Why heat-treat bullets?
For every alloy hardness there is a limit to the speed at which the bullets can be shot. The harder (tougher) they are the faster they can go. In my case, I was shooting in the Cast Bullet Association registered matches at 100 and 200 yards. As such, I wanted to shoot 30 caliber bullets as fast as I could to minimize wind drift. I didn’t care about expansion, I just wanted to get the bullet to the target as fast as possible before the wind blew it off course. It’s no secret that velocity with cast bullets is limited to the strength of the bullet. To increase the strength, you either have to use an alloy rich in tin and antimony or heat-treat the lead. Rich alloys such as Linotype, Monotype or Foundry type are quite expensive as compared to the commonly available wheel weights. The neat thing about wheel weights is that they are cheap, contain all the alloying elements necessary to be heat treated, and are commonly available. We’ve mentioned making rifle bullets hard but pistol bullets
