MV in the 1600fps range is a little on the low side for reliable expansion with Lyman #2 alloy, IMO. You certainly wouldn't want to go any slower. Also IMO, cast bullets for deer in the .30/30 ought to be a little heavier, since elastic limits of a soft alloy (necessary for dramatic expansion) gets iffy beyond 2000fps- doable in the .30/30 with 180 gr. cast bullets, and which puts you into the range of factory energies, a trick not possible with soft 160 grain bullets. My cast loads for both the .30/30 and .303 Savage (virtually identical) call for a 190 grain flat nosed bullet cast of wheel weights + soft lead and a smidgeon of tin (hardness of 10-12bhn- softer than #2 alloy), driven at 1900fps out of carbine barrels. That load has accounted for some deer, that died as if hit by factory jacketed loads, ie: either DRT or a hop-skip-and-a-jump death, depending on bullet placement.
Unfortunately I know of no commercial casters who provide a heavy soft flat nosed bullet such as that. If one wishes to pursue maximum performance on deer with cast bullets, one may be advised to start casting his own.
Another avenue to explore is hollow pointing to boost performance at slower velocities, but I'll confess to never having gone that route. I do know that again, hardness comes into play- hard can lead to shattering of the nose and no expansion. (Which might be ok, who knows?)
Having actually killed deer with slow moving relatively hard cast bullets in my mis-informed youth, I'm here to tell you they died a slow tough death. The one that really taught me my lesson took 3 shots in the bread basket, and that bullet was a 180gr. RN, the exact alloy is lost to memory but it did include linotype and was very hard, at very modest velocity out of a .30/06. I do remember the powder charge- 18gr. SR-4759. After that I wised up and started casting hunting bullets as soft as I could get away with and not cause leading in the bore, at the velocity level I deemed necessary.
Last edited by gnoahhh; 11/08/12.
