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Thread: Cast bullets and sabot

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy Huntsman's Avatar
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    Cast bullets and sabot

    Well after some debating I finally made the decision to cast my own pistol bullets for my TC Encore inline. I am doing this simply beacause of my disappointment with the 300gr Hornady SST's I'd been using. I lost 2 deer too many this fall, I believe the reason was the SST's would "blow-up" and not give good penetration.
    So for next year I'll be trying out some 300 .45cal RF bullets, MMP (short) sabots and T7 powder. Has anyone else tried this with good results?
    Cheers,

  2. #2
    Boolit Buddy
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    Hi there Huntsman and welcome to the board,,, now to your question . I hunt with the nef sidekick 50 cal and started off using the hornady 300 xtp's witch I liked..killed the one and only doe I ever shot at with them( the xtp's) ... was about 35-40 yard shot if memory serves me right complete pass through DRT and found the slug burried deep in a oak tree some 10 more yards away but those xtp's are pricey in my book,,,,so I started looking around for something cheaper and I came up with the Lee C452-300-RF witch I cast out of pure soft lead and married it to a Harvester sabot ( I have both the long and short can't say I see mutch differance one way or the other in the lenght differance) and charged it with 85 grains of tripple7,,, and I've shot deer from 30 yards to 107 yards( in fact 2 at the 107 yard mark... witch was a measured pre season just to make sure the distance was a shootable distance) and every shot was/has been a complete pass through.

    Blood trails ranged from DRT to blood that a blind man could follow...... to very very little for the first 25 to 30 yards before it opend up any real sign of being hit( witch was one of the 107 yard shots a complete pass through of both shoulders and the lungs witch was shot mid shoulder,,,so the blood had to fill to the spill point before it could bleed out... but i knew it was a good hit... and the deer went in to the full blind death run ) the only deer I've ever lost is the one I missed when I shot at it IF I've done my part the boolit and gun have done they're part.......I think scence I've had the gun the count is 10 shots, 1 complete miss and 9 dead deer,,,,, so you make the call I'm very happy with pure soft cast slug and it's preformance

    you should have any problem casting something that will do what you want it to do...... Good luck

  3. #3
    Cast Hunter

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    With my CVA Optima Pro (.50 cal) I've had good luck with 100 gns 777 pushing a Lyman 429244 in a Harvestor sabot. Killed numerous deer, hogs & coyotes with this combination. Hammers them good.
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  4. #4
    Boolit Master testhop's Avatar
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    huntsman ( good name
    welcome abooooard i never could see useing jacketwhen cast would do a better job
    some other ideas a t.c maxie ball a buffalo bullet you just have to try them out and see what your gun likes

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  5. #5
    Boolit Buddy
    cattleskinner's Avatar
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    This year was the first year I have used hard cast out of a sabot, and all I have to say is aim in the lower half of the chest in order to have a blood trail soon after the shot. I have found if you hit higher, it takes a bit before the blood makes it to the entrance/exit holes in order to bleed, just like somebody had already said. Look in the hunting section, and you can see pics of the ones I got this year and the load I used.

    ~Amos

  6. #6
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    ive used 300 rcbs swc and 320 ballistic cast lfn 45s and lyman devestator 44s in sabots for years. One thing you no doubt realize you will have to do is some serious experimenting. The guns ive done this in seem even more particular about which weight and design of a bullet that shot well then a standard centerfire rifle. Last one i tried the groups looked more like shotgun patterns then groups till if found it prefered heavier bullets. I ended up with a 45 cal ballistic cast 350 lfn and it was scary accurate with that bullet and only that bullet. One thing thats nice is that you can experiment with softer alloys and not worry about leading. My thoughts for next year are to cast this 350 with a pure nose and the rest of the bullet out of 5050 ww/lyno. Kind of like a 350 grain 45 cal nosler partition. I doubt if a guy pushed that to 1500 fps out of an inline that theres a game animal on this planet that would walk away from a hit.

  7. #7
    Boolit Buddy Huntsman's Avatar
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    Wow, Thank you for all your comments. I went and ordered from Midsouth Shooters Supply, a Lee Lee C452-300-RF ,Thanks Onlymenotu! I also orderd a Lyman 20ga sabot slug mould.
    I have a good supply of MMP sabots so it looks like this spring I'll be busy.

  8. #8
    Boolit Buddy
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    I shoot the RCBS 44-240-SWC gascheck bullet over 100 gr. of RS pyrodex with a T/C black hi velocity sabot. I also shoot the RCBS 245 KT bullet over 90 gr. with the same sabot. I cast up some Lyman 452490 255 gr. SWCs this summer but haven't tried them yet. I'm going to try some squirrel loads with the green Hornady sabot and .433 round ball over 50-60 gr. of RS. I've taken 2 deer with the first load and both were BANG,FLOP,twitch. CB.
    If you want your children to follow in your footsteps, be careful where you walk.
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  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy Kragman71's Avatar
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    Hello
    I have a CVA Wolf,and I would like to use my 320 grain Gould bullets in it(.457 dia) I suppose that I will have ti resize them to .452 dia.Ialso have some 393grain bullets.Has anyone tried them in a sabot in a 50 cal MZL?
    Frank

  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    K-man 71
    I believe that mmp or harvester makes a sabot for .50 cal that holds a .458 boolit. Just checked mmp makes an orange color one for .457-458 boolits, they say 250-500 gr range but recommend 250-300 for deer.

  11. #11
    Boolit Buddy Kragman71's Avatar
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    NSP64
    I went to the mmp website.They have a full range of sabots for MZL bullets.I'mgoing to order som orange for my .458 bullets and some black for the .452 bullets.
    The site has a link to chuck hawks site.That s a very informative site.
    Frank

  12. #12
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    Any one have PIC of the bullets that they cast to shoot out of sabots ?

  13. #13
    Boolit Buddy
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    I tried some out of my .50, but the sabots and cast bullets were given to me by a freind who recently died so I do not know what bullet is was and who made the sabots. They shot just as well as the XTPs did.

    -Yarro

  14. #14
    Cast Hunter

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    Quote Originally Posted by lungbuster1 View Post
    Any one have PIC of the bullets that they cast to shoot out of sabots ?
    The bullet with sabot is a RCBS 44-240-SIL. The other is a Lyman 429244 (It's only gas checked because I pulled it from a 44 mag round). I have more experience with the later and it has done well on big game.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails bullet.JPG   bullet2.JPG  
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  15. #15
    Boolit Bub
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lloyd Smale View Post
    ive used 300 rcbs swc and 320 ballistic cast lfn 45s and lyman devestator 44s in sabots for years. One thing you no doubt realize you will have to do is some serious experimenting. The guns ive done this in seem even more particular about which weight and design of a bullet that shot well then a standard centerfire rifle. Last one i tried the groups looked more like shotgun patterns then groups till if found it prefered heavier bullets. I ended up with a 45 cal ballistic cast 350 lfn and it was scary accurate with that bullet and only that bullet. One thing thats nice is that you can experiment with softer alloys and not worry about leading. My thoughts for next year are to cast this 350 with a pure nose and the rest of the bullet out of 5050 ww/lyno. Kind of like a 350 grain 45 cal nosler partition. I doubt if a guy pushed that to 1500 fps out of an inline that theres a game animal on this planet that would walk away from a hit.
    sounds pretty interesting but how do you cast the two different alloys. I am new to this stuff and would like to know.

    BRU

  16. #16
    Boolit Master

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    To cast a composite boolit(soft nose, hard shank) isn't real difficult.
    I just melt a 454 pure lead roundball in a ladle, floating on top of my molten alloy. I pour this pure lead in the mould first, then IMMEDIATELY fill the rest of the mould cavity as normal, with the WW metal alloy I have melted in the pot(bottom pour furnace)
    That's all there really is to it.
    One thing that helps is to run the mould hot. I put my mould into the alloy for about 10 seconds or so every time before I pour in a freshly melted roundball.
    I'll be a nice to you as you'll let me be, or as mean as you make me be.

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  17. #17
    Boolit Bub
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    thanks

    bru

  18. #18
    Boolit Buddy Huntsman's Avatar
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    Well after some range testing I felt a little dissapointed. I used both T7 & Pyrodex RS in 100gr volume and 90gr volume charges....the groupings were horrendous!!!
    Awful, awful, awful. Is the charge too big or too small? I'm having 2nd thoughts on these.....

  19. #19
    Boolit Bub
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    I shoot 44 cal. cast in my 50. I have two front-stuffers, one likes 90gr. t7 the other will only likes 60gr. t7

  20. #20
    Boolit Bub
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    I remeber reading somewhere that u want to have the petals of the sabot sticking out past the end of the bullet?

    anybody know about this.

    BRU

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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