great hunt gone bad

[bobcat]

With a soft bullet like the Powerbelt, it's likely that you would get less penetration the closer it is. If you would have hit the bull behind the shoulder, it probably would have worked just fine.

[J Snow73]

 Ya I'm with you too hoofer I would prefer not to be put in that situation again without knowing what i have loaded up will do the job. With the 454 being open for either deer or elk i guess we were prepared more on the deer side and shoulda been the opposite with only 2 days for both i guess lesson learned. I heard from my wife a while ago and they didn't find anything up there and after listening to all the other comments really shed some light on your situation and ours. Thanks for posting what happened with you this weekend cause I was kinda  makes more sense now

[grundy53]

elk are definetly tough i bet he survives.

[JackOfAllTrades]

 

OK, now that he's still huntin this critter, and he's decided to switch lead offerings,  I've got a couple questions.

First, I'll submit http://castboolits.gunloads.com/ for a wealth of people that cast their own bullets for every type of firearm and purpose imagineable.

Then I ask, how much do those precast un/proven lead offerings cost for those front stuffers?  I've been casting bullets for my pistols/competitive pistols for accuracy and performance on wild game. I've taken deer with my concoctions and would present a hard cast bullet on Elk or Bear. -Harder is not always more accurate but there is a range of hardness where as hunters we should be able to get the accuracy and terminal performance we're looking for.

All it takes is a mold, a melting pot, ladel, some lead, antimony and tin and you can cast your own bullets to give the performance you're looking for. Water quenching will harden them even more depending on what alloy you're concocting.

Some would say you can do better than using a jacketed bullet, for the speeds that you're pushing them through a ML.

So why don't any of you cast your own ML bullets?

-Steve

[trophyhunt]

My wife shot a bull at 10 feet with those powerbelts, she also hit the shoulder and we never found that bull either. I don't think you need much more than a 300 grain bullet, but now we can use copper jacketed and next time we shoot behind the shoulder.

[whacker1]

The Barnes solid Copper bullets are roughly $30 for 20 rounds.  Expensive, but performance is what we are looking for.   I thought about casting my own a few years ago, but with how few I shoot each year, it didn't make sense.  I may shoot 15 - 20 per year if I target practice a bunch.  I have only shotten a couple this year.

[bobcat]

Steve, I don't cast my own bullets but I do use hard cast bullets made by Harvester and they're only $10.50 for 20 bullets w/sabots. I'm using the 330 grain but they also offer a 400 grain that would work well in rifles with a faster twist than mine (my Lyman Deerstalker is a 1 in 48 twist.)

[J Snow73]

All it takes is a mold, a melting pot, ladel, some lead, antimony and tin and you can cast your own bullets to give the performance you're looking for. Water quenching will harden them even more depending on what alloy you're concocting.


So why don't any of you cast your own ML bullets?

-Steve

Man you make it sound so easy. Granted after spending umpti$$ and then the learning and trial and error to me personally is way more money and time then the average hunter would consider. My grandfather and father did what you are suggesting ,but I feel that is way more far and in between then it was years ago

[Lowedog]

Barnes 250gr TMZ.  I dug these out of a very hard packed back stop.  Almost 100% weight retention.

[smg id=7832]

[bigbull94]

Lead bullets suck in general.I would recommend going to a good performing copper bullet.The blood trails from a lead hole is almost no existant in my opinion.I have tracked tons of game shot with round balls,sabots,conicals,etc.and everything shot with lead,the blood trails sucked.There was tons of blood in cavities but left little outside.Elk are tough,and I think you hit shoulder as well.If,you hit the upper horizontal bone on shoulder,it could have stopped the bullet.The flat part of shoulder it would have penetrated,soft bullet or not,at close range.He could have a damaged(broken)shoulder but never entered his vitals,and he will be fine!I have seen arrow shafts,broadheads,in weird places and the animal survived,until someone else did them in!If,it was me,I would have sneeked in on him while he was bedded for an hour and a half at 175yds,cut the distance and cap him again,but that is after thought.

[TikkaT3-270Shortmag]

I killed my bull with a lead bullet but did not pass through. I hit him in the heart but not a major blood trail!

[highside74]

 When I started reading this thread it sounded like my buddies hunt from Sat. He shot a bull at 80 yards with 348 gr lead powerbelts and cartwheeled the bull. High fives all around and then...This bull get's up and walk's off. Shot #2  no response. #3 bull he is headed deep down a whole. He shoot's this bull with all five powerbelts he is carrying and is out of lead. Finally has to finish him with someone else's gun and a jacketed round. During the skinning he got all five round's from that bull and none of them penetrated. All five were turned into blobs of lead. 

[whacker1]

When I started reading this thread it sounded like my buddies hunt from Sat. He shot a bull at 80 yards with 348 gr lead powerbelts and cartwheeled the bull. High fives all around and then...This bull get's up and walk's off. Shot #2  no response. #3 bull he is headed deep down a whole. He shoot's this bull with all five powerbelts he is carrying and is out of lead. Finally has to finish him with someone else's gun and a jacketed round. During the skinning he got all five round's from that bull and none of them penetrated. All five were turned into blobs of lead. 

Did you recover the jacketed round?

[highside74]

When I started reading this thread it sounded like my buddies hunt from Sat. He shot a bull at 80 yards with 348 gr lead powerbelts and cartwheeled the bull. High fives all around and then...This bull get's up and walk's off. Shot #2  no response. #3 bull he is headed deep down a whole. He shoot's this bull with all five powerbelts he is carrying and is out of lead. Finally has to finish him with someone else's gun and a jacketed round. During the skinning he got all five round's from that bull and none of them penetrated. All five were turned into blobs of lead. 

Did you recover the jacketed round?

No...shot him in the head.

[bearpaw]

I have had nothing but bad luck with hunters using all lead projectiles. Jackets are legal now, use them....

A good jacketed bullet will shoot clear through both shoulders of an elk, I have seen it. On the other hand, I have had to cut the throat on live bear that were wounded by multiple lead projectiles and I have watched many animals jump up and run off to never be seen again from lead bullets.

THose Barnes are a godsend too.....