Recovered cast bullet from whitetail

[mag41vance]

This is a picture of a recovered cast bullet that was a follow-up shot from about 60 yards.

[Doctor Sam]

What did the first shot do?

[mag41vance]

What did the first shot do?

 The first shot, at a distance of 70yards struck the quartering to Deer just in front of the left shoulder, and exited the right side about 3 inches above the bottom of the chest and 3 inches behind the right front leg. The first shot went through separating the right lung from the heart, leaving an exit wound was approximately 1.5 inches. The deer ran about 60 yards pouring out blood and crashed about 20 yards before getting to the river. The deer was facing away  from my Dad (who was the hunter) with his head up looking toward the river. Since the deer had not succumb to his wound, I suggested an anchor shot, to eliminate any possibility that we might have to retrieve a deer from the cold river. At age 69 it was my Dad's first whitetail ever.
 The second shot was probably not necessary.

[Doctor Sam]

Outstanding!  Congratulations to your Father.
1.5 inch exit wound is excellent performance.

[LAH]

The  bullet did well considing the ribs broken. Tell you Dad congrats from Creeker.

[Leftoverdj]

Those bullets were cast with a pure lead nose of about 55 grains with the rest of the cavity quickly filled with WW + 2% Tin. I cast a few noses only and found that they have a convex base which will project into the harder alloy when the mould is filled. From the pictures and Vance's weights, I am guessing that the nose expanded violently, forcing the front of the harder body apart before disintegrating or separating. Since the harder body expanded to .410, I would guess that the nose reached .55 or .60 caliber before failing.

It's sweet because Vance and his father are my neighbors and good friends. It's sweeter yet because we got into this because a know-it-all told us that such bullets could not be made to work in microgroove rifling.