Originally Posted by Bugger
Originally Posted by gnoahhh
Why not cast for deer? Make them sufficiently soft and they should work as well as cast does in a .30-30 or .303 Savage which I have proven to my satisfaction quite often. Something in the way of a FN bullet weighing between 165 and 190 grains can be moved at the same speed as a factory jacketed bullet. (I routinely load my .30-30's with a 190 grain FN cast relatively soft, 10-12bhn, at exactly 2000 fps out of a 24" barrel - squarely in factory energy territory, and with excellent accuracy and zero leading.)

I know I have several hundred cast for the 32. Most are cast from wheel weights. But I've bought from professional casters as well. When you say soft; what is the alloy you are using? I have a good supply of tin and plumber's lead, but I have mostly wheel weights. I thought I had bought a Lee hardness tester, but I'm not sure where it is.
So far, I've not tried cast for deer on that small of caliber. I guess I should get out a box of old American Rifleman magazines and see how they expand in those magazines.

Sorry for the delay in responding. I'm prepping for eye surgery tomorrow that has me preoccupied.

For hunting bullets, .30 caliber give or take, I focus entirely on flat nose and better yet hollow point designs (never round nose if I can help it, I've experienced dicey results with them). Alloys are simple: clip-on wheelweights with a pinch of tin added for reliable mold fill out, resulting in a bhn of 10-12. I've found the elastic limits of that alloy to comfortably support 2000fps (and a little bit more sometimes) with good accuracy, no leading, and reliable expansion at woods distances. Can't speak to long range performance because that's way outside my wheelhouse. Since clip-on lead wheelweights are becoming extinct that's becoming moot. Simple binary alloy of tin/lead work too but require a bit of experimentation to find the sweet spot. 1:20 tends to resemble the wheelweight alloy but may be a bit sketchy for expansion if the distance stretches beyond point blank range. 1:30 guarantees nice mushrooming but may be too soft and induce leading at the higher end of the speed spectrum. Somewhere in between may be just right, in general, but only controlled experimentation on the part of the shooter can tell the tale.

To those apprehensive of 2000fps or less in cartridges whose factory performance with jacketed stuff runs higher (say 2200-2400 in the case of .30-30 and .32 Special) remember they're doing that with 150-165gr. bullets. The solution when running cast bullets is to switch to a heavier bullet to achieve the same energy but at slower velocity. For me, a 190 grainer fills that bill.

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It works:

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Last edited by gnoahhh; 09/21/22.
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