Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting Bullet Recovery- A Rare Opportunity

I love studying the performance of bullets, especially cast bullets, but it's not often I get to recover them from game. Especially not three from the same animal!!

Yesterday I went deer hunting, hoping to get a shot at a boar that's been roaming the area. I carried my 4 5/8" Blackhawk .41 Magnum loaded with bullets from an MP brand H&G 258-style mold. As luck would have it the boar showed up a bit over 50 yds. out. My first shot with a cast HP hit him behind the right shoulder. He trotted off and spun a couple of circles then stopped with only his rear end show from behind a tree, so I put another HP high just ahead of his left hindquarter. He ran off in the brush, and after waiting a few minutes I went after him. I found him laid up in some grass and put a solid SWC (same bullet) behind his left shoulder from 30-35 yds. out, at which point he took off again. I found him a short distance away standing in some shallow water in a slough. I put the fourth solid SWC behind his right shoulder from 25 yds. or so out at which point he ran up into a thick bush in the water. It was getting dark so I walked back to camp and returned the following day. I waded in and dragged him out of the bush and started looking for bullets, of which I found three.



The only bullet I didn't find was from the first shot. Since it went into the shoulder area, I doubt it penetrated much. As illustrated above, these animals have incredibly thick skin, especially the neck and shoulders of the boars.

I was really surprised that the recovered HP retained virtually 100% of its weight. I was also surprised to see the damage to the solid SWC's. After some reflection, I realized that these bullets were probably annealed/softened during the powder coating process as they are heated to 400° for 20 minutes then allowed to cool. From now on, I'll quench them right out of the oven. On a side note, I'm not a big fan of PC-ing, but this revolver, despite everything I've tried, leads.

I've killed a lot of hogs and a fair amount with revolvers and cast bullets, but I've never had one take that many bullets before giving it up. He was tough, for sure!

Yep, it’s one thing to see how a bullet will group, recovering them and seeing how they performed is another level!

Looks like they performed perfectly. What will you gain by quenching them and keeping them hard? I’ve never thought about them getting annealed in the oven. Have you checked the hardness before and after? I’m curious because I bake mine the same temp and time as you.

Quenching ACWW typically hardens from ~14 Bhn to around 22 Bhn. Unfortunately I've messed up my lead hardness tester and am waiting for instructions from the manufacturer on how to recalibrate it.

That's a fun way to recover cast bullets.

Thanks for the pictures & all that typing. Great read.

I’ve always heard water quenching after casting hardens the bullets but I never thought about what was happening while baking on the powder coat. I’m no metallurgist, obviously, but interesting how brass softens and lead hardens when heated.

Here are a few more I've managed to recover over the years-

A .358" 162 gr. RNFP (9.5 Bhn) running 1700 MV cast from an MP 357 Carb HP mold 4 cavity mold shot out of a '92 Rossi .357. The sow was probably 40 yds. out and the bullet struck the left shoulder, missing the bone, and angled back, stopping under the skin on the far side.



A .430" 243 gr. SWCHP running 1105 MV (9.5 Bhn) cast from an MP 433-244 mold and fired from a Uberti Flat Top .44 Special. Range was 37 yds. and the bullet struck the buck behind the left shoulder and went through the right shoulder, stopping under the skin.



A .430" 258 gr. SWC running 1150 fps MV cast from an RCBS 44-250 KT mold shot from a '73 Uberti Lever in .44 Special . If memory serves the alloy was WQWW. Impact velocity at a bit under 100 yds. would've been around 1050 fps. The bullet struck the buck behind the last rib on the left side and angled up until it stopped under the skin at the juncture of the right shoulder and the neck. Obviously it glanced off of a bone somewhere in its travel.



A .452" 265-ish gr. SWCHP (9.5 Bhn)at 1045 fps MV cast from an MP 45-270 Ohas HP 2 Cavity Moldshot out of a Uberti 45 Colt. The buck was just under 50 yds. and the bullet struck him high behind the shoulder, clipped the spine and buried in the backstrap on the off side.

Thank you for bullet digging. I appreciate the information