Post by Cholla on Aug 27, 2014 23:54:38 GMT -5
I moulded up some 45-270 SAA's from my Miha mould with the large HP pin for a fellow here on the forum. He wanted them to expand, so I cast them from 70% SOWW, 30% COWW and added 2% tin which netted 9.5 Bhn on several samples I tested. I've never cast bullets that were this "kind" of soft and as soon as I cut the first sprue could tell the bullet was going to be malleable. They dropped right at 270 grs.
I lubed/sized a few I had set aside for testing then loaded a handful over 9.0 grs. of Unique and chrono'ed them out of my Nm Vaquero; ~950 fps
Next I rigged up a water tank out of el cheapo laundry baskets and one of those cheap poly tarps. Long story short, this is how things worked out:
I was amazed at how well the bullets expanded and held together and equally amazed at how little they penetrated the water...maybe 18". I weighed all of the bullets and the one that lost the most weight weighed 268.5 grs. for a loss of roughly .5%. I've water tested SWCHP's (.44 caliber, 247 gr. HP @ 925 fps impact)before with bullets cast at similar Bhn, but the alloy was different in that it had more antimony (more COWW) and therefor the bullets were more brittle. This resulted in the nose of the bullet going to pieces but the bullets far, far outpenetrated the .45 caliber bullets...on the order of 36" or so of water.
So here it would appear we have a choice in cast hollowpoint bullets; we can cast soft, malleable bullets that expand well, hold together, and presumably create a wide wound channel, but do not possess good penetrative qualities (maybe like a Nosler Accubond...?), or we can cast HP bullets that are a little more brittle whose nose will go to pieces while the rear portion stays intact and penetrates (much like a Nosler Partition).
With almost unlimited ways of casting bullets, I can't help but wonder why anyone would bother an antiquated, jacketed-type bullet.
Before somebody jumps me pointing out that water is different than hair, bone, flesh, muscle, and blood, I want to point out that this test was staged to compare the reaction of bullets cast of different alloy, HP sizes, etc. and hopefully give us some idea as to how they might react on game. I do not propose that these tests will give rock solid indications as to the performance of the bullets on game.
Cholla
I lubed/sized a few I had set aside for testing then loaded a handful over 9.0 grs. of Unique and chrono'ed them out of my Nm Vaquero; ~950 fps
Next I rigged up a water tank out of el cheapo laundry baskets and one of those cheap poly tarps. Long story short, this is how things worked out:
I was amazed at how well the bullets expanded and held together and equally amazed at how little they penetrated the water...maybe 18". I weighed all of the bullets and the one that lost the most weight weighed 268.5 grs. for a loss of roughly .5%. I've water tested SWCHP's (.44 caliber, 247 gr. HP @ 925 fps impact)before with bullets cast at similar Bhn, but the alloy was different in that it had more antimony (more COWW) and therefor the bullets were more brittle. This resulted in the nose of the bullet going to pieces but the bullets far, far outpenetrated the .45 caliber bullets...on the order of 36" or so of water.
So here it would appear we have a choice in cast hollowpoint bullets; we can cast soft, malleable bullets that expand well, hold together, and presumably create a wide wound channel, but do not possess good penetrative qualities (maybe like a Nosler Accubond...?), or we can cast HP bullets that are a little more brittle whose nose will go to pieces while the rear portion stays intact and penetrates (much like a Nosler Partition).
With almost unlimited ways of casting bullets, I can't help but wonder why anyone would bother an antiquated, jacketed-type bullet.
Before somebody jumps me pointing out that water is different than hair, bone, flesh, muscle, and blood, I want to point out that this test was staged to compare the reaction of bullets cast of different alloy, HP sizes, etc. and hopefully give us some idea as to how they might react on game. I do not propose that these tests will give rock solid indications as to the performance of the bullets on game.
Cholla
