.357 with Lead HP's

[wade45]

          This will be my second year deer hunting with my .357 (a 4 inch S&W28) and I was impressed with its results last year. I hammered a big doe last season at about 40 yards and she piled up in a heap after only going 10 yards without a portion of her heart. That was done with a 180 gr. XTP over H110. Admitingly the the bullet didn't expand leaving only a .357 hole through the deer even after exiting the right shoulder. So I was wondering if anyone ever uses hardcast lead hollow-points? My family grew up on lead bullets and my father gave me some that weigh 168 grs. and in tests I've done they seem to give the same amount of penetration as the 180 gr. XTP and flatten out almost dime size without hardly any fragmenting. All were sitting on top of H110. 

[S.B.]

Your saying the XTPs don't expand and your hard cast lead does?
Not very hard, I'd say. What velocity are you shooting the XTPs?

[Larry Gibson]

You are probably only getting 1000-1070 fps with those 180s out of your 4" barrel.  At 40 yards the impact velocity was not enough for those XTPs to expand.  A "hard cast" HP does not expnad very well either.  If anything the nose will just chunk off.  However I have got escellent results with a soft cast gas checked bullet (3578156) that was HP'd and shot at 1400+ fps out of a 4" .357 revolver.  Expansion and terminal effects were excellent.  Also for deer when using a 4" .357 the 125 HPs and SPs at 14-1500 fps kill much better than heavier jacketed bullets. 

Larry Gibson

[Graybeard]

If they expanded they were of pretty soft lead and not hard cast. Pure lead HPs expand in that manner but also tend to lead if pushed very fast. A gas checked almost pure lead HP from a mould like the Lyman 358156HP can be made to expand in the manner you descripe but really expansion and penetration are enemies of each other.

Just use a hard cast or a 158 JSP and don't worry about expansion.

[.357 shooter]

I agree with Larry on this. It is not so much your bullet choice as your short barrel and bullet choice together. With my shorter barrels under 6 inch I use 125-158 grain remington soft points. And with longer barrels I don't use anything heavier than 158's. I run them 125 grain at 1400-1500 and the 158's at 1200-1300. With these two combos I get full penetration with some exspansion. With the shorter barrels I feel you need to shoot the lighter bullets 125-158 to achieve the velocity for exspansion. With the .357 I like the compromise of exspansion and full penetration a good soft point gives at the right velocities.

With the heavier bullets they just pencil through like a hardcast. With the small diameter of the .357 the key for me is some exspansion with penetration and put the bullet behind the front shoulder.


Bryan