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Thread: I believe the cast lead rifle boolit is the most effective projectile in the world.

  1. #1
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I believe the cast lead rifle boolit is the most effective projectile in the world.

    I made this statement in the presence of a client of mine, and I saw him give me a "you cant be serious" look. I smiled and tried to explain to him the superior vertues of the cast lead boolit, but I think the following picture had a bigger effect.
    I have been studying feverishly for a year, trying to see how fast I can push an air cooled WW/pure lead alloy boolit with enough accuracy for hunting with. I was able to achieve sub MOA at 100 yards with my custom built 358 Win and a RCBS 35-200-FN going just proud of 2K FPS. (my goal is 2400, sub MOA but thats just to say I did it)
    Anyway, an air cooled WW/pure boolit is pretty soft, and going 2050 fps makes for a pretty darn destructive combo. If anybody is thinking about shooting cast lead in your rifle, and wondering if the castlead boolt can hang with those new wiz-bang, HP, ballistic tipped, who's ya momma, new fangled jacketed bullets........
    Ahem, I can say unreservedly, "they do" and at much less speed.
    Observe the amazing damage inflicted on this small doe, 75 yards distant:
    Attachment 54481
    I actually was a little disappointed at the amount of destruction that the boolit caused. I believe I may harden my alloy just a smidgen so as to not ruin as much meat, but nevertheless this load will anchor anything I shoot with it.
    The point is, that this is simply a 50/50 cast boolit that had a Hornady gas check on the base, lubed with FWFL. For a copper jacketed bullet to achieve this level of effectiveness, they have to be engineered very very well, and be pushed much much faster than 2000 fps. This is simply a more efficient answer all the way around.
    Last edited by MBTcustom; 03-27-2015 at 09:31 AM.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  2. #2
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    That amount of damage came from a solid? NOT a HP cast boolit? Thats impressively NASTY!
    Last edited by Lefty SRH; 11-25-2012 at 05:17 PM.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    I have that same mold for my .35 Remington and I'm happy with it so far.
    Whats your load data for your .358 Winny?

  4. #4
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    Waksupi's signature:

    "The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid."

    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

  5. #5
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    That looks remarkably familiar! I got that level of performance from my 8mm Mauser this year on a yearling doe with the Lee 8mm Karabiner boolit. (237gr big flat meplat) Mine were cast very soft. 50/50 WW and Pure air cooled. Velocity was in the 1800fps range. Fist sized hole for real. I could not agree with your statement more, now that I have seen it for myself in the field.

  6. #6
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    It has been my experience that a large majority of people who "hunt" deer, do so with the excuse to get away from the wife so as to get drunk every day of the hunt. Getting the deer the first day, set them up for a week of drunkenness. And if the deer can be killed at a distance less than a 1/4 mile it only requires a bullet that will preform up to a quarter mile every time. (Read hi-tech jacketed bullets.)
    Almost all of the people I know who hunt deer with cast boolits know the advantages and the disadvantages of cast boolits.
    The disadvantages are few. Killing a deer at over 200 yds. with cast lead boolits can be iffy at times.
    Gas checks, hard/soft lead, velocity and hollow point boolits all play a factor and all these factors need to be considered when using cast boolits.
    The rewards are many, knowing that you have an accurate tested load that you developed, cast and loaded yourself, is very satisfying.
    The only disadvantages that I see is, you have to be a more skilled "Hunter" in that you have to stalk and get close to your prey.

    Good shooting and may you always be successful.

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    Tim, is that the boolit that tumbles? If it is, I would quite frankly call that kind of damage boolit failure. I have NEVER had that kind of destruction with a cast boolit.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  8. #8
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    TIM, Is that the exit hole? Did you hit bone going in and out? Like Waksupi I have never had that much meat damage with my boolits and my alloy is 55% lead/ 45% ww.

    Larry

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    Good proof for the reaction of speed/alloy....if you are shooting things you wanna eat.....the faster you go the tougher your mallable alloy needs to be.


    WOW......you need to slow your current alloy down, or add some STUFF to make a new alloy. To me that level of destruction is unnacceptable.....but that is me. I thought my 7TCU was a bit too destructive on that buck I shot this year, but damn man that is wicked. I too would call that boolit failure.

    Once upon a time I used a 358156HP in my DanWesson 357 @1300fps...the boolit was too soft to be hollopointed and I drove it too fast......it still did not detonate like that and yet I deemed it a failure on my end due to alloy choice.....my fault.

    WOW...simply wow...I would be dissapointed, and looking for a new alloy if I had a picture like that to post.

    ....and people think they need to HP their rifle rounds with cast......if you are anywhere over 1600-1800fps I KNOW THAT TO BE FALSE. That is why I am not a hp fan in mid speed rifle/pistols....it simply is not needed and I do not know how many times people have to be beaten with the big bat o' truth to get it. Give me a decent meplate, the right alloy for the speed it is being driven anyday...give me a HP rifle mould and I will sell it to a varmint hunter.

  10. #10
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    Holy holy holy mother of God. Something is not right there. I've used a 311290 ACWW at 2K in a .30-06 on deer. Let's just say my results were drastically different despite very similar ballistics, more akin to a nosler partition shedding it's front half and then driving the boolit shank through 24" of animal.
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  11. #11
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    Is that the entrance or exit wound?

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    I think water quenching the boolits to harden them up may help.

    +1 on what was said about those who want to use hollow points for larger game. This picture is a good example of what can happen with a flat nosed boolit. Once the alloy hardness is found that is best, the projectile is going to do the job.
    I have never understood the idea of wanting a hollow point that you KNOW is going to shed weight as it expands, and decrease penetration. Hollow points are for varmint shooting, period! When ever I see someone showing off their HP hunting loads, I immediately mark them down as a pilgrim.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  13. #13
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    This year I used the 311041 cast 1-WW/2PB, Quite soft in my opinion. Small HP 1/4" deep to insure expansion at longer range. Driven just under 1800 fps at the muzzle.
    Only shot two deer so far but performance was akin to a Nosler partition.
    I am quite pleased so far.

    Just cast some with a big HP going to the front driving band. Hope to try them on coyotes soon.
    I've found solids at this velocity will not anchor coyotes reliably unless perfect shots are made.
    I've found coyotes to be very difficult to consistently make perfect shots on.
    Some people live and learn but I mostly just live

  14. #14
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    And that is why I keep my 35 boolits around 1800fps.
    grit yer teeth an pull the trigger

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    Quote Originally Posted by gon2shoot View Post
    And that is why I keep my 35 boolits around 1800fps.
    My standard load runs around 2170 fps, and I still have the golf ball size wound channel. Alloy hardness.
    The solid soft lead bullet is undoubtably the best and most satisfactory expanding bullet that has ever been designed. It invariably mushrooms perfectly, and never breaks up. With the metal base that is essential for velocities of 2000 f.s. and upwards to protect the naked base, these metal-based soft lead bullets are splendid.
    John Taylor - "African Rifles and Cartridges"

    Forget everything you know about loading jacketed bullets. This is a whole new ball game!


  16. #16
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    I shot a smaller deer about that size a few years ago with a PRB with 90 or 100 gr of PDex Select and it did about the same amount of damage as that Goodsteel. The PBR also hit the meat and bone of the same shoulder.

  17. #17
    Boolit Grand Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by waksupi View Post
    Tim, is that the boolit that tumbles? If it is, I would quite frankly call that kind of damage boolit failure. I have NEVER had that kind of destruction with a cast boolit.
    Well, it was just a standard RCBS 35-200-FN, not the 358318.
    The boolits were cast from ww alloy, and dropped from the mold on my workbench and allowed to air cool. They were sized .350 on the nose, .359 on the driving bands, and .3605 on the gas check. Dip-lubed with FWFL, and seated in re-sized LC match brass on top of 35 grains of IMR3031, with a Federal primer.
    Speeds were right at 2000FPS.
    I honestly never shot a deer with this boolit before, and it has a rather small meplat, so I figured I would cast them soft to give it a little advantage. I will be using water quenched boolits from now on because that is just nuts!
    Please understand that I had no idea that the boolit would cause this much damage, but the good news was that the kill was fast and humane.
    I tried to stop the deer by calling to it, but it was going pretty fast and didn't hear me, so this was a running shot. I hit it right where I was going for but the deer was quartering away from me, so the boolit exited where you see in the picture.
    I lost a little meat, but I am happy with the performance of these boolits. As it was, if the deer had run another 30 yards, I might not have been able to recover it due to the terrain challenges (I dang near killed myself hauling it up and out of the ravine I was hunting in.) So it was a good thing I was able to shut her down immediately.
    The point is, that many people think that cast lead will not expand or cause enough damage to reliably kill a deer as well as the new fangled wiz-bang jacketed bullets, and this should conclusively prove otherwise! In fact, in this case, the cast lead boolit was a little too effective, and that's the whole reason I posted the photo!
    My lead boolit did as much or more damage than a jacketed bullet and at less than 30-30 speeds!
    Last edited by MBTcustom; 02-08-2018 at 01:49 PM.
    Precision in the wrong place is only a placebo.

  18. #18
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    mo-tin and water time...
    man.
    i hit a small buck at 40 yds with x57 ackley and a hornady bonded bullet travelling a bit over 3-k at the muzzle.
    i thought it tore up some meat.. i quit using that combination.
    i'd not use yours either.

  19. #19
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    I think we are all required to "overkill" one or two on our galena journey. I have learned alot of what "to do" by doing it the "not to do" way first. Just imagine if you had Hollowpointed that puppy.

  20. #20
    Boolit Grand Master
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    Wow, that is quite a wound. Good thing it wasn't hollowpointed. Speed and a flat nose do give quite a thump on deer.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check