Spindrift
Well-Known Member
Lately, I have been entertaining myself with a little expansion testing with subsonic loads, using HP bullets. I don’t really have any need for such loads; just some clean, innocent fun.
The sensible thing would probably be to start with a suitable alloy, like a binary lead/tin alloy. But my organizational capacity just can’t take another alloy, things are chaotic enough as it is in my reloading room. So, I’ll try two different alloys; range scrap BHN 11-12, and my default do-it-all BHN 15. I’ll test different HP sizes and -types, with my two alloys.
My main expansion medium will be water containers; because it’s free and convenient.
I’ve tested a few bullets now. The first was the MP 312-440 (a.k.a «Hammer of Thor»), BHN12. It expanded beautifully. One fragment in the second container, one fragment in the third and the rear end of the bullet in the fourth.
The MP 311-180 SIL, BHN12, penetrated clean through 5 containers before it exited my stack of containers. No fragments, no expansion.
The MP312-159 («Hunter») have the same large HP as the Hammer of Thor. It is the red one, below. I wanted to see if it would expand when cast from BHN 15. I shot it through a half-gallon milk carton, stacked firmly with wet newspaper, then into water containers. It went clean through, no expansion.
Observations so far:
-Large HP + BHN12: expands nicely
- small HP + BHN12: no expansion
-Large HP + BHN15: no expansion
The sensible thing would probably be to start with a suitable alloy, like a binary lead/tin alloy. But my organizational capacity just can’t take another alloy, things are chaotic enough as it is in my reloading room. So, I’ll try two different alloys; range scrap BHN 11-12, and my default do-it-all BHN 15. I’ll test different HP sizes and -types, with my two alloys.
My main expansion medium will be water containers; because it’s free and convenient.
I’ve tested a few bullets now. The first was the MP 312-440 (a.k.a «Hammer of Thor»), BHN12. It expanded beautifully. One fragment in the second container, one fragment in the third and the rear end of the bullet in the fourth.
The MP 311-180 SIL, BHN12, penetrated clean through 5 containers before it exited my stack of containers. No fragments, no expansion.
The MP312-159 («Hunter») have the same large HP as the Hammer of Thor. It is the red one, below. I wanted to see if it would expand when cast from BHN 15. I shot it through a half-gallon milk carton, stacked firmly with wet newspaper, then into water containers. It went clean through, no expansion.
Observations so far:
-Large HP + BHN12: expands nicely
- small HP + BHN12: no expansion
-Large HP + BHN15: no expansion