Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Hard Cast vs HP - Defensive carry

Been shooting HC in 357 and 41 mag for bout 30 years now never had a problem with leading at magnum velocities with a properly sized 18 to 20 brinnel hard cast. Swaged or ~12 brinnel cast definitely.

18 to 20 brinjal with a proper lube works perfectly from a 454

Even from the 1980s on bullet makers were questioning and beginning to make better hollow point bullets for defense. And they've gotten to be pretty good at it. But performance is not a given with hollow points, and I've developed my own testing protocols.
I'm pretty impressed with what Winchester loads in their bonded PDX1 line, and have found them to perform remarkably. Just recently bought a case of the Federal 9mm HST 147, and early results are promising.

But back when I was younger and always money hungry what I didn't do with a .45acp 200 SWC, made from wheel weights, didn't need to be done. Granted, I've never killed a charging bear, or a big ass elk with a handgun.
Mackay's comments about the consistency of performance with a hard cast handgun bullet are in line with my experience.

I shoot all cast/hard cast in my .45 Colt, .45ACP, .38 Special, and 9mm. I cast all of my own but wouldn't be averse to commercial cast.

Currently, my 9mm bullet is a Lee .356-120 (drops at 124 grains) cast from wheelweights and heat treated. Loaded over 5.5 grains of Silhouette, it gets 1050fps from my Sig P365. It shoots well and the Lee 6 cavity mold rains bullets, buuuut.........

Was wondering if there was a recommendation for a hard cast bullet (or mold!) with a wider metplat (the Lee runs about .2. Would like .25-.26) that ran closer to 147 grains, and penetrate deep and in a straight line, and obviously feed reliably in a small frame 9mm (have been spending a lot of time on a new lease where pigs abound and an encounter with a black bear isn't out of the question and don't always want to pack a big pistol).

Thinking a better bullet out of the Sig at 900-950 would do great things......

I use the 148 grain FP hard cast that Mackay Sagebrush loads and it chronographed at 1062 FPS out of my Sig P-365XL

Although it is difficult to measure the exact narrowest part of the meplat (your or jwp475's measurement may differ), I was getting right at about .24 with the Buffalo Bore/Mackay_Sagebrush 147/148 grain hard cast. Also, out of my Standard P365 with the 3.1 inch barrel, I was getting an average of 1010 with the Buffalo Bore and 989 out of Mackay's (with a lower ES). Both are rated at +P. With the XL, both the Buffalo Bore and Mackay_Sagebrush loads were within 4 fps of jwp475's 1062. Mackay's are much more cost effective, BTW.