Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Anybody do any deer hunting with cast?

Probably a bit late to the discussion but I'll throw a log or two on the fire anyway.

First off, I agree with Gnoahhh to a very large degree and will say I don't have his experience with big game and cast bullets. I do have some experience with hogs, competition and the devil that drives me to do as well with cast and I can with that passing fad known as jacketed bullets.

I cast my first bullet somewhere back around 2007 or so, a pure lead picket bullet for an ancient scoped muzzle loader built up in Cornish, NH around 1870. My tutor was Mr. Steve Garbe (SPG) and he gave me a few tips for that particular rifle. 1. Pure lead 2. 800* 3. Lube the slug before putting it in the hammer swage. A few years later my wife and I drove out to Cody for a shoot and I took 2nd place with the gun against about 15 other shooters struggling with 10-15 G20 full value crosswinds. Ya gotta love a breezy day in WY, no?

Well, it came to pass I rather enjoyed the process and as fate would have it a few older friends passed along some moulds of various calibers, some of which I actually had guns to use them. My first try at conventional casting was for the .30-30 with a Lyman 31141. I water quenched, sized to .309" and went to the range. I was not terribly impressed. WTH I thought, I did just what all those guys on the forum said, and.....and....but...but....

So, I went back to class in a manner of speaking. http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletNotes.htm Picked up a hardness tester, a good mix of lead/WW/Lino and tin, a few more sizing dies (Lee) and began futzing around, brewing my own alloy mixes. It worked...


On the 50 yard line, elbow rest with the Trapper:


Subsequent to that I have loaded for the .22 K-Hornet at something akin to warp speed, down to more pedestrian things like the .22 GTC, .30 Sneezer, .38 spcl,, a couple of .25's, 7x57, .38-55, .405 Win, .45-70 and a few ML cannons to name a few. I use Lee push thru sizing dies, pan lube BP bullets with SPG and use ALOX for smokeless w/o exception. I have learned a few things about bullet fit/sizing, alloy hardness etc. that are sometimes contrary to conventional wisdom.

1. Hard lead alloys are overrated by a factor of about 8 bazillion squared. In fact they are usually counter productive to my objective, which is precision.
2. Correlating hardness to anticipated peak pressure is a winner.
3. Using a bit of surgical tube to dip the bullet carefully into dilute ALOX, ie the heel and bands only, leaves the nose clean for pocket carry. Dusting the shank with a mix of mica and graphite leaves it tack free for loading, and when sized properly they will not lead the bore, though they will lead the boar with regularity.
4. I have not hunted with any alloy harder than BHN 9. The target above was shot with that hardness as well. My reference for alloy blends is based on the famous Lyman #2 alloy, generally reported as 14 BHN. The alloys I shoot are referred to on the BHN scale as .25, .50, .75 as a percentage of hardness between pure lead and Lyman #2. Roughly, they are 8, 10 and 12 BHN. It is my own weird reference, your mileage may vary. I also shoot 30:1 in the BP guns that use greasers and pure lead for the paper patch bullets.
5. You gotta slug your bore!
6. A chamber cast won't hurt if you're a world class nit picker, but it isn't mandatory.
7. A fella can do whatever he wants to do with cast bullets, but it requires a little thought and at least a half pound of diligence. Full fill out on the slug requires proper temp for the alloy and mould. It also requires a steady rhythm. It minute of gnat's ass is your goal, weight sort the bullets. My standard is .1% spread. That's about 1/2 grain for a 530 grain bullet.

The 31141 will smack the crap out of deer size game at 2,000 fps +/-
My Sneezer bullet does the same on hogs, despite it's rather slinky form. The alloy below is 75% pure, about 22% WW and the rest as tin.


Shot into soft damp sand at about 900 fps


5 shots each during load development


Hogs disapprove of this round vehemently.

Contrary to popular theory, a fella can hit stuff with a big chunk of lead and Lord Black. So says my .45-70.