WW balls will do all the penetration you will need. I've driven a WW ball through both shoulders of a bull moose with minimal damage to the ball (cuts from bone only) and no flatening. Hardening them further might just be a waste of time.
; I've never used metal cups. Not sure what you read?
: I've picked up AA and other plastic wads at the local trap range and cut off the posts and petals and used those. They work just fine.
: I've assembled a bunch of new RB loads using herco (I've got a bunch) and the base (petals removed) from shot steel shot wads. As there is no cushion, but a nice cup after trimning, they are loaded right side up with the squarish gas check down, as normal. the cup is slightly smaller inside than the ball, but that doens't matter, it'll hold the ball centred.
; I did better shootng with just the gas check off AA wads than with petals left long enough to support the ball. I don't have a theory as to why, it just happened that way.
; To harden the balls, you'll need more than 400F- more like 465F. They will reach maximun hardness in 24 hours after quenching. Immediately after quenching, they'll still be just about as soft as normal WW metal. They take time to re-act to the heat treatment. Minimally hardening them as with 375F to 400F will probably not make any difference to their penetrative power. Straight WW metal will give all you need, I'm sure.
; You can use the data from any loads with like-weight projectiles for similar ballistics. In general, the larger the bore, the bigger the change is needed to make any noteworthy difference.
; As with any handloading senario, always proceed with caution - start low and progress.
; Good luck and keep us/me posted as to your results.