.

[Ricochet]

That doesn't sound like it'd be too hard or brittle. Tin in lead doesn't harden further with the water dropping. Antimony and arsenic do.

[Shiloh]

This is just an opinion others may know for sure.

If you have 10 lbs. of your alloy, 160 oz., 3% would be about 5 oz. of mag shot, bringing the total to 165 oz. I don't think that small amount would prevent a hollow point from expanding.

Have you recovered any of these boolits from a berm or whaterver you are shooting into?? What do they look like??

Shiloh

[Hickory]

There are too many boolits in my back stop to tell which is which.
Thanks for your input. Its about what I thought.

[armyrat1970]

Unless you have a tester it's impossible to tell what type of BHN you are getting from water dropping. It depends on the temp of the alloy and mold when casting. And how long you let the boolits cool after dropped. Typical wws can range from as much as 4 and adding shot will make a difference. For most applications it is close enough as long as you keep everything close enough. I don't think your bullet will be to hard to allow for expansion or to brittle to break up on impact.
Water dropped wws range somewhere around 15 to 19 BHN. The added shot may bring them a little closer to 18 to 22. The added tin should have very little, if any, effect on hardness. Jackted HP's are harder and expand.
What type of velocities are you expecting also?

[44man]

Since that sounds like a .44 mag, you do NOT need a hollow point or expansion. A plain flat point with a good meplat is all you need. So even if the lead is too hard to open the hollow point, you are good to go.
You do not want a boolit to open too fast and limit penetration. The .44 is amazing as is.
Relax, love the accuracy and go shoot some deer.

[fredj338]

Antimony & water dropping an alloy w/ antimony in it DOES affect the HP & expansion. It usually causes fragmentation of the nose. For best performance, I found lead & tin mix air cooled. Play w/ the composition, but 201 or 25-1 works to give good expansion to 1200fps+.

[44man]

You need ZERO expansion with the .44 as long as the meplat is either a WLN or WFN. design. Expansion will limit penetration and that is what you do not want to lose.
I have killed a ton of deer with the .44 and the worst was with the 240 XTP. NO blood trail, not even back tracking to the POI. All bullets were recovered in the deer. Had I not seen them fall I would have lost them.
Not so with a hard cast WLN, the blood trail is HUGE or a shoulder hit drops them right there. Deer are hard pressed to make 30 yards.
I don't know why guys want soft boolits in the .44 or .45? You only need to go that way when velocity gets too high.
Accuracy is still more important.

[HORNET]

Um, guys, he added 3% shot to a mix that was 10-1 lead-tin. If the shot was 5% antimony, that's about 0.15 % antimony. Even water dropping, I don't see how that could be enough to get more brittle than the mix of WW+4% tin that he used to use. In fact, I would expect it to be more ductile and woudn't be surprised if it shot better due to being slightly softer.