Newby to the forum, and my first bullets

[Fenring]

Hi everyone, my name's Scott and I'm from Australia. I've been lurking for a while and reading some of the great info on here.

I hadn't cast smokeless bullets before though I have done a bit of casting for my black powder guns over the years.

Like many people I was getting fed up with the cost of jacketed pills and our silly gun laws down here meant that large bore pistol bullets for my Ruger .44 levergun where either hard to get or just getting dearer and dearer.

So I decided to go with a Devastator HP mould for hunting pigs with and recently cast my first lot. I got a few duds until I got my lead hot enough and the mould nice and hot, but eventually I was rewarded with nice, shiny HP bullets. Lead is air cooled clip on wheel weights and I'll be lubing with LLA. These dropped out at near 270gr.

That hollow really is large, isn't it? That's a .22LR for comparison :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Fenring/Shooting/shooting2/P1050451.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/Fenring/Shooting/shooting2/P1050453.jpg

Got a few loaded up sans checks to run over the chrono to get an idea what speed I'm getting - load is 21gr of ADI 2205 (same as H110).

Also got a Lee double cavity 310gr FN mould on the way for plinkers. :drinks:

[lonewelder]

I would use the lee 310 bullet before the HP.Push it at 1000fps and it will stop any pig.I will tell you a K255 swc will stop anything I care to shoot wiht a pistol.Its not the speed 20gr 2400 is a nice load and will make a 44cal in and out

[runfiverun]

you might like the lee mold for the pigs, it'll go through them pretty well..
nice looking boolits there, and it seems you've picked up on the heat [temp] monitoring being essential for good casting.
usually for a gas check designed boolit a lower load will shoot better.
but you gotta try them,you just never know how a boolit/gun combo will work.

[Fenring]

Thanks guys. The Lee boolits will be tried out on grunters too. Most pigs we shoot are 50kg or so, with only a few big boys encountered - so a ton of penetration isn't needed.

[DLCTEX]

Nice job of casting. And nice avitar. Always like ladies with big guns.:bigsmyl2:

[jlchucker]

Nice looking boolits. Try some flatnosed ones in your levergun sometime. You may like them, and they stand up to loading into and out of tubular magazine leverguns a bit better IMO. Won't bounce off game, either.

[BrianB]

Nice job of casting. And nice avitar. Always like ladies with big guns.:bigsmyl2:

Me too. So long as she's not screaming expletives and pointing it at me!:-P

Good job on the bullets. The design and casting look great.

[Fenring]

Nice looking boolits. Try some flatnosed ones in your levergun sometime. You may like them, and they stand up to loading into and out of tubular magazine leverguns a bit better IMO. Won't bounce off game, either.

Cheers.

I've tried SWC's and cowboy types on game but they were disappointing TBH. Just like firing an FMJ bullet.

I think these will be better and also perhaps the 310 Lee when it arrives. The Ruger 96/44 has a box mag, so I can load any shape I want, within the OAL restrictions imposed by the stumpy rotary mag.

[littlejack]

Four Fingers of Death is somewhere on your island, do you know him?
Welcome to the Castboolits.
Very nice projectiles.
Jack

[captain-03]

Congrats on some fine looking bullets!!

[stubshaft]

Good looking boolits there. I like big hollowpoints, in fact I like big boolits period. But if you want to eat any of the hogs hit them in the head or you'll be eating straps and hams (although that's not too bad either).

[Fenring]

Four Fingers of Death is somewhere on your island, do you know him?
Welcome to the Castboolits.
Very nice projectiles.
Jack

Thanks.

I ran into Four Fingers in the leverguns section.


Good looking boolits there. I like big hollowpoints, in fact I like big boolits period. But if you want to eat any of the hogs hit them in the head or you'll be eating straps and hams (although that's not too bad either).

LOL. No eatin' - just shootin'.

Most are located and chased down on dirt bikes in scrubby country and open grassland on very large sheep stations - it's a fun way to hunt them but you need to be quick! :)

[Ron]

G'day Scott,
Welcome to the board.

[WHITETAIL]

Scott, Welcome to the forum![smilie=s:
And nice boolets!:cbpour:

[Fenring]

Thankyou all.

[Tony65x55]

Hi Fenring, welcome to the board. I'm going to be going pig hunting in Aus this September. Any advice you can share. I'll be up in Queensland.

[Fenring]

Tony, it's pretty wet in a lot of Qld at the moment, what they are calling a "100 year flood" so hopefully that will be gone by the time you get there and there will be a lot of pigs running around. Things have improved the last few years with a bit of rain, from the dismal situation the drought caused a few years back.

When there's a good supply of water around it can make it harder to hunt pigs as of course they can be pretty much anywhere and don't have to move a lot to feed or water. Our long drought made it easier at least in that respect, despite the effect it had on pig numbers.

There are a couple of ways I've found to hunt pigs that are pretty effective. Many of our farms in NSW and Qld are huge and you need a vehicle to get about to the best spots on a place if you are planning on doing a bit of walking. I do a fair bit of pig chasing on a dirt bike - you really do cover a lot of ground and get into country that even a good 4x4 won't reach and you push a lot of pigs up.

Pigs will often sit really tight before moving and I have actually been in the cover with them before they decided to move. Large shrubs that form an umbrella, drooping coolibah trees and of course thick patches of lignum are favourite haunts and can hold several pigs.

Swampy areas with lignum nearby, thickly timbered areas (often called "cowls") near water or thickets of any sort are always worth a look. Same for creek lines with any form of cover.

If a place has crops of oats in, you will find pigs on or near it morning and night. Same goes for wheat stubble and spotlighting after dark is a great way to hunt this. They also like sorghum. A freshly ploughed paddock can also attract pigs as they can smell the fresh soil from miles away and like to root around in the soft dirt for roots, grubs etc.

Like us, pigs like a bit of morning sun and after a cold Qld night they'll seek warmth from the sun - lying up against a log or the base of a tree on the sunny side or just poking around in open grassy country - the sun reflects off their shiny coat and can give them away. Same thing in the evening - they'll get a few rays of the evening sun out in the open. They tend to lie around during the warmth of the day so morning and night is the best time to catch them moving around and feeding or moving to and from water.

A big boar will often keep away from the sows and young pigs - the big boys tend to be loners and come in to the sows and then keep apart a bit. I think their rationale is that this makes them harder to find and it's true. The clever old ones will sneak out the back way while the younger pigs and sows are being massacred, LOL. So if hunting a particular patch of cover with a group of hunters, a rear cut off can pick up the clever boar getting out while he can.

Hunting with dogs is popular, if you get the chance give that a go as it can be fast and furious. :D

I take it you have a 6.5X55? I have one (a sporterised Swede M38) and that's my open country pig gun and it works well on 'em.

[JIMinPHX]

270 grains is a lot of hammer to throw at a critter. Even if the hollow point does over-expand, it's still 270 grains that you are throwing down range. H-110 is a powerful motivator. If you say that your powder is an equivalent, then you should expect some snappy results. I've had H-110 push my 240-grain slugs out of the muzzle of a carbine at around 1700fps. I've gotten inch (2.5cm) groups from that ammo at 50 yards (meters) with iron sights. It's good stuff, but you really want a gas check with it. Otherwise it pock marks the boolit base really badly.

[Fenring]

Yes, I've been using it for jacketed loads for a few years now and was loading 240gr XTP's at 1800fps + from my carbine.

I'll be happy with 1500-1600fps from these, it's really all that's needed as truth be told a 60 yard shot at a hawg is a long one where I go.

I'm certainly going to gas check them, for sure.

[JIMinPHX]

There's really no reason to stay at 1500-1600fps with gas checked cast boolits. I've had good results with cast .30-30s at around 2,600fps. I've even pushed cast .223s up over 3,000fps with no leading, although accuracy was poor once I got much over 2,500.

edit:
Did I say welcome aboard yet?

[Fenring]

Thanks for the tips, I look forward to experimenting with them.