Took the Sharps hunting again.

Hunting with a DP Sharps in .45-70 turned out a lot more challenging than I thought... My respect for the oldtimers that hunted with these rifles at longrange grow every time I hunt with it.
Used a bit softer RCBS 405gr boolit than those used on previous hunts, a broadside shot on a Njala bull that obviously just passed through on 146yds... very very faint blood trail..
Attachment 261995

Had the perfect frontal shot on a Eland cow @155yds to recover a boolit, but neither found the exit wound nor the boolit 🤦🏻*♂️
The hole in the heart made me believe there were some expansion but I am not fully convinced.
Attachment 261996

So unfortunately I still don’t know os there is any form of expansion on the 405gr RCBS Air cooled wheel weight boolit @ 1700fps. The next batch of Boolits wil be a 50/50 pure and WW mix anyhow...

20-1 gives a lot of stop right there performance for me (BHN 8-10) on a Lee tester in my guns/Ed

Doesn't seem to matter if it's expanding or not. On big game I'll take penetration over expansion every time.

Great hunt and beautiful animals. Congrates on the success.

Well done
Yes, I find the antimony in wheelweights is tough and does not
like to expand but fracture.

Give the 50/50 a try and maybe even more pure lead then that

Mike

This is another vote for a 50/50 mix (coww/pure lead) for better expansion and less fracturing on impact. I learned this when doing some testing a few years ago with my 35 Whelen as I was getting ready for a black bear hunt in Canada. I used wet pacts of paper mostly in the form of catalogs, old phone books, etc. I was shooting at 60-70 yards and found that the COWW by themselves were breaking up without much penetration. The 50/50 mix cured all that and was what I successfully used on that bear hunt. It is a pretty simple mix and as I cast I keep this in mind if I am liable to use those boolits for hunting. I am not sure it is needed for smaller whitetail as we have here, but expansion is also good as is penetration when hunting big game.

Congratulations, I'm jealous. My Nyala or rather Njala in Afrikaans and Eland are both still walking around in South Africa where I hunted them. Just couldn't get what I wanted in regards to the animal and shot. With any bullet penetration and expansion tend to be mutually exclusive but not entirely impossible. In my experience a heavy for caliber bullet tends to penetrate better and if soft enough will expand. I had a 400 grain 45-70 bullet, cast from wheel weight metal, break-up after striking the upper leg bone of a large Mule Deer at a modest 1300 FPS. During a hunt in 2015 at 20 yards I put a 525 grain, .585 diameter, semi-wadcutter bullet, cast from Linotype metal in the front of the chest of a Cape Buffalo that penetrated into the paunch doing considerable damage to the heart. The bull went about 30 yards and went down but required two more shoulder shots to finish. The recovered bullet, amazingly, had lost only 7 grains in weight and had expanded the nose to almost the body diameter of the bullet. Estimated impact velocity was 1600 FPS. It appears there are no absolutes when it comes to bullet performance be they cast or jacketed.

Black powder types of weapons generally require better hunting skills or a lot of luck to collect your game but, the satisfaction in doing so is greater, to me at least, than if you are using modern weapons. Again, congratulations on taking two wonderful animals with a great rifle.

Just curious what range do you sight in for using that RCBS 405 gr. load?

The “oldtimers” didn’t use coww for bullets, they used very soft lead. Even though they got good expansion, penetration at BP velocities didn’t seem to be a problem even on very large game...


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by sharps4590

Doesn't seem to matter if it's expanding or not. On big game I'll take penetration over expansion every time.

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That was always my way of thinking too, but experience is a bitch!

I learned it is better to just or just not make it through an animal with a well expanded projectile causing maximum internal trauma with a easy to follow blood trail than having this super hard and tough non deforming projectile that could pass throug 3 animals with one shot, but leaves at best Only a small caliber Sized hole. Needless characteristics when intending to shoot only One at a time, thus a wastefull exercise wasting energy and quick downing potential.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brstevns

Just curious what range do you sight in for using that RCBS 405 gr. load?

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I usually keep the rifle in its 110 yard setteng as this gives the best “point-blank” range For what I do to about 125yards, then I dail in For further distances, get Mostly fairly reliable 2” accuracy at 110yds .

(Ps. Forgot to mention velocity @ 1700fps)

Thank you all for the other replies and useful advice guys !! ����

I am definitely going to give that a go as well!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Edward

20-1 gives a lot of stop right there performance for me (BHN 8-10) on a Lee tester in my guns/Ed

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I am definitely going to give that a go as well!

Most of my cast boolits are BNH 8-10 and velocities limited to 1400-1500fps. All expand well!

https://i.imgur.com/cArT9w1l.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bad *** Wallace

Most of my cast boolits are BNH 8-10 and velocities limited to 1400-1500fps. All expand well!

https://i.imgur.com/cArT9w1l.jpg

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Looks like some crazy good expansion on those boolits, slightly overly expanded for what I would like to get, but way better than I am apparently getting.
Will definitely keep that BNH you are using in mind!