Hollow points for hunting ???

[c_latrans]

Has anyone had any experience hunting with cast hollow points? I have the following molds.  Lee 429-240-swc hollow point,  Lee 457-405-F  hollow point and an old Ideal 358 439 hollow point.  I am casting with wheel weights and dropping into water. Firearms in use are a 10 inch Contender in 44 mag, a Handi rifle in 45-70 and a handi rifle in 357 mag.  I am looking at deer and antelope sized game.   Any experiences shared will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks Dale

[Castaway]

Some people swear by them but personally, I don't see an advantage.  If you are casting, you can control the alloy so it expands without the hole in the front.  The tendency in a hollow point is for the nose of the bullet to peel back and detach itself, depriving the bullet of penetrating mass. I prefer a big, crushing meplat to create the wound channel, saving each gram of bullet I can in hopes of reaching air on the other side.  [/i]

[Leftoverdj]

I don't have any game experience with those bullets, but waterquenched WW is going to be too hard to expand, HP or not.

[Lvl1trauma]

I took a 100 lb doe at 28 yards last week using the Lyman Devastator HP in m y 6 1/2 in 629. 19.0 Grains of 2400 with Felix lube. I can't remember but it seems like the velocity was around 1150 fps. Alloy was 30 lbs of ww, 10 lbs of pure lead, and 3 lbs of linotype. Maybe some solder thrown in for good measure. Anyway, I am pretty sure they were water dropped and were cast 1 1/2 yrs ago. The deer was quartering towards me a few degrees. It went in just in front of the shoulder bone on the right and came out the opposite shoulder. Rapid, violent expansion. I could put 4 fingers into the hole behind the shoulder that went into the chest cavity. As best I can tell most of the bullet came off in the first 1/2 thickness of the deer. Nice .44 cal exit hole. I didn't even know there was one until I skinned her out. Sort of reminded me of what a partition does. You gonna use HP bullets in a contender or rifle? You better make them pretty hard because they are- without a doubt- gonna come apart at the higher velocities.  I am gonna make my next batch a little harder than ww. Just a little limited field experience... I posted the picture on Hunt 101- Titled Lyman vs. Deer or something like that.

Lvl1trauma

[Chargar]

Lvl1trauma...I would suggest making your bullets harder won't keep them from breaking up, but only make it worse. As is, your bullets are so hard they are brittle. Glass is very hard, but it is brittle. To keep you bullets together better, softer is the way to go.

[Dusty Miller]

This whole discussion is lacking information about actual bullet hardness.  Without a hardness tester you're sorta stumbling around in the dark.  My LBT hardness tester tells me that my #2 alloy water dropped bullets are coming out at BHN 15.  I'm told that BHN 16 is ideal for hunting.  Get a hardness tester (I know, they're expensive).

[Leftoverdj]

Dusty, that sounds way low.  When did you test? And are you sure you had some arsenic in the alloy.

[Lloyd Smale]

ive used the devestator in a muzzle loader with a sabot and believe me at those speeds it did some damage. But cast out of #2 it still gave complete broadside penetration. I dont know what it would do if it hit bone though both does i shot with it dropped on the spot. It is also a very accutate bullet if casted properly in my handguns. I dont shoot it alot because its a pain to cast and for all pratical purposes it doesnt do anything that a hard cast lfn or swc will. Dead is dead. Got to agree that #2 water dropped should be testing a little harder then 16 my tester will show them at about 21-22

[Chargar]

Dusty..No 2 alloy will run about Bhn 15 when it is air cooled. No. 2 lacks enough antimony to benefit from harding, either in water or the oven. It takes almost pure wheelweight to pick up hardness from tempering.  I won't get into the pros and cons of tempering, but will simply say No. 2 won't harden. It is a waste of your time. That having been said, No 2 is a fine all around alloy for rifle and magnum pistol just as it is.

[Lead pot]

I use hollow point cast and swaged for hunting. In my .58 caliber front stuffer I use a swaged pure lead hollow point with a heavy patch because I cant find one of those plastic sabots? sp? the patched bullet works great.
I never had a need for a hard cast bullet when I found out long ago soft is better.
The swaged hollow point PP or knurled bullets I use in my sharps are of pure lead. I was able to recover two bullets from deer shot at a long distance low through the shoulder blades and the bullet was under the hide on one and the other I shot through the part facing north while it was running south it was lodged in the spine between the shoulder blades. both bullets weight over 500 grains after shot and before 558. so they lost some. But the one that went through the sholder blades was a 1-3/8" diameter mushroom.
For the .50-90 Sharps I use a 680 grain hollow point from a Steve Brooks mould, cast at 1-40 lead tin alloy.Most generally when there hit there legs just fold under them..
I guess like Lloyd said dead is dead no matter what is used. But I dont like to see them suffer from a hit that dont put them down in there track.

Kurt