Damage of the slow, large meplat

[BUTCHER45]

     Hi Veral,

     I used a 250 grain WFN-type design with a .32 meplat made from dead-soft lead at the speed of around 650fps to take a Barbados Corsican Ram last weekend.  After taking a trip through the vitals the ram ran no farther than 12-20 yards tops and fell over, hit the ground, and immediately died.  The effectiveness of this particular cast bullet was dramatic. 
     Since sharing this experience I have received a lot of questions as to how it is possible for that combination to be as effective as it was and I have been trying to explain it to them (and myself) ever since.  The professional deer processor was flabbergasted to hear that the ram had been hit with anything but a centerfire rifle.  In his own words he said (quite loudly I might add as he was pretty excited to hear that an air rifle was used) that the ram appeared to have been hit with a 30-06; having an area of blood-shot meat around the exit-hole (shown on the shoulder in the picture) the size of a "pie plate"! 
     Mind you the foot-pounds of energy behind this bullet amounted to about 235; one-third that of a .357 magnum firing jacketed bullets but granted almost twice the bullet weight.
     I was talking with a nationally-known gun and hunting writer/enthusiast about cast lead bullets before my hunt took place and asked him if he was familiar with a certain design of hollow-point cast bullet (obviously not the design used for my ram hunt).  When I told him I was surprised to hear he had not heard of the Devastator design, his response was "I never shoot plain lead bullets in anything except my cap and ball revolver.  They foul the bore and are inferior in interior, exterior and terminal ballistics to jacketed bullets in all cartridge firearms.  That is why I don't pay any attention to them."
     I wish he had not left me guessing how he felt about cast bullets! (LOL).
     Well for some reason I don't believe that a jacketed bullet would have helped me one bit with this ram.  As far as I'm concerned the dead-soft lead 250grainer with a decent-sized meplat has proven to work as well as anything could work for my purposes.  I really can't ask for anything more except to avoid hitting the shoulder on the off-side next time so I don't ruin any more meat than I have to!  But did it EVER break him down!

     This is the first Ram to be taken at the Shiloh Ranch with an airgun.  Boy did he go down HARD!  As he wobbled right before going down I said to another hunter just after the shot went throught he vitals "he's having PROBLEMS!" as it was obvious nothing was working in the boilerroom.  One second after I said "problems" he hit the ground.  Two seconds after that  he was totally dead.  Going back in May to try to put the same shot on another Corsican using about a 210 grain WFN-type design or maybe ? .



       

[jhalcott]

  Who made that gun? Is this a noisy gun and how far can it reliably take deer sized game?

[Veral]

  I've written Butcher about the destruction of the exit wound, as reported by the meat cutter who turn his animal into edible packages.

  Based on hundreds of kills with solid flatnose bullets, I believe the plate sized blood shot area was caused by blood running into torn tissue while the animal laid on that side.  When slow moving bullets come through the skin is stretched away from the body, like a tent, until the bullet breaks through, or if it is held by the skin, until the skins elasticity brings the bullet back against the body.  When skinning an animal a knife isn't needed to get the skin off this area.  It simply falls free.  Same for the space between shoulder blade and ribs.  This type of blood shot leaves the meat edible right up to the hole with no blood shot muscle tissue.  In fact I ate the hole in a bear heart last week!  No blood shot at all.  Just a dark edged hole where the bullet went through.  In this case a 38 cal cast bullet expanded to almost 50 caliber by time it stopped under the bears chest hide.  Hit was in the ham, bullet went full length.  Same blood as described above,  Scrape or cut the jelly like blood away and the muscle has no blood shot.  When high velocity bullets blood shot meat an entire shoulder is often turned pocky with blood pockets and isn't fit to eat.

  This is not to knock the killing punch reported by Butcher (or any part of his report). As I'm sure he accurately reported what the butcher told him.   When an animal dies quick there is no further argument. 

[Lloyd Smale]

very cool gun and use for a cast bullet!!! I applaud you

[bob allen]

I too would like to know more about this airgun.I must still be in the dark ages to have missed an article on this
some where in my reading.Where can I learn more about this rifle ?

[BUTCHER45]

     I get a lot of questions that I am happy to answer questions about bigbore air rifles my only request is that you PM me with your questions as the function of this board is to gain knowledge from Veral about cast bullets and casting; and I know that side-discussions and input not directed towards Veral amount to mis-use of the board.  So please PM me and I will be happy to send info.

[Veral]

  Thank you Butcher.  I definitely can't allow side discussions on this forum, and in fact limit comments of other writers to what I can agree with, because this is the only way the forum can dispense my knowledge.  Understand that I don't edit heavy, and, in the few years this forum has been up,  have only deleted a few  responses which where ignorant writers tried to take over the forum. 

  I definitely keep the forum wide open to any kind of cast bullet information, and as regular readers have noticed throw in a few things beside which I feel are critical for people to know about, and especially what I believe is important to outdoors men.   You can expect more input from Butcher in the future as he has a very interesting 50 caliber double AIR rifle being custom made right now!!  He's the kind of nut all shooters like to hear from, and especially hearing about the experimenting he is doing with this air rifle.