Or break down and buy a hardness tester.
I don't understand the craze for wanting really hard pistol bullets. I always, always, got better accuracy with less leading with softer bullets, in both autos and revolvers. Going to gas check designs was needed in magnums, but I still shot soft bullets. There are a few things that are counter-intuitive to a lot of guys, I guess this is one of them.
have you used many plated bullets, and do you understand the problems with them?
Some guys love using dead soft pure lead bullets, but not me other than for very light loads. I honestly have never found a load that shoots better with pure lead than with something like WW alloy, and that's over a whole lot of loads in pistols and rifles. The results on paper are pretty evident; I'm not sure what you do differently but it's obviously different than whatever I'm doing.
I also have never found a plated bullet to shoot as well as jacketed or good cast bullets.
I tried plated bullets from time to time whenever they fell into my lap. Would I or have I bought any? Why would I when I've had moulds for every application for almost 50 years now. To me, buying a bullet is anathema (except for the jacketed stuff I put through my AR).
I never said a thing about using dead soft pure lead bullets- don't put words in my mouth! WW and softer alloys fulfill 95% of my shooting needs. I shoot for around 8-9bhn for pistols and around10-12bhn for rifles, generally- certainly soft alloys by the standards bandied about on the internet these days but also rather harder than the 6-7bhn of "dead soft pure lead".
gnoahh, I'm not trying to put any words in your mouth - we're talking about plated bullets here, which are traditionally very soft, close to pure lead. Since the question was about hardening them, and you said you don't see a need for harder bullets, it sounded like that's what you were talking about.
You did not specify WW alloy, only "softer bullets". WW alloy is 99% of what I shoot as well; if we could get plated bullets in that hardness range, they'd work a lot better IMO.
To the OP - that's cool you were able to harden one, good on you for trying it. It'll be interesting to see if you get better accuracy on paper with them hardened; I suspect you should.
