250 grain Keith Hardcast in 44 magnum rifle for whitetails

[gutpile]

Howdy Folks,

I have one rifle that we were shooting a certain j word in, due to lack of said j word. I have another load that is super accurate 1 1/4 in 5 shot groups @ 100 and zero leading. 24.0 grains H110 and the Mt baldy 250 grain gas checked Keith hardcast (22 on hardness) the load is 1700+ fps
will this be a pass thru deer load to 120 yards? we want a blood trail.

folks on here are GREAt I love this place!

Gutpile

[w30wcf]

Yes indeed on a broadside shot.

w30wcf

[kevmc]

[QUOTE=gutpile;2455893]Howdy Folks,

I have one rifle that we were shooting a certain j word in, due to lack of said j word. I have another load that is super accurate 1 1/4 in 5 shot groups @ 100 and zero leading. 24.0 grains H110 and the Mt baldy 250 grain gas checked Keith hardcast (22 on hardness) the load is 1700+ fps

That load will pass thru 2 deer standing nose to tail, .......lengthwise....
A 250K at 1100 fps will not be recovered in the animal..

[ultramag]

Good grief!!!

I would imagine so. :shock:

[reloader28]

Its extremely hard to catch a cast boolit with an animal. At least I dont know anyone thats done it. The penetration you get from boolits is just mind blowing.
It might not sound possible, but that load would probly go thru a full grown buffalo length wise.

My deer load this year is 7.5gr Clays and 245gr SWC in my 44 Vaquero. 1000fps. I expect a complete pass thru with it.

[Bigslug]

Whitetail hell! You might get a pass-through on a T-Rex with that combo!

I was able to do a .38-to-.357 penetration test on FBI-spec jello last year with 200 grain round noses. I wanted to see how light I could load and still make the FBI's 12" inch minimum penetration standard. The goal was to find an effective, yet low recoil load for five shot snubbies. It was a pretty short test - my minimum powder charge chrono'd at only 600fps and sent the slug through the entire 18" gelatin block where it was collected on the hard rubber backstop. You won't have to worry about your blood trail.

[runfiverun]

from stem to stern pass through, and two or three more if you get them lined up nose to tail.
probably a 10" tree too.

[Tatume]

Folks seem to be exaggerating just a bit, although I understand the enthusiasm. I would expect about 36" of penetration with your load, which will be ample.

[Bret4207]

BHN will make almost no difference in that design with a deer. BHN of 22 or 12, it's going in one side and out the other unless major bone is hit and the boolit deflects or you try the stem to stern, then it becomes iffy. I just put the same design at BHN 12 in the head of a Jersey cow at 700 fps. The frontal shot went clear through both front and rear of the head and part of the neck. Unfortunately she moved as I shot and I was a bit high. The shot from behind the head came out the lower jaw. That's a lot more bone than you'll ever get on a deer.

[Alan in GA]

I loaded a few [50] 44 mags with 250 Keiths and they do not fit the magazine of my Ruger 77/44. I used to cast and shoot a LOT of these bullets out of a half dozen Ruger Super Blackhawks and the first Redhawk I had [now have my second after selling and missing that first one the year they came out]. Thankfully these fit fine in the blued/scope base grooved Redhawk Hunter I have now! I killed a nice buck with the 250 SWC Keith bullet. It did not expand and a high lung hit prevented a blood trail. ALL that buck's blood bled out when he fell over about 50 yards away.....like opening a spicket!

[harvester]

My 44 mag Marlin has taken a few deer. There has been no blood trail. The deer have been recovered about 30 feet from the where they were shot. Shots at about 75 yards.

[bones37]

That boolit WILL completely pass thru a whitetail from stem to stern if it doesn't hit bone, which will make it deflect off its original path. While I know this doesn't pertain to this particular thread, I shot a rather large(for my area)whitetail with a 150 grain plain based boolit, behind 7.5 gr. Unique in a Win 94 30/30 with an average velocity of 1300 fps(chronographed) AND this boolit passed thru from front to rear, the entire length of its body at a range of 40 yards.

bones.

[MtGun44]

I will bet you will never find one that hits a deer from ANY angle.

Bill

[Tatume]

BHN will make almost no difference in that design with a deer. BHN of 22 or 12, it's going in one side and out the other unless major bone is hit and the boolit deflects or you try the stem to stern, then it becomes iffy.

While this statement is certainly true, BHN does make a difference in absolute penetration. My testing indicates that water-dropped wheel weight handgun bullets will penetrate about 15% more than air-cooled bullets of the same design. However, we're still talking about the dirt bank behind the deer. :-)

Take care, Tom

[Tatume]

I will bet you will never find one that hits a deer from ANY angle.Bill

Hi Bill,

I recovered a Barnes X bullet fired from a muzzle loading rifle once. The shot was taken from 200 yards and penetrated the full length (front to back) of the large doe. It was recovered from the large intestine within inches of departing the deer. I suspect a cast bullet would have behaved similarly. Or maybe not, as the Barnes bullet did mushroom, even at the very low impact velocity.

Take care, Tom

[David2011]

I've told this before but it's solid info. I cast up some pure lino boolits just to see shat they would do in my 14" Contender and loaded them pretty hot but well within the published Lyman Ruger/Contender only guidelines. The mold is a .429" Keith Type RCBS and the boolits ended up weighing 255 grains with a chronographed velocity of 1600 fps. Yeah, the recoil is stiff. The projected velocity of the load in a revolver is 1350. They group well under 2" at 50 yd.

As a penetration test I shot a fresh feral sow cadever that was around 200 lb with the load above. I had shot her in the head with a rifle so the body was intact. The shot entered the right shoulder and exited the left ham unexpanded but intact, judging by the exit hole. That was about 18" through the pig. That pig was a lot tougher than a white tail.

The load is hotter than necessary and the trigger guard tang really hurts my weak hand index finger every time I shoot it. The boolits are harder than necessary or useful. I'll probably pull the boolits on the remaining hundred or so rounds and cast them again with some pure lead added. The velocity will be reduced to 1400-1450.

David