Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Gould Bullet

I'm thinking of getting a mold for my .45/70 and the 330gr Gould bullet looks like a good choice for deer. The design definitely has stood the test of time.

What's a good commercially available alloy that will expand and hopefully not lead at 1500-1600fps?

Thanks.

I’ve made some near pure lead bullets - the 385 grain RN Lyman #457124- which would run fine to around 1500 fps with decent accuracy. Looked like a silver dollar exited the back side.

I have an old Cramer HP mold that is similar but lighter weight. I cast a few out of a couple different alloys and shot them into catalogs.

The one I liked the best was actually close to Lyman #2. It didn't give the great big wide expanded silver dollar looking slug but acted somewhat like a Nosler Partition. The front half would open up in the first 4-6" of penetration and then shear off, leaving the base to continue on.

I was moving them along at about 1700 fps. I would think it would make a great bullet for deer and black bears.

That 330gr Gould bullet is one of the great ones.

I used it for a number of years in a 45 Colt (Bisley Blackhawk). Air cooled wheel weights were soft enough to expand at 45 Colt velocity, if you use a pointed top punch to open the hollow point a bit while sizing. At 45/70 speeds that's probably unnecessary though, unless you cast from a harder alloy or heat treat them.

You might experiment with lube amounts on that bullet too; I found best results with only 2 of the 3 grooves lubed, but that will probably change with different lubes and bullet alloys.

Thanks guys. Got a good start.