great hunt gone bad

[bearpaw]

you do not want to hear all the horror stories of all lead projectiles, espeacially round balls....

[h2ofowlr]

I shot the 295 grain hollow point pure lead ones at a mule deer.  I shot it twice and the two rounds never made it through the other side.  All I could find was little pieces.  I won't use them again.  They exploded inside the deer and I had to pick all the lead out.

[ing]

I've shot two elk with 295 gr Power Belts and 100 gr of Pyrodex pellets they seemed to kill them just fine. Both times the bullet stopped on the opposite side just under the hide.  I shot a spike on saturday with a saboted 300 gr Hornady XTP with 100 gr of Pyrodex pellets and he only went about 30 or 40 yards and dropped dead.  In one shoulder, through the heart and out the other side. I'll continue to use this load in the future

[Whitelightning]

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

I am with you on this. A well cast lead bullet will not only give excellant accuracy but also be deadly on ELK and other wild game. I shoot 510gr lead home cast conicals in most of my 50's and have just purchased some 600gr conicals for the 50. A 295gr bullet even behind 150gr powder is not going to have the energy needed to penetrate or expand well in a Elk. The heavy bullets retain incredible energy down feild and will devistate what it hits. I think using a modified pistol round in a rifle and expecting it to perform as a magnum round is out of the question. Noexcuse makes a very nice round and will size to your bore as will Bullshop.  

I took the Bear in my avitar with a .504 White using a 510gr home cast conical over 80gr T7 ffg at 75 yards, a complete pass through (entered behind the near shoulder and exited the far shoulder through the bone) the Bear did NOT take a step and both lungs were gone. I have never had a heavy conical not be a complete pass through.