Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns How low Brinell for 1200fps?

Inquiring how hard or soft can a bullet be for loads in the 1100- 1200 fps range? Searching for a nice cast bullet that isn't going to be more expensive than jacketed for an All Around bullet in medium 45 Colt. Somewhere I stumbled onto a 270-285 grain Keith style bulk bullet at the right price. Maybe Missouri? But I think Brinell only 15. Not sure that's enough for 1100+ fps?

Also. Way back in the day when I was a Pup...my first handgun at 21 was a Smith 629 with 8 3/4" in 44. Recall shooting at a grouse with a cylinder full of 180 factory. No ear pro. My ears felt like they were bleeding! 31 years later and a career with firearms to include multiple days per week running Quals at an indoor range have put a beating on my hearing. Even with inners and outters.

Should a guy be hunting and not get ear pro on prior to taking shots.....is there much difference in hearing damage/noise running a say 300 grn LFNish bullet at 1020fps vs 1100 fps (subs vs supers)?

Leading and accuracy will be more dependent on bullet fit than hardness.

Check your cylinder throats and slug your bore and size or buy bullets accordingly. With a good fit and good lube you can have good success with pretty soft bullets.

Any shot with no ear pro is going to damage your hearing to some degree. But IMO 1000-1100fps doesn’t hurt nearly as much as 1350fps factory loads. I think powder type has something to do with it as well, H110 type fire breathing loads produce more blast than light to middle of the road loads with Bullseye or Unique type propellants. YMMV

Yep. And a Brinnel Hardness of 15 should be just fine if the cast bullet is properly sized for that particular gun.

MBC is either 12 or 18 - your choice. 18 is plenty hard.

I don't think your ears are going to notice the difference between 150db and 160db. Use electronic muffs if you are worried about it.

12 will work fine at your desired velocity

12 is fine, in fact you can go pure lead if your fit-up is conducive to low leading, also a gas check helps. Dimensional trial and error at that point but I’ve driven 4% tin lead at 1200 with success.

My hearing is bad. Anything without hearing protection is bad. Problem is when you’re hearing gets bad you think that your ears are tolerating the noise but they are still getting damaged. I can rip off 44 mag and not have my ears ring. that’s not good.

IIRC, Elmer's 1-16 tin lead didn't seemed to be around 10-12 BHN and he fired more than a handful of them for years at full power or close enough to it, even with less than stellar lubes and he was pretty successful with his 44 Mag load. But he specified "exact groove diameter". In later years he added .001 to that specification.

I've used 11 BHN WW with some tin with full 44/45 loads with nary a bit of leading in wide land guns like the Smiths. Its not always so much the speed, but the pressure generated and the friction that goes with it.

A lead 22 rimfire bullet goes within your target velocity, but most of them don't lead the barrel unless dimensions are out of whack. But the pressures are low and the fit, seal and support is there. They aren't close to 15 BHN.

The leading from soft alloys comes from stripping at the land engagement or over stressing the base (and the lube). If the stripping happens at the base where pressure and friction is greatest, the seal and support is lost and leading will layer on the rifling edge. A gas check usually cures the stripping and base stress, especially if theres lube in front of the check.

Bullets that seat deeper are generally less noisy, slow powders are noisier than fast ones, but they all make racket.

I usually hunt with the noise activated, sound enhancing muffs.