First cast lead loads - 32 H&R mag

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Zendude

Zendude

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Finally got around to working up my 100 grn Acme HiTec bullets. I plan to test them at the range in a few days. It’s my first time reloading a cast lead bullet. All my reloading up to this point has been using jacketed or copper plated bullets. So, I bought the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook to find load data and went to work. Max load with Red Dot is 2.0grn, so I made a few with 1.7, 1.9, and 2.1 grn. Although 2.1 is slightly over max, my OAL is a little longer than the Lyman load. If the 1.9 grn load feels adequate at the range, I’ll stop there.
Some observations- very narrow load range from min to max. Also, the max load is much smaller than my 100 grain jacketed loads I had been using (2.0 lead vs. 3.1 FMJ).
My question is whether the maximum powder charge with cast lead is based more on keeping velocity under a certain point rather than reaching the maximum SAAMI pressure limit.View media item 2552
 
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With cast bullets it's about pressure and hardness of bullets.

According to Acme the Acme high tech coated 32 caliber bullets will take anything my .327 Federal Magnum will dish out to them so I know you don't have to worry about the 32 H&R loads as far as the bullet and coating goes.

The harder the cast bullet is the faster you can run it with causing leading. The reverse is true also, the softer the bullet is the slower you can run it without leading as long as your lube is up to par.

With coated bullets the hardness of the lead still will have a bearing on how much velocity you can get out of the bullet due to the rifling trying to strip the bullet due to the bullet not being hard enough to handle going from no rotation to the rifling's rotation all at once.

In the recipes in the manual you have to pay attention to what the alloy of the bullet is and know what that means to be able to get the most velocity out of you bullets with out making a mess of your barrel.
 
Capture32HR.JPG Old Alliant Data 2002 (from alliant)

Shows 3.1gr (MAX-reduce 10% to start)RD with a 98gr LRN
(zoom with your browser makes it easier to see)

Interesting that they list Herco, Blue Dot and 2400 with the LWC but not the RN
 
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Dudedog said:
View attachment 855587 Old Alliant Data 2002 (from alliant)

Shows 3.1gr (MAX-reduce 10% to start)RD with a 98gr LRN
(zoom with your browser makes it easier to see)

Interesting that they list Herco, Blue Dot and 2400 with the LWC but not the RN
Click to expand...
I wonder if the higher max load with this is because of a difference in bullet length and OAL results in a larger case volume than the Lyman load. This is why trying to find applicable load data drives me nuts. Especially when the data has a wide variation.
 
I don't shoot .32 H+R just dug up some data for you because I was curious what Alliant showed.
They don't list Red Dot in their new data, might shoot them an email just to see what they say.

A longer OAL could account for the higher charge weight, also could be due to the fact that the above is 17 year old data.
 
Two questions:

1) What firearm is the OP shooting? Original vintage H&R revolvers are not very strong and only published loads should be used.

2) What Lyman Manual is the OP using? Lyman #47 shows a maximum load of 3.5 grains RedDot behind a 100-grain cast bullet. Pressure is listed as 20,400 CUP. The Starting Load is 2.0 grains of RedDot.

A small difference in loa would not account for much difference in pressure in this case.
 
I’m shooting a 2014 Charter Arms Undercoverette. Since the cartridge was invented in the 1980s, I wouldn’t think that there would be any different old vs new load data.
My data is from the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook 4th ed. I think this is the current version. It shows a velocity of 889 fps with a 100 grn cast bullet at a max charge of 2.0 grn Red Dot. Pressure is listed as 14,300 CUP (seems weak). The bullet shape is long with 3 lube grooves which looks similar to the Acme bullet I’m using.
 
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Dudedog said:
View attachment 855587 Old Alliant Data 2002 (from alliant)

Shows 3.1gr (MAX-reduce 10% to start)RD with a 98gr LRN
(zoom with your browser makes it easier to see)

Interesting that they list Herco, Blue Dot and 2400 with the LWC but not the RN
Click to expand...

25-20 WCF said:
Lyman #47 shows a maximum load of 3.5 grains RedDot behind a 100-grain cast bullet. Pressure is listed as 20,400 CUP. The Starting Load is 2.0 grains of RedDot.
Click to expand...

Hmm...Looks like my Lyman Cast load data is very conservative on max pressure. The Alliant max load is 19.2K psi, and Lyman 47 max is 20.4K CUP. My Lyman Cast book shows 14.3K CUP. Not sure why it’s so low. The bullet in my Lyman Cast book is listed as 15 BHN, so it’s not too soft.
 
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