This is the seventh video in the Powder Coated Cast Lead Hollow Point Bullet Testing series, which is a long experiment testing powder coated cast lead hollow point bullets made from various alloys and fired at various velocities. In this video I have a little fun using various methods to measure the hardness of the lead alloys used to cast the bullets that will be used for this test.

I did this video some time ago; it’s a good idea if you're into mixing.

How much does Quenching increase Cast Bullet Hardness? If you’ve been following my articles for any length of time, chances are you already know I water-quench virtually all my cast bullets.  While the fact that quenching increases hardness is fairly well known and agreed upon, I’ve always wondered just how effective it really is.  Over […]

Shooting the 44 Special cast with the penta hollow point, 1:25 alloy with a BHN of 8.7 into Clear Ballistics Gel from my Charter Arms Bulldog.

Alternate methods of swaging military crimps, and the Lee Hardness Testing kit for cast bullets. Jerry 19112A On A Budget

Does Cast Bullet Hardness Change after Powder Coating? The practice of powder coating ammunition is quickly gaining momentum among the cast bullet community, and it’s not hard to see why.  Although tedious at times, powder coating bullets can reduce or even eliminate the need for conventional bullet lubes as well as further reduce barrel leading. […]

Using the Lyman 452423 Keith Hollow Point, 234 grains, 8BHN with 8.6 grains of Unique inside a Starline case primed with a CCI-LPP. This’ll get’er done boys! It exited the jug at 440FPS and came close to a 1 inch mushroom. CharlieBrassStufferBorn in 1950…HS grad, some college, no degrees, served in the US Marine Corps, […]

Shooting the 357 Magnum Hollow Point (loaded to ~1100 fps), 1:16 alloy with a BHN of 10.4 into Clear Ballistics Gel from my Taurus 66.

Shooting the 38 Special +P cast with a hollow point from the 1:25 alloy with a BHN of 8.7 into Clear Ballistics Gel from my Ruger LCR.

Shooting the 44 Magnum cast with the penta hollow point, 1:16 alloy with a BHN of 10.4 into Clear Ballistics Gel from my S&W 29 with a 6.5" barrel.

My friend Harry, from the 'Backyard Inventor' channel, has sent me a mould that will revolutionize the way I cast and test those castings for hardness. A simple modification to a Lee 2 cavity mould that will take all the laborious work from measuring Brinnel Hardness.

Does Cast Bullet Hardness Change over 1 Week? It’s been a week now since we cast up a batch of water-quenched and air-cooled bullets as part of our ongoing lead hardness testing project. Have they changed since they were first cast, and if so, how? Method As with the previous experiment, five bullets each were […]

Believe it or not, it's been 12 months since we cast a batch of air-cooled and water-quenched bullets for the series on lead hardness testing.  With a solid year's worth of results, I'm really excited to see what's taken place with our alloy.

About Today’s Volunteers . . . Pictured above are todays test subjects, the .45ACP stuffed with a 212 grain Poly Coated Penta Hollow Point. Cases loaded with CCI-LPP’s and charged with 4.9 grains of TiteGroup. In the Chrono test they averaged 891 FPS and had respectable ES and SD numbers as you will see later […]

Shooting the 44 Magnum loaded with the 200 grain Speer GDHP at about 1100 fps into Clear Ballistics Gel from my S&W 629.

OK, had this idea, couldn’t sleep so made this video on it. Empty the Lyman Brass Smith Powder Measure without removing it from the base. Uncle Jim seemed to struggle with it. So I fixed it! I modded a junk microscope to hold my 20X microscope for the Lee  hardness tester, too. Middle of the […]

This is a long winded follow-up to my recent video asking:  why do most of my 45ACP bullets shot from my 1911 have "funny" marks on the side?  Also, how soft can our cast bullets be in our semi autos before the chambering process causes too much damage to the bullet nose as it contacts the feed ramp?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Does Cast Bullet Hardness Change over 1 Month? It’s been a month now since we cast up a batch of water-quenched, and air-cooled bullets as part of our ongoing lead hardness testing project.  Have they changed since they were first cast, and if so, how?  Lets go ahead and test five bullets from each group […]

Lee Precision’s Lead Hardness Test Kit In this article we’ll be taking a look at Lee Precision’s Lead Hardness Test Kit.  The first thing people usually ask about these is why you’d ever want to test the hardness of cast bullets to begin with. The short answer is that bullet hardness plays an important role […]

Casting Lee TL358-148-WC bullets with a new mold. Jerry 19112A On A Budget

As a followup to my recent tests with quenching cast bullets in antifreeze and brine, I decided to do a pair of secondary tests using chilled versions of the same fluids.  One of the advantages to both these liquids is that they can be cooled below the freezing point of water, potentially increasing the temperature differential between the coolant and the bullet.

Why do most of my 45ACP bullets shot from my 1911 have "funny" marks on the side?  Also, how soft can our cast bullets be in our semi autos before the chambering process causes too much damage to the bullet nose as it contacts the feed ramp?  Inquiring minds want to know!

Lee Hardness Tester Upgrade

Bullet casters may not want a large quantity of a certain hollow point design. If so, they can certainly avail themselves to hollow point cast bullets from some of our fine commercial casters like Matt's Bullets.