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Thread: Recovered bullets

  1. #1
    Boolit Buddy Tom_in_AZ's Avatar
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    Recovered bullets

    Anyone have any hunting bullets recovered from animals that they can share? I’m mostly trying to see what people are getting for expansion/what cartridge/what velocities...


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  2. #2
    Boolit Master
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    Watching with interest here. I have yet to recover a cast hunting bullet from game, and Ive been using them exclusively for 18 years and off and on since mid 70s. I did recover 1 50cal swaged rb about 20 years ago, it was the size of a half dollar. Maybe some hp users will have pictures.
    “You don’t practice until you get it right. You practice until you can’t get it wrong.” Jason Elam, All-Pro kicker, Denver Broncos

  3. #3
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    I've only ever recovered one as well, had a picture of it posted here once, can't seem to find it. It was a Lyman Plains Bullet propelled by 100 grains of Pyrodex, normally wouldn't have stayed in an animal, but it was a big buck and because he was standing in milo, I hit him higher than I'd have liked and it went through a lot more muscle and bone than normally would have. It stopped just under the hide on the off side. You can faintly see the round outline of the bullet base, but it basically looks like a lead quarter. I never weighed it to check for weight retention.

  4. #4
    Boolit Master
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    The only cast bullet I can remember recovering was a 525 grain .585 diameter one cast from Linotype. It was recovered from a Cape Buffalo. The shot was to the front of the chest at 20 yards the bullet was traveling about 1850 fps when it hit and traveled through the chest damaging the heart and stopped in the paunch. The bullet was compressed into a cylinder and had only lost 7 grains in weight. Sorry, I can't seem to find the pictures that I have of it.
    BIG OR SMALL I LIKE THEM ALL, 577 TO 22 HORNET.

  5. #5
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    Haven't hunted with cast yet but I'll be trying them out in our antlers only season and see what happens. Here's some water tests I did with recovered boolits.

    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-ruger-77-44

    Only j word I some what recovered was just the peeled back jacket after the lead separated from it. I found it in the off side of the Hyde of a pronghorn I shot at 200 yards using a 125 gr ballistic tip shot out of my 309 rum loaded at 3950 fps. I shot another one at a 1000 yards...the boolit passed completely through it with a bullet size hole in and out. The two hundred yard shot made a 6" entry and exit hole.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master




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    Have never recovered any.
    You can miss fast & you can miss a lot, but only hits count.

  7. #7
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    If you check some of fenring's past posts he has a lot of Lee 310's and devastators recovered using ACCOWW from hogs. His Lee 310s mushrooms awesome

  8. #8
    Boolit Master
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    I didn't get a complete pass through on my vrry first cast boolit deer. Boolit was cast from 50% coww, 50% soww and 2% pewter. Lee 452-250 rf out of a Henry BBS in 45LC. Can't remember the powder charge, but likely it was Unique. My guess on fps is somewhere between 1000-1200 fps. I have the boolit (somewhere) so if I locate it, I'll take a pic and post it. Even though I didn't get a complete pass through, it was a good shot. She only ran about 45 yds and dropped.

  9. #9
    Boolit Buddy Tom_in_AZ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tripplebeards View Post
    If you check some of fenring's past posts he has a lot of Lee 310's and devastators recovered using ACCOWW from hogs. His Lee 310s mushrooms awesome
    Thanks! I’ll look.


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  10. #10
    Boolit Buddy Tom_in_AZ's Avatar
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    As I suspected, most bullets are pass throughs. Thanks for the info!


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  11. #11
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    I had been hunting deer with cast in muzzle loaders for years, but when I started to hunt with "small bores" using cast, Larry Gibson gave me this advice;

    1. Heavy for caliber bullet
    2. Cast of 50/50 WW to pure with 2% of the wheel weights in tin, so basically 1% of the total
    3. Load to 1800-2000 FPS
    4. Put it through the heart/lung area

    This has been very sound advice for me on seven deer so far using a .30-30, .308, .300 Savage, .32 Winchester Special, .351 WSL (two deer) and a .358 Winchester. Except for the occasional arrow, cast is all I use now. They work great under the conditions I hunt.

  12. #12
    Boolit Mold
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    My recovered cast have only hunted paper and steel, I am in the California Condor range...

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tom_in_AZ View Post
    Anyone have any hunting bullets recovered from animals that they can share? I’m mostly trying to see what people are getting for expansion/what cartridge/what velocities...


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    83 ranged yards buck quartered in and my .530 RB hit /broke near side shoulder and stopped under hide behind far side shoulder . Deer ran off 100+ yds with 2 other bucks in 6 inches of new snow and down into a thick stand of hemlock and never left a drop of blood ,if I had not seen the leg drag it would have been a long day .Once in the brush I found him laid up against a cedar blood in a 6-8ft bed . High hit and no exit could be a problem with out snow . A little farther yardage and the ball would just past thru but 83 yds and 80 grains @OE /@F flattenedthe pure lead ball (211) grainsAttachment 224793Attachment 224794Attachment 224795

  14. #14
    Boolit Master OldBearHair's Avatar
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    Federal Low Recoil 45 ACP frontal of pigs head at five feet. It was caught in a snare. Bullet was found when the backbone was sawed in half in the first joint behind the head. The saw cut some of the bullet. Enough left of it to show it mushroomed well. Just a guess that it traveled through three inches of bone. The coyote shot with a 222 rem. at 470 yards the 50 grain J bullet at 3400 fps at the muzzle struck behind the skull, came out front of skull between the eyes not mushroomed leaving a bullet sized hole in and out like Triplebeards post said.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by EMC45 View Post
    Have never recovered any.
    me too.

  16. #16
    Boolit Master

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    I've recovered several boolits, but nothing case. I found out that 165gr SST's just come apart at high enough velocities after recovering 2 nearly intact jackets with no cores. I slowed them down a bit after that and they work better.

  17. #17
    Boolit Master
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    I hunt with HPs a lot and while most are pass through Ive got a pretty good collection over the years. A good many were dug out of the ground behind the critter.

    Ive posted a pic on here somewhere but it won't let me post it now.
    Some people live and learn but I mostly just live

  18. #18
    Boolit Buddy
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    Quote Originally Posted by richhodg66 View Post
    I've only ever recovered one as well, had a picture of it posted here once, can't seem to find it. It was a Lyman Plains Bullet propelled by 100 grains of Pyrodex, normally wouldn't have stayed in an animal, but it was a big buck and because he was standing in milo, I hit him higher than I'd have liked and it went through a lot more muscle and bone than normally would have. It stopped just under the hide on the off side. You can faintly see the round outline of the bullet base, but it basically looks like a lead quarter. I never weighed it to check for weight retention.
    Much the same, Lyman Great Plains hp, 50 cal muzzleloader, average sized doe about 10 ft from the base of the tree I was in. Dug the expanded bullet out of the mud under where she stood and it was silver dollar size and nearly flat.

  19. #19
    Boolit Master RU shooter's Avatar
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    I've not seen any cast bullets recovered from deer except a few 45 cal round ball my dad shot . Jacketed I've seen lots while working at the deer processors. Most all sufferd core jacket separation a variety of calibers too, the core is usually fairly close to the jacket usually within 4" , never seen a maxi ball or shotgun slug .
    If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck!

  20. #20
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    Texas by God's Avatar
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    This .54 prb sat the buck down at 44 feet from my Lyman pistol. I found it in the back side of the neck after it took the windpipe and spine. I think you would have to shoot deer lengthwise to recover a proper cast boolit.

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