Too hard for a hunting alloy?

[waco]

So about a month ago I cast up some NOE SC311-165 RD 30cal bullets for my 30-30 for a hunting load in my Savage 340.
50/50 coww/pure/2% foundry type. The FT might have been my mistake. These were water dropped.
They now test out at 20-22 BHN using my Staedtler art pencils.
the "H" pencil was the first to "cut" the bullet. The info I have from the other site shows this being around 20-22BHN.
My question is in my 30-30 with 29gr of H4895, which shoots very nice btw, is this alloy too hard for smallish blacktail deer here is western Oregon?
Many thanks in advance guys.
Walter.

P.S. I have never shot a deer with a cast bullet.......

 

[Brad]

WHAT? Never shot a deer with a cast bullet? Blasphemy!

I would expect them to be OK but not ideal in my mind. I would have left out the type metal but there isn't enough to make a huge difference.

On a broadside shot in the lungs it isn't gonna matter anyway.

 

[waco]

I just melted down some boat anchors and a lot of .22 LR lead.

Would a 50/50 mix of this be better?

Air cooled or water dropped? The anchors look to be COWW.

 

[waco]

WHAT? Never shot a deer with a cast bullet? Blasphemy!

I know, I know.....

 

[Brad]

The boat anchors 50/50 with pure plus maybe .5% Sn and water drop. They will hold together quite well and should be fine in the accuracy department too.

 

[waco]

WHAT? Never shot a deer with a cast bullet? Blasphemy!

I know, I know.....

 

[waco]

I have several bars of 63%/37% SN/PB
My pot is 22lbs.
10lbsww/10lbs 22, 1/8lb sn/pb mix?
Is my math right? 1/4lb maybe?

 

[Brad]

What is 22?

If you meant pure then math looks good. Less tin is OK too. I use lots of range scrap at roughly 1.75 Sb, .25 Sn. It heat treats well and works for me.

 

[waco]

What is 22?

Sorry. I have 225lbs of .22 long rifle lead from an indoor range.

 

[waco]

I'm not sure what the SB content, if any, is in .22lr ammo.....

 

[Brad]

Not much I bet.
That alloy would be good. Heat treated they will shoot well in your 30-30.

 

[waco]

Water drop okay, or heat in the oven?

 

[Rick]

My 30-30 shoots straight CWW +2% Sn AIR COOLED very well to over 1950 fps. So does my 308 actually. Yours is a hunting load, were it me I wouldn't HT at all. 12 BHN CWW and get some expansion, HT'd there will be little to none.

 

[waco]

50/50 cast and shoot. Easy enough. I'll give it a go....
Thanks Rick.

 

[Brad]

Rick uses straight wheel weights plus 2% tin, not 50/50.
He uses a slightly richer alloy air cooled, I use 50/50 heat treated.
I make up for a weaker alloy by heat treating.

Either one will do good work.

 

[Rick]

50/50 cast and shoot. Easy enough. I'll give it a go.... Thanks Rick.

Nope, not what I said. Straight clip on weights with added 2% tin. 50/50 is another animal.
.

 

[fiver]

lets look at the original alloy again.
water dropped ww alloy will give you 18 bhn. [or about 50% over the air cooled bhn of 12]
you gained 4 bhn quenched or around 1.5 over air cooled ww alloy.

 

[waco]

lets look at the original alloy again.
water dropped ww alloy will give you 18 bhn. [or about 50% over the air cooled bhn of 12]
you gained 4 bhn quenched or around 1.5 over air cooled ww alloy.

So. Do I just stick with this, or just run ACCOWW?
My original concern was that 20-22 was just too hard. Little to no expansion.
Maybe it would work okay? I'm not sure. Like I said, I have no first hand experience using cast on game.

 

[Rick]

Everybody has their own ideas on what is best. My thought is that if it works don't fix it. If straight CWW with a little Sn shoots well, and will give you some expansion without breaking apart why fix it. If it works it doesn't need HT. If it works it doesn't need any pure Pb blended in. And it sure doesn't need any type metal. Keeping it simple in my book is always best as long as it works. If it works don't fix it.

 

[Ian]

12 BHN CWW and get some expansion,

Even then you need every bit of 2K fps to do it.

The softer the better. I've had COWW+1% tin, air cooled at 14 bhn, pencil through big bones and come straight out the other side with zero expansion @ 1800 fps, more than once. For deer I'm a huge fan of very high velocity/blunt points, or medium-slow and big, soft bullets. 30 cal and WW alloy is a middle ground that just doesn't work for me unless I make a CNS shot. This is one of the big reasons why I started pushing the velocity up, and got much better results doing so. It's pretty simple to get 21-2200 fps from a 170-grain .30-30, and 12 bhn (if your WW are that soft) would be perfect at that speed with a little tin. 2400 fps and water-quenched 50-50 with no extra tin @19 bhn is pretty devastating to anything it hits.