Hardcast Terminal Ballistics

[efremtags]

Just wondering how people out there using hardcast ammo in rifles and pistols perceive and measure performance of their ammo of choice.

I have seen some discouraging comments on other forums on this site regarding the performance of hardcast ammo or lack thereof.

From personal experience I have been happy with 44 mag loads using 275GR hardcast on deer and wild boar. 2 boar shot dropped on the spot, 2 deer ran off and dropped within 50 yards. This seemed pretty typical performance and could ask no more of the gun I was using.

I know there are always tradeoffs in any equipment used where there are always optimal choices for whatever the situation, but  person using a large diameter caliber with a good WFN load will never be disappointed.

I wish there was a definitive method for measuring lethality of a weapon because this would end all arguments, but I haven't found it yet.

[jhalcott]

  Efrem, your first problem is DEFINING hard cast. Is it WW, HTWW,Linotype or some thing else. Is it HARDER than 15 BHN or 28 BHN.?
  Are you using a rifle or hand gun? Or is this a revolver load.  Do you worry about leading or just accuracy? Most of MY loads are self cast of an alloy that resembles Lyman #2 at around 15BHN. I worry MORE about the accuracy of the load than any thing else. IF I can put the bullet where it NEEDS to go, I have a dead animal to take care of !

[Lloyd Smale]

im a handgun hunter first a lever gun hunters second and a bolt gun hunter last and not very often. Ill take hardcast in any handgun over jacketed and ill take cast in any caliber bigger then .35 in a lever gun. My opinions have come from killing animals with them not from keyboard storys. there may be a certain instance in a hunt that bullet placement and range make a jacketed bullet optimal but theres just to many circumstances where there not and a cast bullet will penetrate and make the vitals leak every time at any range you can hit the animal and at about any angle. I here all the time that someone will say i dont need that advantage because ill only take an ideal shot. Well im here to tell you. If you handgun hunt long enough your going to blow a shot and when you do the terd hole running away may be your only chance to stop a wounded animal. I once put down a 6 point buck my nephew shot with a 243 in the guts.  When we kicked it up it took off dead away and i droped in its tracks with a 500 linebaugh shooting a 440 lfn. Bullet went right in the ass and came out the chest. Deer died right now.  Try that with a 180 grain 44 mag hp.

[efremtags]

I have used exclusively cast performance and have recently switched to beartooth bullets as a frame of reference regarding style and hardness.I also developed a load for the 45/70 using the 425 WFN piledriver JR.

The boar I shot were both hit in major bone (shoulder broadside and shoulder/head front on). I believ ethis is why the resposne was so immediate. A good hollow point would have worked just as well, but they cost 2x as much and I would not shoot as much as I do becasue of it, so part of the tradeoff is I will be more proficient with the gun I use becasue I practice more. This is a very real limitation of some ammo and Is why I shy away from some very good bullet designs.

[Idaho Ron]

Lloyd how hard do you think that bullet was? That was some great penetration. Ron

[Lloyd Smale]

ballistic cast 440 lfn cast out of 5050 ww/lyno air cooled 27 grains of wc820 gets me about 1100 fps out of my 4 inch gun. I shot that one with my old 5.5 inch gun and dont really remember what the speed was in that gun but should be close to the same.