Swaged Bullets

Tired of always hearing that swaged bullets were almost pure lead, I decided to contact the bullet companies I know that made swaged lead bullets.

Magnus uses 97/3 alloy for 650-800 fps. This alloy is BHN 11.
Note: This is hard enough in real life for .44 magnum, as Keith used 10 BHN for all his shooting.
 
Precision Bullets uses 92/6/2 and reports the bore-riding surfaces are 13-14 BHN. They also restrike after the coating process.
 
Hornady reports 95/5, for 13 BHN.
 
Zero uses 97/3, also, for BHN of 11
 
Speer reports it is proprietary, and they “have a max velocity of 1100 fps.”

My findings disagree. Swaged lead bullets a substantially softer that a hard cast bullet like ol' Elmer designed and used.

Elmer would have used Lyman #2 alloy at about 15 BHN

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/about-us/lab/forensic-science-communications/fsc/july2002/peters.htm

[b]The Basis for Compositional Bullet Lead Comparisons[/b]

Charles A. Peters
Forensic Physical Scientist.      Sorry about the large print, it was copy and pasted.  

Peters wrote: Bullet leads analyzed from CCI, Federal, Remington, and Winchester have contained up to 0.42 percent arsenic, 6.8 percent antimony, 2.5 percent tin, 0.2 percent bismuth, 0.22 percent copper, 0.031 percent silver, and 0.011 percent cadmium. 

  May or may not include swagged bullets? 

16:1 is BHN 11.
So, where's the disagreement?
Of course HARD cast bullets are harder. They are usually 18-22 BHN nowadays and are almost never under 15.
The point is, current swaged bullets are right where "hard" cast bullets were about 35 years ago and they just are not THAT soft.
When I started casting, HARD was 12-15 BHN and that was for rifles without gas checks.
Other reading has said he used 20:1 for most casting, including .44 Magnum development.
So, is your disagreement about ONE (1) BHN or about current HARD alloys? I'm lost.

Your statement Elmer used 10 brn when Elmer states he used at least 15 .

I'll test a few today at the plant.

Lead bullet hardness

 To soft (near pure lead) and there may be feeding problems in a 45 acp.

In the 44 mag. , high velocity/pressure  with soft lead may cause skidding of the bullet in the barrel.  Accuracy will be poor.  Plus there  is a better chance  of  leading of the barrel.

    True leading to me , means a LOSS OF ACCURACY. 

The correct bullet diameter and lube are most important. IMO.