Soft Nose Cast

[Haywire Haywood]

Any one have actual experience with using soft nose cast bullets for hunting?  Do they actually do  better job than a normal hard cast flat point?

Ian

[dubber123]

No firsthand experience, but Ross Seyfried did a great article on them years ago, he said with a fairly long bullet, they kind of acted like a partition, very violent expansion, but if they hit anything hard, the soft lead sheared off, leaving the hard cast shank to penetrate.  He had several samples of recovered bullets, and some had a large lead "donut", hole and all, with a wadcutter like shank of hard cast in a separate piece.  He said they are a pain to make, but were a great choice for thin-skinned game.

[Larry Gibson]

Any one have actual experience with using soft nose cast bullets for hunting?  Do they actually do  better job than a normal hard cast flat point?

Ian

I've tried numerous techniques over the years (since '68) to soften the nose or to pour a seperate soft nose.  With a fairly soft alloy such #2 or straight WWs (the ones now a days ore softer and preferred) cast thebullets and air cool. Seat GC (if necessary) in sizer that is as cast diameter or size not more tha .002". Let the bullets then harden for 12-15 days. Stand the bullets in a flat pan of cold water with water covering front driving band. With propane torch put the flame straight down on the tip of the bullet and take it off when the color of the nose of the bullet changes. Let bullets cool standing in the water (do not knock them over as this will harden the nose). Put the bullets on to a large twel and let dry. Lube the bullets and load.  I have found this technique to cause reasonable expansion well with .357/.41/.44 magnum bullets at 1400 fps in deer. With rifles in .30/.35/.45 calibers it work pretty good at velocities of 1800-2100 fps. However there was evidence of the expansion petals shearing off in the couple bullets recovered from deer.

My prefered method is to use magnum shot with 3-5% antimony (no tin!!!) and cast the bullets "hot" (slightly frosted all over) and imediately drop them from the mould into cool water.  This gives them a BHN of 15-18 which is suffiicient for upwards of 2100 fps depending on the bullet design, RPM and burning rate of powder used. These cast bullets are still very maeable and expand without shattering or excessive shearing. FP bullets with at least a 1/3 diameter meplat expand best with a HP.  The GCs are seated and the bullets lubed in a "as cast" diameter sizer.  With a M94 30-30 for instance I drive the 311041 cast as such at 2100 fps with 4895. The first 5 shots will go into 2 1/2 to 3" at 100 yards. Shots 6 through 10 will open the group to 4-5" and there will be a little leading at the muzzle.  But since I have yet to fire 5 shots at a any big game animal let alone 10 shots I figure having to clean the barrel every 5 shots so what (little bit of leading comes right out with a patch and bore cleaner).  I usually clean the barrel after 1-2 shots anyway when hunting.

I prefer a 1-20 or 1-16 tin/lead alloy for casting .357/.41/.44 magnum hand gun Keith type SWC bullets with GCs for velocities of 1400-1650 fps from revolvers or rifles.  These are air cooled for 12-15 days before loading. They expand nicely at practical ranges for these cartridges.   

I have tried the double pour with varying and inconsistant results. The Lyman bullets that cast the base hard and the nose soft and then glued them together was more trouble than I cared for. There are those that find these last two methods ok though.

Larry Gibson 

[Haywire Haywood]

Thanks guys... I think I'll try a soft nose for my 375 Winnie, if it doesn't work out so well I can still use it for a single cavity mold.

Ian