Do you hunt with HPs?

[Wilson]

Who hunts with hollow points? What have you found as to killing critters with HPs?
During the last two years, I've smoked several critters with the LEE C430-310-RF. It really hammered them! DRT
But, after reading "From Ingot to Target", I decided I'd like to give HPs a go this season.
After a rough start, I've got some 330 gr Gould's cast up for my 45/70 Buffalo Classic and I've got a batch of .44 boolits from a MiHec mold ready to load for my new CVA Scout. I hope to sight in and do load tests this weekend.
I'm still looking for a HP for my 3 .45 Colt Buffalo Classics.
So is anyone using HPs for their hunting? I'd be sure interested to read your feed back. What boolit? What animal? What effect?

[runfiverun]

i'm in the no camp a flat point and diameter are plenty.
a soft enough alloy that maybe some nose muuushh occurs is fine with me,but i would rather have the penetration.

[white eagle]

I have only shot one deer so far with a cast hp
liked the outcome easy to follow blood trail complete penetration
plan on using them again

[sixshot]

There's always a balancing act with cast HP's, especially if they are plain base. You have to shoot them fast enough to give you some expansion but if you go to far you can get leading. A GC bullet allows you to speed things up a bit & still get the expansion you're looking for. I've taken 1/2 animals with the #457122 Gould plain base with great results....but I didn't run them too hard. A hard, brittle HP does nothing.
I much prefer a flat nose solid or a softnose cast. The softnose cast is the finest hunting bullet ever designed because you can do anything you want with it, slow, fast, soft, hard, still works because of the pure lead nose. You tune them to your velocity & they are super. Just use regular cast for practice & softnose for hunting.

Dick

[Larry Gibson]

I've been hunting (assuming deer+ game?) with cast HPs since the early '70s. I've killed a lot of deer+ with them in calibers from .30 - 45 in numerous rifle and handgun cartridges. I prefer them to any other type of cast bullet. A blend of the correct size and shape of HP, alloy softness and minimal impact velocity at farthest expeced range is essential for best cast HP performance. Howver, if perchance the HP doesn't open then you still have the effectiveness of the FP design.

I prefer GC'd bullets for HPing because they can be driven to higher velocity with the softer alloys needed for best HP effectiveness in most cartridges pushing over 1200 fps.

Larry Gibson

[x101airborne]

I have only a few cast boolit kills under my belt so far, but I have used solids and HP's both. I havent used a HP in a rifle because I just havent had a need for one yet. My NOE 338-225 is HP'd, but I havent done anything with it yet. I hope that changes soon. All my HP kills have been from a handgun. 44, 41, 45, etc. I can tell you that a 200 pound sow on a run hit with a HP pistol boolit doesn't stand a chance. These are just my experiences as short as they are.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

I'm seeing such a high degree of effectiveness with a simple WFN boolit, I wonder why the question is even being ask.

I am talking hunting/shooting game animals such as deer an elk here.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[AnthonyB]

My cast HPs have taken deer launched from a 45-70, 30-06, and 308W. Bang/flop is the normal reaction, although one heart shot deer did manage a few yards.
Tony

[runfiverun]

keep the replies up, this could get interesting.....

[BABore]

All depends on the application, alloy, hardness, velocity, meplat, and intended range. I'm in both camps and match the aforementioned to the situation. Just like matching a cup & core rifle bullet, bonded or partition type to an application. Life's too short to tie yourself to one theory or camp.

[Wolfer]

All depends on the application, alloy, hardness, velocity, meplat, and intended range. I'm in both camps and match the aforementioned to the situation. Just like matching a cup & core rifle bullet, bonded or partition type to an application. Life's too short to tie yourself to one theory or camp.

I think I'm in this camp also, while I've shot several critters in the deer/ coyote size with flat nosed 45 slugs I've only shot a couple with HPs. Not enough to form an opinion yet. While the solids worked pretty good I wouldn't mind having a bigger hole and a better blood trail as long as I can still get penetration.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Wolfer,

I'll be the first to say I am not long experienced in the taking of game with cast boolits, but with the 2 elk and 3 deer presently to the credit of my 45/70, I simply do NOT want any bigger holes.

Read for quite awhile before starting down this road, about eating right up to the hole with cast boolits, but in truth just never expected to have the hole be quite so large.

No way in the world do I want a bigger hole. This would go tripple or more with the LBT 350gr WFN/LFN that I took the first deer with.

That round went out the tube at about 2300fps and the 465gr used since then has been leaving at between 1600 - 1700fps and believe me, it leaves plenty of hole!

Now maybe I haven't seen the total picture but everything I have read about the game taking ability of the WFN cast boolits is true in spades, at least if my results are any indication.

I never expected to see this kind of results from a non-expanding cast boolit.

AWESOME!

CDOC

[Coffeecup]

I've hunted with cast HPs in the past, but any more lean strongly towards using cast softnoses. I didn't have problems with the cast HPs, but the cast softnoses seem to be more consistently accurate and to penetrate better even while expanding. I'm pretty sure that is due to the harder lead in the base. . . . and that leaves me wondering how the HPs would do with soft noses/hard bases. Has anyone tried it?

[Wolfer]

CDOC
I'm picking up what you laying down here. I'm shooting a 45 colt at 1000 fps and my holes are 45 cal.
I believe the higher velocity/ heavier boolit/ larger meplat/ better momentum will equal much larger holes

[375H&HGuy]

This thread comes at an opportune time for me since I am currently working up both hollow point and flat nosed loads for my 9.3x57 for the upcoming deer season.

The hollow point I have been testing starts at 280 grains (minus the HP) going about 1350 fps. Into wet phone books at 25 yards I am getting 59% weight retention and about 14 inches of penetration with the hollow point. The flat nose at the same velocity retained 94% and drove an inch or so deeper into the phone books. The hollow point made a more substantial hole for the first 3 or 4 inches then the damage was virtually the same. Both loads are very accurate and shoot on the iron sights out to 100 yards which is my self- imposed limit.

[softpoint]

I've used both. Whitetail, and even our hogs here in Texas aren't particularly tough or hard to kill. Whitetails are easy to penetrate. I killed 2 bucks this past season with 45/70, pure lead paper patched 340 grain. 46.5 grains of RL7. This load chrono'ed 1950 avg. fps out of my rifle. Longest range of the 2 was right at 90 yards, the other about 70 yards. Both were slightly quartering away from me. Even with this soft bullet, I still got complete penetration. There was a bit more tissue damage than I prefer, but those 2 deer never took a step after they were hit. I'd rather have a little more tissue damage than to have to track one in the thicket, and some places here, if they even run 75 yards, they can be hard to get out of the briars. And, since the bullets were going all the way through the animal, they were doing all they could do.
I am working on using hollowpoints this coming season. One will be the Gould 330 grain. plainbase. I've used it before. It's limitations, as others have pointed out, is the fact it is plainbase, and can give leading if cast too soft. The other is a 500 grain RCBS that I am having a large hollowpoint put in. The HP will be large enough to significantly reduce the weight of this bullet. It is gascheck design, and I should be able to run it quite soft. We will see how they do. Perhaps no better or worse than a regular flatpoint on these size critters.

[Fenring]

I have shot numerous pigs with the .44 Devastator. Mine are simple air cooled clip on WW's and are ready to fly at 275gr. I load them to 1650fps from my Ruger 96/44 levergun.

Expansion is extremely violent. They will often stay inside pigs around 50kg, most often under the skin on the far side if it's a side on shot. Sometimes entry holes are very dramatic too, if a bone is hit close to the surface. Many of my shots are at running pigs so shots into the rear end are very commonplace.

On the left are three Devastators. All recovered under the offside skin, having lost the nose cone or about 100gr of weight IIRC. The other monster is the Lee 310gr flat nose. Recovered at 314gr.



This is an ENTRY hole, the bullet having hit the spine and torn a heap of flesh out. This pig was maybe 40kg, not a big one, and was DRT.



This small pig, maybe 25kg, was shot in the rear as it ran off and was DRT. You can see what the boolit has done upon striking the hip bones.



This big fella was shot right on the point of the shoulder at about 50m. He sat back on his behind and keeled over dead. It looks like some frags have burst off the shoulder bone going by the small exit wound just off the shoulder from the entry wound.



This boar was shot on the run at about 20m. The shot hit the left testicle (ouch) and must have gone up into the boiler room as he was DRT also.



Another big fella, double tapped as he ran past me. First shot was a bit too far back, 2nd one and he was DRT.



I like the HP's as they will give me a bit of leeway with soft tissue damage if placement is a bit off, as it tends to be with running shots at times, but they will drive deep enough on the bigger pigs too.

[softpoint]

I've hunted with cast HPs in the past, but any more lean strongly towards using cast softnoses. I didn't have problems with the cast HPs, but the cast softnoses seem to be more consistently accurate and to penetrate better even while expanding. I'm pretty sure that is due to the harder lead in the base. . . . and that leaves me wondering how the HPs would do with soft noses/hard bases. Has anyone tried it?

I've thought about doing just that, and since I'm getting a mold HP'ed right now I am going to try it. It may be a bugger to cast the hp nose out of pure lead, though and get a good cast. Since I keep a small Lee pot just for pure lead casting right by my RCBS pot, I can heat them both up and give it a go. Don't need many just to hunt with.

[Wilson]

Very good info so far. In can hardly wait to get in the woods next month.

[BABore]

The easiest method to get a soft nose is to cast the boolit from 50/50 WW-Pb with maybe 1% tin. Water drop from a hot mold. Size and check right away, but don't lube. After a week or two cure time, stand the boolits up in a pie pan and fill with water up to the crimp groove or where you want the soft portion to start. Heat the exposed nose with a small torch til you see a slight color change. Kind of the reverse of waiting for a sprue to solidify and set. Remove, lube, and load. You just made a cast Partition. You can also go to a local welding supply and purchase a 325-350 F Tepil stick crayon. Apply to the nose and heat till it melts.