I have a lee 358-158-rf mold that has been modified to cast hollow point bullets. I have found that a 20:1 lead tin alloy works best for me. They drop at about 152 gr. I load them in 357 magnum brass with 5.5 gr of Universal. I don't have a chronograph, but I believe they are going between 900 and 950 fps out of my 3" barreled revolver. They open up great in water jugs. I am interested to know what alloys and velocities other hollow point bullet casters are using.
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I have two alloys in use, both are mystery alloys with 2% pewter added. The softest alloy is a range scrap alloy which age hardens to about 11 BHN. Which is a bit hard for subsonic expansion. I recently did some expansion testing with this alloy, with subsonic loads in a 30-06. I wanted to see if this «unsuitable» alloy could give subsonic expansion with some of my .30-caliber HP bullets.
Bullets tested were
- MP 327 Moulnir, large HP plain base with beercan gas check. 122grs
- MP311-410, large HP, plain base with beercan gas check. 130grs
-MP Sledgehammer, penta point, GC. 133grs
-MP 311-440 «Hammer of Thor», large HP, 150grs
-MP312-159 «Hunter», large HP, GC, 150grs
-MP 311-180-SIL, GC, small HP, 180grs
My alloy gave nice expansion with the Moulnir, the «Hammer of Thor» and «Hunter». The bullets with narrow HP did not expand. With a suitable, binary lead/tin alloy, the story would have been different of course. But I wanted to see if I could get away with the alloys already in use, without concocting a special alloy for this use.
The Moulnir is to the left in the first photo, the Hunter to the right. The Hammer of Thor is to the left in the second photo.
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For my 32/20 Browning Model 53 with 1990's WW's and 2% tin at 1600 f/s, they open up fine up to about 100 yards. FWIW
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