question about alloy for .44 mag

[randy_68]

I have been shooting the Noe 432-265 RD boolit in my .44 mags made with acww + 2% tin. I noticed on several recovered boolits from a dirt bank that there is little to no expansion. Just slightly deformed noses. I am planning on using these for deer hunting and was wondering if it would be beneficial to mix 50/50 with pure lead to soften them up some for better expansion. I realize that no matter what alloy I use the .44 will still kill the deer. Just curious if a softer alloy would be beneficial to use. I am shooting these out of a Henry Big Boy and a Ruger SBH Hunter, chronied at 1250 fps in the Black Hawk.
Thanks

[Freightman]

there is a stickie somewhere about how to cast hard body-soft nose boolits

[Outpost75]

For hunting you probably aren't going to fire a great many rounds to where leading or bore condition is going to make a difference. You could try a softer alloy with your current load and see if accuracy holds for ten or a dozen shots without cleaning. If leading is a problem, try reducing the load a bit.

In my .44s I use a 50-50 mix of wheelweights and Roto Metals 1:40 tin/lead for hunting alloy using the Saeco #441 Keith style 260-grain SWC, which I load as-cast and unsized at .432", tumbled in Lee Liquid Alox. I do not load to full power, because at my age the heavier recoil is no longer pleasant. I normally load 8 grains of Bullseye in .44 Mag brass, which gives about 1080 fps from my 5-1/2" Ruger revolver and 1300 fps from my H&R Handi Rifle. The load is accurate, pleasant to shoot and effective.

[runfiverun]

I cut my hunting boolits with soft lead at a 3 to 1 ratio of clip on to stick on, and add 1% tin to the mix.
I started doing that because in my ww collecting day's I always got about a 3 to 1 ratio, and I needed to figure out something for the stick-on's.
it's never hampered me in load development or on target results.

[jakec]

i use 50/50 pure/coww in my .44 mag with good results. i actually think im going to go softer still since i get pure a lot easier than ww. in the last 2 buckets of ww i got from the tire shop about half of the soww were just as hard as the coww. they had the same "ting" to them when dropped also. i used them as coww and cant tell a difference.

[randy_68]

Thanks for the replies. I have several pounds of soft lead, a mix of soww and dental xray foils, plus some other soft lead I had on hand and thought it would work for that so I will try it and see what happens. The straight acww boolits shoot great in both guns but the Henry really surprised me. It shot better with the Noe boolit over some H110 than any j-word loads I tried, and they were accurate. Never really shot a "bad" group with the Henry with any load. With peep sights at 50 yards I can just about keep the holes touching without trying too hard.
My Blackhawk was a lot pickier on load development, but man is it fun to shoot!

[Loony44]

randy_68,
Where in SW Indiana are you from? I'm from Gibson County (will born and raised) live in Michigan now, but still hunt the old farm every year. I use 3 to 1 pure lead to wheel weight and a little tin. MP's 310gr gas checked hollow point and use a Encore 44mag 26" barrel. No leading and Deer don't run or walk away.
Loony44

[randy_68]

I live over in southern Dubois county north of Dale. Born and raised in Jasper many years ago. I mixed up a batch of 50/50 with 2% tin and will see how these do in both my guns.

[fredj338]

Try 50/50 without the tin, or reduce it to 1%. Antimony makes the bullet harder, so mixing pure will help. If I want my LHP to expand, 25-1 lead/tin runs fine to 1200fps or so.

[Bigslug]

I realize that no matter what alloy I use the .44 will still kill the deer.

DING!DING!DING! We have a winner! Meplat is what will be doing the work for you with that bullet design. A lot more than expansion will.

Just curious if a softer alloy would be beneficial to use.

I think only if it makes them group better. There isn't much in a deer to seriously deform a heavy, solid .44 slug, be it a Keith, WFN, or LFN, be they hard or soft. There's also the thought that NOT having the corners of your meplats round over on impact might be more beneficial. Deer aren't Cape buff, so this is probably more academic than anything else, I think. Punch a 1-2" hole all the way through, intersecting something vital, and they'll bleed out plenty fast.

[bmortell]

this is my 44 hunting load. its a 250k boolit at 1350fps made from 2.3% tin 3.6% antimony. expanded one was fired into 1 foot of soft wet pack newspaper and caught with a bag of clothes.
i belive theres a proper spot where you want expansion to stop. for instance if my load is a little harder or slower expansion is a little more flat and less wide across the front. or if its softer or faster the boolit will round over and not have as much frontal surface as the one pictured. if anyone would like to copy my results go on rotometals buy one pure one #2 one hardball, take half of each bar and toss it in the casting pot, push between 1300 and 1400 and enjoy

[randyrat]

Bmortell,,,,,,,,,,That 250K boolit is such a SWEET boolit I just can't get myself to shoot anything else out of the forty four, no matter what it is cast out of. Soft or WW

[DrBill33]

I use an alloy that I make that is BHN 15.9-16.3. Unless I am loading to the highest pressure, this works for me

Cast Bullet Associatio has an excellent BHN calculator.

[Old Caster]

I wouldn't worry about expansion but rather whether a harder or softer alloy is more accurate in your gun. For me personally I like a BHN of around 8-10 because it is accurate and the caliber is already bigger than a 30 caliber that is expanded a normal amount.