Oddly the lead gas check bullet was exactly the same as the jacketed bullet??
I believe this is from the junk/rock hard lube and the low pressure loads.
Several years ago on another reloading website (castboolits) I had a conversation about alloys, lubes & how load pressures affect a bullets performance. He sent me this photo of come 44cal cast bullets he cast/shot/recovered. The top bullets are as cast, the bottom recovered bullets. Note that the grease groove is compressed in all the recovered bullets. Some more than others, it depended on the hardness of the alloy and how affective the lube is.
The bullet above is a lyman 429422/220gr swc hb bullet. I used a forester hp tool and added a hp to that cast bullet (8/9bhn). The end result is a 210gr hb hp swc using no lube, just powder coating. A 16gr load of 2400 in a 44spl case puts the load in the 18,000psi range and 1000fps+ in a 2 1/2" bbl'd ca bulldog.
As you can see in the picture above the hp opened up as is pretty impressive. What was surprising is how much the base opened up/expanded/compressed. That same recovered expanded hp pictured above, this time a side view.
Any time I see odd results like a lead bullet and a jacketed bullet having the same velocity I look at 2 things.
Bullet alloy/lube.
Bullet design.
An excellent example of bullet design:
These 2 bullets were cast from the same alloy (8/9bhn made in 150# batches).
The red bullet is a 245gr swc hp. The green bullet is a 200gr type III wc. As you can see the red bullet will seat deeper in the case/longer body & weighs 20%+ more then the green bullet.
Using the same load of pp they both have the same velocity (green bullet is actually 5fps faster) when shot in the same 2 1/2" bbl'd revolver.
If you look at the thickness of the bases of the 2 bullets the green bullet has a thinner base. It's more efficient with low pressure loads.
When you start bumping up the loads/higher pressures the stronger/thicker based bullet will outperform the thinner/smaller bottom drive banded/bullet bases.
Several years ago I did testing with 10 different bullets and 5 different powders in a snubnosed 38psl P+ loads. Pictured are 8 of the 10 bullets tested.
The same 4 bullets consistently outperformed the other 6. The worst bullet design was the H&G #51 (red bullet/bottom right). That H&G #51 was soooooo bad it +/- 70fps slower then these 4 bullets pictured below.
It good to see you testing how efficient powders are. When you find a good powder/pressure range for that powder. Testing different bullet designs is another eye opener.
Good luck and thank you again for all your hard work.
I believe this is from the junk/rock hard lube and the low pressure loads.
Several years ago on another reloading website (castboolits) I had a conversation about alloys, lubes & how load pressures affect a bullets performance. He sent me this photo of come 44cal cast bullets he cast/shot/recovered. The top bullets are as cast, the bottom recovered bullets. Note that the grease groove is compressed in all the recovered bullets. Some more than others, it depended on the hardness of the alloy and how affective the lube is.
The bullet above is a lyman 429422/220gr swc hb bullet. I used a forester hp tool and added a hp to that cast bullet (8/9bhn). The end result is a 210gr hb hp swc using no lube, just powder coating. A 16gr load of 2400 in a 44spl case puts the load in the 18,000psi range and 1000fps+ in a 2 1/2" bbl'd ca bulldog.
As you can see in the picture above the hp opened up as is pretty impressive. What was surprising is how much the base opened up/expanded/compressed. That same recovered expanded hp pictured above, this time a side view.
Any time I see odd results like a lead bullet and a jacketed bullet having the same velocity I look at 2 things.
Bullet alloy/lube.
Bullet design.
An excellent example of bullet design:
These 2 bullets were cast from the same alloy (8/9bhn made in 150# batches).
The red bullet is a 245gr swc hp. The green bullet is a 200gr type III wc. As you can see the red bullet will seat deeper in the case/longer body & weighs 20%+ more then the green bullet.
Using the same load of pp they both have the same velocity (green bullet is actually 5fps faster) when shot in the same 2 1/2" bbl'd revolver.
If you look at the thickness of the bases of the 2 bullets the green bullet has a thinner base. It's more efficient with low pressure loads.
When you start bumping up the loads/higher pressures the stronger/thicker based bullet will outperform the thinner/smaller bottom drive banded/bullet bases.
Several years ago I did testing with 10 different bullets and 5 different powders in a snubnosed 38psl P+ loads. Pictured are 8 of the 10 bullets tested.
The same 4 bullets consistently outperformed the other 6. The worst bullet design was the H&G #51 (red bullet/bottom right). That H&G #51 was soooooo bad it +/- 70fps slower then these 4 bullets pictured below.
It good to see you testing how efficient powders are. When you find a good powder/pressure range for that powder. Testing different bullet designs is another eye opener.
Good luck and thank you again for all your hard work.
. : there are lots with 44 Magnum, though...
