Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Optimum hardness of cast bullets

I’m looking to settle on a bear defense round. I live in grizzly county and take bear safety seriously, I’ve encountered 2 grizzlies while elk hunting the past 3 years and one charged me, but fortunately it was a bluff. I never go into the woods around here without being prepared.

I have a model 625-6 I just acquired and have found a pretty accurate load with 300 grn Oregon Trail Laser Cast bullets with a middling load of 2400 and a mv of about 950 fps. The advertised hardness of these bullets is 15 bhn. Is that hard enough for my velocity? I know we have some cast bullet experts here (looking at you jpw) that I’m hoping can give me some direction on this.

Thanks in advance!

That's more than enough for that velocity.

I sent one of those bullets lengthwise through a whitetail from a 45lc carbine....guessing 1000fps tops. They should rock on bears.

Would that change with cartridge or caliber?

I mean - same velocity in a 454 or 480 etc - still ok?

I just got a lead melting pot and a 480 bullet mold. I haven't read the Lyman book yet - will do so while traveling this week for work.

The problem with that is determining the actual hardness of your bullets after casting.

The best isgo to Rotometals and buy blended alloys. At least then you have some idea of the general ball park.

But hardness changes depending on handling. Bullets naturally harden over time. Water quenching out of the mold will change hardness. Heat treating after casting can harden bullets.

I use random scrap and attempt to add Tin and Antimony to achieve a desired hardness. The Lee hardness tester is fairly inexpensive. It is accurate, in my opinion, to about 1.5 significant digits.

In other words, I can determine a 12 hardness from a 17 with mine.

BHN is nominal. I'd pick up the velocity just a bit.

At that velocity it is hard enough. Caliber in immaterial

What JWP said...

As a general rule, most commercial cast bullets are a good deal harder than they really need to be. This is so they don't incur damage during shipping and still look all nice and fresh when they arrive at your door. With most commercial cast bullets you're good up to around 1,400fps. After that, you want to start getting persnickety about your lead alloy and hardness.

Thanks - I'll be casting my own, once I get the gear together. I don't anticipate buying or using wheel weights but buying from rotometal

What happens after 1400fps? Barrel leading? Bullet deformation on impact?

I have a 625 45 colt mtn gun if that's what yours is? I wouldn't load it as hot as some take their ruger long colts. You can go a bit hotter than standard but I never take my 250 xtps past about 1100 in that gun.

I just got done casting some new bullets fir mine tonight too. They are from the Lee 252g mold. It's a semi wadcutter with a wide front meplat that looks good. I'm going to powder coat them and see how they shoot. If they shoot at about 1050-1100 fps they may be my new long colt load. I used 1 pound monotype to every 4 pounds of ww lead so they shouldn't be too hard. I'll hammer some after they're coated and see how they hold up.

The 300g bullets are great in the rugers but I go a bit lighter in my smith because I like to run around at least about 1100 fps and I'm not comfortable doing so with 300g ones. The 250 cast at even moderate hardness penetrate very well.

Bb