Differential Heat Treat??

[McMullen759]

Hey all,
maybe this is in here somewhere but I have not come across it in my reading- at least not in any detail. I learned years back about differential heat treating when I got into forging (lot of fun, if you haven't tried you really should). Basically quenching only a part of your blade (or boolit) to have hardness where you need it and softness where it will be of most use. Typically you would aim to harden the edge and keep the spine soft through whatever method you wish. This has me thinking- who has applied this concept to cast boolits? seems there could be some great results by tuning your boolits to behave in a more exact and predictable way for the results you want. For example many go for very hard bullets- great for targets, but could be better for game if softer and these such things.
Ok, ok- I'll get to the point...
Has anyone experimented with this concept in different methods? Here's where my head is at for options:

1) Hard base to allow good grab at high velocities in rifles with soft tip for more of a mushrooming effect/energy dump at impact.

2) Soft base to allow better obturation/seal on firing with hard tip to enhance penetration and having almost a reverse mushroom effect where the tip swages back into the soft base on impact.

Anyone tinkered with such a concept? I'd love to hear what people have tried and how it worked out. I'm planning on trying a few options when I get everything set up for my first batch- water drop and draw back hardness on tip for a small batch, the opposite for another batch (base) and the third was thinking of trying to water drop them but very controlled so as to only get the tip/base in the quench. I'm likely overthinking this but there has to be a "perfect" balance where everything works "optimally" that would be more ideal (even if only marginally so) than trying to find a balance of hardness for the whole boolit where you nust either sacrifice the good shootability often associated with hard boolits for better energy transfer into the meat.

[HWooldridge]

Haven't tried this but I would likely stack a bunch of boolits in a biscuit pan, fill it with water until the bearing surfaces were covered, then hit each one with a propane torch. Heat the first one until the nose starts to slump and back off a couple seconds.

[Dusty Bannister]

It might be difficult to apply ferrous metal techniques to non-ferrous metals. There have been many excursions down that path of making different hardness from the same cast bullet alloy. You can see by the successes written about the virtues, how practical that is.

Some have tried casting a nose from pure lead and the remainder from hard alloy. Again, very labor intensive and weight control has been problematic. One custom mold maker even produced a ladle that only dropped a small amount of lead and the operator then followed with a normal flow of bullet alloy. If you have a plan, go for it, and document it for others.

As Bill Ferguson (the Antimony Man) used to say, "try it and see".

archive search:
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ng+bullet+nose

[McMullen759]

That's kind of what I had in mind, although for consistency/control was thinking of having them in the pan of water and set in oven/toaster oven to expose only the end to the heat of the element. I've heard of guys using different alloys and that was what got me thinking this method might be the answer to the weight/balance issues as density would be homogenous.

[Dusty Bannister]

Um, that was specifically discussed in the thread I referenced.......

[country gent]

The soft nose casting isnt to bad with the right equipment and set up. I occasionally cast 45 caliber rifle bullets with a soft nose.
I have 2 ladles one is small and holds a measured amount of lead for the nose. The second is a lyman ladle for the base.
My pot is 2 cavities 1 bigger and the second inside it. the inside pot is for the pure lead the bigger outer ring is for the hard lead base.
The small ladle is a tapered end forming the spout. held level it drains to what the nose holds. this is poured in then the ladle of hard lead is poured in forming the sprue.
The 2 alloies solder and blend together. You can see the color difference at the seam.
My small ladle was made from brass round stock drilled and the end cut at 45* with a handle attached. It is sized so that it holds the measured amount of lead.
You want to cast on the hot side.
In use bring the pot up to temp
Pre heat the mould
Pour the nose then as quick as comfortable pour the base and sprue let solidify and cut sprue.
Repeat

The double pot keeps every thing close together. I leave the ladles in the pots and run with them

[gwpercle]

Lyman used to sell a set of moulds ... #1. cast the body , with hard alloy and mould #2 cast the nose of soft alloy ... then you took epoxy glue and glued the boolit halves together after it set up you sized and lubed it ... Wah-Lah ... Hard body - Soft point
problem is it's no longer in the Lyman Catalog ! Oh Well !
Might find these moulds on E-Bay now days .
Gary

[McMullen759]

Whoops, missed the link Dusty. I think that was during the time i was having computer issues and had like 8 tabs on the go. When i get a bit of time i will definitely give that one a read, thanks.

Country Gent that is a great talk through of the process and sounds like you've got a really efficient setup for it. would love to see that in action, sounds really interesting.

Haha The epoxy thing sounds pretty sketchy, like a hillbilly/poormans nosler partition. anyone ever fired one of those into something? My instincts tell me it is unlikely to hold up well and more likely to shed half of the bullet but then, epoxy is pretty tough stuff... hmmm I'm very curious about this now- if nothing else just to know how it worked out.

[McMullen759]

Dusty, just got a look into that link. Haven't had a chance for a proper readthrough but it looks like EXACTLY what I was looking for!! Thank you so much, I'm still getting the hang of navigating/searching the site and not having the greatest of luck with the search function. Thanks again, this is great stuff!