Shooting the 45 ACP cast with the penta hollow point into Clear Ballistics Gel from my 1911.

Shooting the 45 ACP cast with the round hollow point into Clear Ballistics Gel from my 1911.

Shooting the 45 ACP cast with the penta hollow point into Clear Ballistics Gel from my 1911.

Shooting the 45 ACP cast with the round hollow point into Clear Ballistics Gel from my 1911.

I spent the better part of several months conducting a series of experiments aimed at improving the quality of my home-cast lead bullets and identifying which parameters of bullet casting actually have the greatest impact on bullet performance. I wrote up the results of my experimentation in the following document: A Bullet Casting Journey .pdf […]

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.

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

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

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. […]

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 […]

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.

Does Cast Bullet Hardness change over 24 Hours? In my last article, we took a look at some tests comparing air-cooled and water-quenched bullets, and reviewed the data from both.  During the preparation for that post, I took it upon myself to cast enough ‘spare’ bullets of both varieties to perform additional testing in the […]

It's been three months since we cast up a batch of water-quenched and air-cooled bullets as part of our ongoing lead hardness testing project.  Let's see if they've changed.

It's now been six months since we made a batch of air-cooled and water-quenched for our series on lead hardness testing. Let's see where things are at.

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

A NEW PRODUCT available @TheReloadersNetwork.com in the store. This will revolutionize the way you handle the 20X power measuring scope…save time and frustration making delicate dimple measurements. My hat is off to James…’Loads Of Bacon‘ for his design, engineering and printing of this amazing ‘Measuring Scope Stand’. Thanks for watching, be kind to your neighbors […]

Part 3

Lee Hardness Tester Upgrade

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 […]

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.