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7.62Man
09-07-2007, 10:42 PM
Hi All,

I did a search about hunting deer with cast bullets and found all kind of info, but it did not answer all my questions.

I plan to use my old husky 30-06 to hunt whitetail with this fall, keeping my shot to 100-150yards. The plan is to use the Lee C309-170-F with around 20 grains of 2400. I plan to cast these from straight wheel weights and let them air cool. I have read and reread the "cast bullet for hunting" article by Mr. Harris and Mr. Marshall and see that they used the lyman #31141 and both old and new wheel weights with 2% tin added and had good results.

I am unable to find a source locally for tin? So will straight ww air cooled work?
Also I have read Mr. Harris article about the 13 grains of red dot and wonder if that is not the better way to go?

jhalcott
09-08-2007, 12:04 AM
Straight WW alloy has worked fine for me. I have tried WW/lead and Linotype also. Also Lino/lead and a copy of Lyman#2 alloy at different times. Lyman#2 (16BHN) and straight WW (about 14 BHN) worked best in the 30-30 and 30-06 for ME.

Johnch
09-08-2007, 12:22 AM
Tin can be found at the hardware store as Lead free solder , normaly 95% tin and 5 % antamony ( sp )


So will straight ww air cooled work?

Probely at the velositys you are talking
Tin also helps with bullet fillout

I am shooting 13 gr of Red Dot in several rifles
A 13 gr load gets you about 1500 fps from a 30-06 with a 170 gr bullet
I would preferr the 20 gr of 2400 as it should give you about 1700 fps with a 170 gr bullet

I have use a load out of my 308 about the same velosity and it did well , but I hit the off shoulder

John

Driller640
09-08-2007, 02:02 AM
7.26MAN
Try a combo pure lead/ww Boolit, it as been posted here before, the ins and outs and howtoos eh. I can't recall the post or author but u just have to put the prue lead in mould first. Let it cool, add ww, reheat mould untill lead melts, allow to cool again eh. Then dump out boolit, you now have a soft nose bullet with a hard shank. I made 12 of these today for my 45-70, it takes a while to do but I think it may work well eh.

I water dropped the boolits to harden the ww a little more eh. May not be needed but I like doing it eh. I put 130g of pure lead in the mould first, I know it was 130g because I cast up some 9mm Lee's from pure lead then weight them. Placed the 9mm in my Lee 405/.457 mould and sat it on top of the pot to melt. Once it was melted I pulled the mould off the pot and allowed it to cool a little to harded the lead eh. Then filled the mould with ww and allowed to cool and water dropped eh.

Hope to shoot Black Bear in a couple days, and hope my wife will get a shot at a Moose because she as the draw for early season eh. Made a load for her in the 45-70, shooting 420g combo lead boolit, with 13g Trail Boss eh. It chrony at 1000fps from my Marlin GG

I will use the 420g combo lead boolit with 777, filling the case to the bottom of the boolit base when fully seated eh. Chrony load at 1200 fps from Guide Gun, should be lots for Bear eh. Sorry to ramble off topic, just got chatty. God bless

Bass Ackward
09-08-2007, 05:47 AM
Choosing between either of the loads you list is more of a confidence builder for you than any actual difference in performance on game.

And with the resulting velocity, ACWW will perform just as well as ACWW + 2% tin.

44man
09-08-2007, 07:39 AM
I found some tin added to WW's didn't do much of anything. It didn't make the boolits cast any better and at the price today I can't waste it anymore. I just bought 2# from Midway and it was $31 including shipping. I won't even store it near my WW's! :mrgreen:

7.62Man
09-10-2007, 12:13 PM
With the 20 grains of 2400 I would get about 1700fps, and following the advise in lyman that you should have about 1700fps and 1000lb-ft when the bullet hit the deer that limits my range to muzzle shots? Is this correct or am I good to about 100 yards?

44man
09-10-2007, 03:10 PM
Why fool with 2400 anyway? Go to a slower powder and get some velocity going. You don't have to baby cast boolits. I don't have anymore rifles I use cast in except my 45-70 but there are guys here that will tell you what you can do with your gun. Don't give up, you will be surprised.

waksupi
09-10-2007, 08:19 PM
Go ahead and push them somewhat faster. In a .30 bore, you should be able to achieve 23=2400 fps pretty easily.

jhalcott
09-10-2007, 10:13 PM
Just make CERTAIN the boolit fits the throat/bore. I've got over 2200 fps with straight ACWW in my 30-30 and 308. Accuracy was about 1 1/2" at 100 yards off sand bags and 3x9 scope.748 powder and 311291 & 31141,hornady gas checks.

7.62Man
09-10-2007, 11:50 PM
Thanks all

Off I go to slug my bore and finish loading up some rounds to take to the range.

KCSO
09-11-2007, 12:08 PM
I've personally never needed more than about 2000 fps and w/w for clean kill on a deer. In 30-30 a 31141 and 748 powder kills clean at that velocity and shoots under 3" at 100. In 30-40 a 200 at 1950 has drilled several deer and I have yet to recover a bullet, they go all the way through and leave a big hole. In days of yore a 32-40 was considerd a good deer gun and it shot a soft lead bullet at say 1700 max.

testhop
09-11-2007, 12:40 PM
theload was 37 gr of 3031andnone moved out of there tracks
ih camp we sight our guns in to checkzero there was some big rools of paper sooping wet .one guy had ao6 also withfactory loads he and i ran atest to see about power we was both shock when my cast both expanded more[but also penadratedmore so at reasonable range dont worrycast boolitsdo the job the =jobthemould was lyman 311291thay came out of the mould at 311 and sized to 309 wt 170 gr hope this helps testhop this is my first reply 7.62Man;220837]Hi All,

I did a search about hunting deer with cast bullets and found all kind of info, but it did not answer all my questions.

I plan to use my old husky 30-06 to hunt whitetail with this fall, keeping my shot to 100-150yards. The plan is to use the Lee C309-170-F with around 20 grains of 2400. I plan to cast these from straight wheel weights and let them air cool. I have read and reread the "cast bullet for hunting" article by Mr. Harris and Mr. Marshall and see that they used the lyman #31141 and both old and new wheel weights with 2% tin added and had good results.

I am unable to find a source locally for tin? So will straight ww air cooled work?
Also I have read Mr. Harris article about the 13 grains of red dot and wonder if that is not the better way to go?[/QUOTE]

testhop
09-11-2007, 12:48 PM
theload was 37 gr of 3031andnone moved out of there tracks
ih camp we sight our guns in to checkzero there was some big rools of paper sooping wet .one guy had ao6 also withfactory loads he and i ran atest to see about power we was both shock when my cast both expanded more[but also penadratedmore so at reasonable range dont worrycast boolitsdo the job the =jobthemould was lyman 311291thay came out of the mould at 311 and sized to 309 wt 170 gr hope this helps testhop this is my first reply 7.62Man;220837]Hi All,

I did a search about hunting deer with cast bullets and found all kind of info, but it did not answer all my questions.

I plan to use my old husky 30-06 to hunt whitetail with this fall, keeping my shot to 100-150yards. The plan is to use the Lee C309-170-F with around 20 grains of 2400. I plan to cast these from straight wheel weights and let them air cool. I have read and reread the "cast bullet for hunting" article by Mr. Harris and Mr. Marshall and see that they used the lyman #31141 and both old and new wheel weights with 2% tin added and had good results.

I am unable to find a source locally for tin? So will straight ww air cooled work?
Also I have read Mr. Harris article about the 13 grains of red dot and wonder if that is not the better way to go?[/QUOTE]

7-30 Waters
09-11-2007, 10:51 PM
I too plan on hunting deer this year with cast bullets for the first time. I will be shooting a RCBS 200 grain 35 cal bullet from my 357 Maximum T/C pistol during the November firearm season and my 350 Remington Magnum for the late doe season. Both loads will run at about 1,700 fps.

In my pistol I will need a fairly stout load of Win 296, but in my 350 Magnum 25.0 grains of XMR 5744. The rifle load gives me a 3-shot one hole group at 50 yards with my 350 Magnum and a 5-shot group of 1.5" at 100 yards. I think this will do the job nicely for any doe I see.

black44hawk
09-12-2007, 11:43 AM
Sounds like you have enough "power" to kill a deer. Shot placement trumps magnum power any day. Heck, I have even heard of people killing deer with razor tipped arrows.[smilie=1:

Paul B
09-15-2007, 01:39 PM
I've taken 15 deer with the Lyman #311291 and 2 so far with the RCBS #30-180-FN, a bullet which has shown great results on the 2 deer and on paper. Rifle was the plain old Winchester M94. Both bullets give great results in my .308 win. and 30-06. many people have stated that they get great results with Lyman's #31141/311041 but the 3 moulds I have for that bullet have been total duds in all my 30 caliber rifles. I would think that due to the flat meplat on 31141 that it would be a good deer slayer, but so far, I have not gotten them to shoot worth beans. Doesn't mean I've quit trying though.
Paul B.

mstarling
09-15-2007, 02:15 PM
Only deer I have taken with cast bullets have been with larger diameters ... one with a .411" 220 gr Keith out of a 41 Mag pistol (1400 fps) at a range of 124 yards. The other was at about 60 yards with a 0.474" bullet 500 grain GCFP from a .470 NE double rifle at 1800 fps. Both were made from WW and worked just fine.

My 311291 mold makes a bullet that the .308 bolt rifle really likes. May try it this year.

Will be interested in the performance of that bullet on game.