Cast Bullets For Big Game

[Ak.Hiker]

How hard should a cast hunting bullet for big game be? I was reading the other day that the Keith bullets used by Elmer Keith were softer than a lot of the cast bullets on the market today. 

[jhalcott]

  What caliber and gun do you plan on using? Also what do YOU mean by "big game"?  Lots of elephant were killed with pure lead round balls. Many Elk and bear were too. Buffalo were almost wiped out with bullets made from an alloy of around 1/20 (tin to lead) and shot from 50/70 and 45/70 guns. A hard cast bullet (20bhn+) can penetrate much more than a soft lead one.  I use a straight Wheel weight alloy for some hunting and a slightly harder Lyman #2 alloy for other hunting chores. With a muzzle loader and round ball or conicals, I use a nearly pure lead bullet.  It is difficult to handle soft lead with out damageing it. The UPS driver will throw it into the truck and on to your porch. SO, the bullet makers cast them out of linotype or harder alloys. YOU can cast them as soft as YOU like and handle them more carefully.

[Lloyd Smale]

depends on what your hunting. Ive about come to standardize most of my handgun bullets with #2. Its easy to make a large batch and its easy to repeat when a new batch is needed. It will handle about any hunting chore and is easy to cast with. For 9o percent of hunting its actually harder then nessisary but does the job. Actually for most handgun hunting chores on game the size of deer or black bear a bullet cast with 5050 ww/pure would do the trick. Only exception to my #2 is alot of the bullets i cast for the big guns like the linebaughs are cast out of 5050 ww/lyno. I figure those guns might be called someday to take larger animals or even dangeroius animals and i prefer them a touch harder and dont want to have to start load developement all over again if a hunt llike that presents itself.

[Ak.Hiker]

Thank you for the information. I was thinking of a heavy loaded 45 Colt in a Ruger Blackhawk. In my area it would be for black bear and moose.

[jhalcott]

If I were going to hunt with this handgun I would most likely use the 325gr LSWC. It's combination of good accuracy and a proven design should allow it to perform very well on just about any game in the US. The LBT from Leadhead has proven to be very accurate in other 45 Colts I own so I may take some time to tinker with the powder charge and see if I could get the 310gr LBT group down to match the LSWC. Either bullet at 1200fps is more than a match for any deer or Black Bear and should be enough for Elk or Moose if the hunter is patient and waits for a good shot.

 Above is taken from Handloader.com

[COR]

I shoot the RCBS 270 SAA (280grs) in my .45 and it is a 15 BHN (Montana Bullet Works).  It does well against deer but I've never recovered one to see if it deformed at all, they don't deform much in mud.  I have heard of people casting as hard as 24 but I find that 15-20 does the trick on game.  Remember if you cast too hard the bullets can become brittle when striking a heavy boned animal which is not desireable. 

[Lloyd Smale]

for handgun velocitys bullet fracturing isnt even worth worrying about. We done tons of severe pentration testing and have never see a cast bullet at handgun velocitys casted even out of straight lineotype fracture. Only bullets ive seen actually fracture at handgun velocitys were water dropped bullet and then it takes a desing like a swc with a sharp transistion from the nose to the driving band to fail. Ive never seen a lfn that lost a nose unless speeds aproached 2000 fps and ive never even witnessed a swc fail using a non water dropped alloy. I have seen failures the other way though if you can consider them failures. If a nose deforms in any way because of being to soft, penetration will suffer drastically and bullets will do funny things like turn inside of an animal. Im real partial to the 5050 mix of lyno/ww. It seems to be about the best alloy for penetration. Its tough as nails and doesnt deform and stil carrys more weight then a straight lineotype bullet and that seems to add to penetration.  If a guy is going to shoot cast up past 1800 a straight linotype bullet might be a tad better. They will work at any sane speed in a rifle. If you go much over 2000 fps with cast in anything your pushing the envelope with any alloy and your going to get deforming of bullets. Thats fine as long as you know it and treat them as you would an expanding bullet. If im going to really run a cast bullet in a rifle i like to cast them with a soft nose and try for dramatic expansion. There going to deform anyway so you might as well take advantage of it and try to control it to your advantage. Some people get a little anal about cast bullets deforming but will a couple days later be out in the woods with a gun using jacketed bullets. the only time i get really conserned about it is in the big handguns that are used on very large (over 500lb) animals. A cast bullet even at 8bhn at handgun velocitys will shoot through a whitetail even if it does deform.  Just look at what the bufflao hunters did with falling block rifles shooting big hunks of pure lead. Luckily no one told them that there alloy wasnt good enough.