Hunting With Cast Bullets

[Ray B]

Some 270 gr .375" in front of some 500 gr .458" I wish I could find a cast iron mold in .424" and sizer die in .423"- that would be great!!

 

[nztimb]

The only problem I see with water quenching is why I don't do it. Unless the bullets are shot with a certain time of the quench, they will slowly revert back to what they would have been if air cooled. I have an alloy that has about .12%cu in the mix and will air cool to about 25 BHN that is a tough rather than a brittle hard so will take velocity (proven to near 3000fps)tering. For my general shooting in the 1650 0 2000fps I have a 47/33/20 alloy (ww/Pb/lino)
This is the recipe for the lube that will take very high velocities and has been formlated by an extremely experienced cast bullet shooter (357Maximum)

This is my lot from the left is pp 577-450, 2 458's (450and 340gn) 44mag, 404J, 405Win, 2 303 (220 and 190gn) 7mm and 6.5.
Most of these are GC with the hornady Cu check but for all shooting where velocity is under 2000fps, I use Al GC that I make myself so that is another cost that can be factored out of the shooting cost.

 

[John P.]

Some 270 gr .375" in front of some 500 gr .458" I wish I could find a cast iron mold in .424" and sizer die in .423"- that would be great!!View attachment 166099

458's at 460 grains. Front half is bore riding. I made the mould from aluminum stock around 25 years ago.

 

[dwboso]

Hi everyone

The big question as always.

Has any one hunted game with cast bullets and been successful?

Yes,i am from KZN and i only use cast bullets.I cast my own bullets because i sort of like got gatvol with the price of bullet heads.Here in Pmb it is unreal what one would pay for a box of Sierras let alone the Hornady VMax.

Two days after the hunting season started i shoot and killed a young bull Kudu at about 140 meters with a 180 gr cast bullet cast from the RCBS SP Mold.
During the season i shot 6 bush buck,4 duiker and some mountain reed buck.
All these animals were shot over 100 meters.

I regularly shoot bush pig and warthog.

I also have the RCBS 180 GR HP mold which is devastating on any crittER.
I interchange every now and again with bullet sizes for the 308.I have the 150 gr rn which is not much of a stopper.The 165 gr Sil,the 173 gr flat,the 180 gr SP and 180 gr hollow point are just to good to be true.I also have the 180 gr sharp point which i havnt tried yet as i do not have a top punch for it yet.
I have ordered one and hope it gets here soon.

Personally i think the price of bullets is ridiculous.
I can cast reload and shoot 200 different size bullets in one day.
But,if i had to buy bullets it would be IMPOSSIBLE

Cast bullets kill as well as Jacketed expanding bullet in my experience. I've shot them in a 454 and a 500 NE

 

[Shootist43]

Von Gruff, as usual your posts to this thread were both interesting and informative. I'm sure they are an inspiration to those who cast their own bullets or are thinking about doing so.

 

[nztimb]

Thanks Shootest43. Sharing how we do things is what keeps our lifestye growing.

 

[Waimahana]

Some very interesting and impressive casting work going on by contributors!

For what it is worth, I cast a .375 slug using wheel weights with 2% tin in the Lyman 375449 mold. Projectiles are water quenched. Cast projectiles weigh around 275 grains. I size to .379 and apply a gas check and Lyman 'orange magic' lube. I shoot these at 2135 fps (average) from a 375H&H using 50.0 grains H4895 and they give me around 1.5 MOA accuracy. No leading in my rifle.

When firing these into water-filled plastic milk bottles I find something interesting. Within the first bottle (109.5mm thickness of water) the front of the projectile flattens out and within the first 1 to 4 bottles (total of 438mm thickness of water) the front flattened part of the projectile separates from the shank and breaks into between 3 and 5 chunks, leaving the remaining relatively undeformed shank of the projectile to continue penetrating, commonly giving 0.9 - 1.0m total penetration. The recovered shanks I have weighed are around 170 - 190n grains meaning the 3 - 5 chunks that have split off aggregate around 90 grains. From what I can estimate, the projectile flattens out to around 12mm before the chunks break off. I guess this is a function of the hardness / brittle nature of the cast material. Yet to try this on animals.

 

[Waimahana]

If anyone is interested in using cast projectiles in the .375H&H at low velocities, the following recipe may be of interest. Using the Lyman 375449 mold, 100% lead (soft), air-cooled, sized to 0.379 with gas check and orange magic lube.

Powder: 13.0 grains Trailboss - no filler.
Primer: CCI magnum
Case: Winchester
C.O.L: 88.5mm
Averaged Velocity: 1033 fps i.e subsonic
Accuracy: shoots 1.5 MOA
I tried this using a standard suppressor and it is definitely louder than a suppressed .22LR subsonic. Maybe a different type of suppressor is required??

Very little recoil. Shoots clean with no sign of leading in my rifle. This round drops around 14 inches at 100m compared to my conventional 375H&H hunting loads, however, there is no deviation left and right.

While developing this load I tried a range of Trailboss powder weights from 25.0 grains to 11.0 grains using the same 100% lead projectile, case, primer, lube, and C.O.L.
I recorded velocities for loads less than 19.0 grains Trailboss. Average velocities were:
19.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1277 fps Group approx 6MOA
18.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1230 fps Group approx 2.5MOA
17.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1227 fps Group approx 6MOA
16.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1171 fps Group approx 6MOA
15.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1128 fps Group approx 6MOA
14.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1073 fps Group approx 6MOA
13.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 1033 fps Group approx 1.5MOA
12.0 grains Trailboss - average velocity of 978 fps Group approx 2.5MOA
11.0 grains trailboss - average velocity of 921 fps Group approx 2.5MOA

Groups comprised 3 shots and there seemed to be an improvement in group size at around 13.0 grains Trailboss. All rounds shot cleanly with no sign of instability in my rifle.