way too hard!!

[guncheese]

a friend gave me a box of

and he said that he couldnt make them shoot worth a hoot
well i noticed i couldnt make a mark in them with my fingernail
so i tried my pencil set, and wow!

the boolit on the right took a curl from the 4H
but the 2H just smudged one
with my limited brain power, that almost gives me 30BHN !
you can hardly dent these with a hammer
no wonder they wouldnt shoot!
what was S&S thinking?
so make sure you check what your getting when you order out

guess ill melt them down and us them as "superhard" for alloy hardening

[Tatume]

I shoot SNS coated bullets in my 44 Magnum revolvers with excellent accuracy. So far I've shot about 3000 bullets from SNS. If your revolver is set up well, and the bullets fit the throats of your revolver they will probably shoot well.

[bangerjim]

I have found over time that com-cast boolits are generally waaaaay to hard because they want them to survive the storage, handling, packing, and shipping. Normal ones we make @ 9-12 or so, would be a mess when they arrive at your door!

I have many pounds of similar com-cast that I melt down for hardening/sweetening. The grease works as a good reducer!

[guncheese]

I shoot SNS coated bullets in my 44 Magnum revolvers with excellent accuracy. So far I've shot about 3000 bullets from SNS.

before i started casting my own, i had used several thousand S&S and they were not anywhere near this hard, and they shot fine
but 30 Brinnel is toooooo hard (or close to it)
im guessing that someone got the mix fouled up
bet the sizer gave a grunt when those things got shoved thru

[Tatume]

Have you tried to shoot any? If they shoot well, who cares how hard they are?

[williamwaco]

They are way too hard. I agree. But I have shot several thousand of them and find them to be very satisfactory.

[guncheese]

Have you tried to shoot any? If they shoot well, who cares how hard them are?

well that's why i ended up with them
my friend couldn't get them to shoot
and im not gonna bother
ive got plenty of molds to make them into something usable for us

this was just a question to see if this was a oddity being so hard
as i haven't experienced any this hard

[tazman]

There is a com-caster near here that produces boolits very nearly that hard. I have used them with no issues at all. If they are sized properly for your throats, they will shoot fine.

[Lloyd Smale]

agreed. If your gun has proper tolarances an there sized right they will probably outshoot a softer bullet. Try scatching a jacketed bullet with your finger and they shoot fine.

There is a com-caster near here that produces boolits very nearly that hard. I have used them with no issues at all. If they are sized properly for your throats, they will shoot fine.

[44man]

Working with semi wad cutters in my .44 I found 28 to 30 BHN was the only thing that would shoot good. I have good fit that is so important.
If your gun shoots jacketed why would it not shoot hard cast?
I kept changing my alloy with the Keith and as they got harder, groups tightened until I got better groups at 50 then I did at 25.
Now the BB could be a problem as it reduces the drive length and match to twist.
I load for my friends .357 and his mold was a BB and results were sad so I cut the BB out and accuracy is as good as it gets now. I did not expect such results so I would never buy a BB mold or com boolits with them.
I don't like Keith styles and hate BB more.

[guncheese]

to end all the atempts to remedy a problem that doesnt really exist
the fella didnt try to shoot them hot enough to make them work
he likes target loads
so he really likes to shoot my almost deadsoft powder coated 148gr wadcutters over 2.5gr of 700x or bullseye or some such
he shoots 2" or under groups at 50yds with those loads off bags (he is a young fella with great control and concentration)
and im pretty sure he didnt bring up the pressure to make these things work
so im going to save a fat sample for messing with later on
and melt the rest down and make a 9-12bhn alloy with them for my 9mm guns
and give him some more 148gr wadcutters in exchange

i just wondered if others had seen bullets that hard
as all the com-cast i have bought were not that hard

[Cowboy_Dan]

I think someone goofed in the casting room on those. A google search I did a while back told me that SNS uses hardball alloy at ~BHN 15. Definately harder than you need for pistol either way under normal circumstances.

[44man]

It seems powder coating is the solution for softer lead from all I read here.
I do shoot only deer loads all year so my drive bands are 20-22 BHN even with my soft nose boolits. That seems to work best for me.
I have experimented with much harder for years and the only thing I found was a slight increase in accuracy so harder does not bother me.
Main thing is not to size a boolit when seating or from the crimp. I use a choke hold on revolver loads. You can see the boolit base and ripples from GG's on my brass.
Die sets with poor expanders are turned into other tools. My boolit is the final expander.
Too soft a Keith will have the shoulder smeared at the cone instead of steering the cylinder so the boolit is off center in the bore. Same happens with a full wad cutter that would work better if very hard.
Most of my revolvers have perfect alignment yet all the semi wad cutters I have been sent will not meet my standards which is 3/4" to 1" max at 50 yards and I prefer less with many one hole groups. A 2" pattern is tossed in the garbage, garbage in-garbage out. This is what I expect. Left is 50 yards and the can shot twice at 100. Attachment 150779 Ultra Dot too!
I find it very, very difficult to make a .357 shoot, larger is easier but I have done it in the past with a S&W 27 that was perfect and the 358156 HP would do 1" at 100. Max load of 2400. I had an 8-3/8" ribbed barrel with a Phantom scope on it.
The original was a 6" nickle plated, someone gave me a box of factory .38's to shoot and one did not exit the muzzle. I started to hit the ground in front of me, turned the gun over to find the barrel split at the muzzle. S&W put the long barrel on for me, stripped the nickle for the bright blue for $35. That price should tell you how long ago it was. Since then the .357 has driven me nuts. A Freedom went through 3 barrel changes from .357" throats and .3599" groove until it was right but it never shot with well over 200 different loads, bullets/ boolits. My friend wanted his gun to shoot like mine and I could not do it.
My revolvers start at .44 and end with .500 JRH.