At the risk of taking this thread even further off the road and into the weeds, A) You don't have to stick to low velocity lead loads to avoid leading. I've gone as fast as 26-2700 fps with decent accuracy B)Lead alloys are the topic for a long article. Nay, a book even. In short, it's up to the gun. A nice smooth bore can achieve startlingly high velocity with relatively soft bullets, whereas a rough bore will lead even with hard-as-nails alloys such as Linotype or monotype (25-30 bhn). Also bullet design, diameter, and quality of the lube factor in. Again, a topic for a book-length article. C) Half-jackets swaged onto a lead core are another topic entirely. The few I fooled with (store bought) didn't offer any advantages accuracy-wise over my cast bullets so I eschewed them. D) The wildcats I cooked up were based on the .30/30 case, which is probably about the best factory case as-is for cast bullet experimentation (along with the .303 Savage- there I brought us back on topic!). I found that the very best target accuracy with the .30 designs I've fooled with (about 25 all told) generally falls in the 1600-1800 fps range for 50 -200 yard target shooting. Slower, 12-1400fps for strictly 100yd. and less. My favorite wildcat was a .30/30 case shortened by 1/2" with no change to body taper, and a neck length equal to the factory case. Case capacity was about perfect for a charge of SR-4759 to drive a 180gr. lead bullet at 16-1800 fps. One last neat thing about the .30/30 and .303 Savage is the case capacity is good for driving a 190 gr. lead bullet at 2000fps with a charge of 3031 or 4064, and even 4350 for excellent hunting accuracy, and no leading even with an alloy soft enough for excellent expansion on game tissue.
Yes it can get quite involved. I better stop here before I burn up all of the band width for this site!
