What brindle hardness for shooting deer in the shoulder’s

[sac]

So a back story on why I want to shoot them in the shoulder’s. A few weekends ago i hit a medium size doe in the shoulder with a 240 grain xtp out of my 44 super redhawk ( not on purpose ). She ended up running and stopping 40 yards from my son and he got a good look that I indeed hit her in the shoulder . So as he brings his gun up to shoot her again she bolts. Long story short she ended going onto a property that when I called the owner he would not alow me to track her. So to the question, at around 1300 FPS can a 15 bhn bullet hold up to shoulder shots and not deform the meplat a bunch or should I go with a 22 bhn hard cast bullet ?

Thanks for the help..

not to derail the post but have you checked your local laws about recovering you deer. In Iowa it is the law that you recover, and if land owner won't allow it get the DNR.

[Bookworm]

not to derail the post but have you checked your local laws about recovering you deer. In Iowa it is the law that you recover, and if land owner won't allow it get the DNR.

Can't do that in Okie-land. You risk a trespassing charge, along with poaching.

You must have permission to access land, no matter what. If that game jumps a fence, you lose.

[crankycalico]

And remember, once the animal jumps the fence, or crosses the property line. it is no longer yours anymore. You cant prove that you shot it, because that's what the game officer will say, "have any actual proof you shot this animal and then that it ran this way?"

Blood trail doesn't help you in that case, but if a DNR officer finds a deer/turkey/what not, killed with illegal means for that season, or in a closed season and finds a blood trail to your property, THEN the blood trail is a valid proof of evidence...

[sac]

Thats why I'm saying check the laws, in iowa if the land owner denies you to recover you get a hold of the DNR.

[pls1911]

Your experience is a good example why so many of use really prefer cast bullets for hunting based on rational experience, not the passing fancy of a hobbyist.
Especially in pistol calibers, cast will often outperform jacketed by a wide margin.
Regarding alloy, I've moved to casting low antimony bullets at 10-15 BHN (pure lead is 8-9 bhn) to maintain malleability, then heat treating at 450 degrees for an hour , dropping into and ice water bath, this brings surface hardness to 18-24 bhn depending on many factors.
With this I get the accuracy of hard alloys but retained malleability of softer alloys. Bullets will deform a bit , but normally will not break apart.
I refer you to Lyman's #3 cast bullet manual, in which they have a section which discusses this hardness vs alloy vs velocity in detail with a 311041.
That article should be scanned to a sticky for those who can no longer find a copy of Lyman's #3 manual.

[Bazoo]

I've never taken game with the xtp, but I have recovered a few from my range that went into mud and hit gravel. They were full power 44 mags and they all held together and mushroomed well. The bullets in question were purchased in 2016/2017. I wonder if the current production xtp's hold together better than they used to?

[Blammer]

I personally would just use WW alloy not water quenched, or 96/2/2, air cooled. (sorry don't know the brinell hardness of this)

Should be plenty of penetration for you, get a good meplat on your 44 and you SHOULD aim for bone.

I shot through a deer diagonally with my 44mag, in right front out left ham, did the deed just fine.

want a pic of some good 44 cal bullets to try?

ignore the pointy one...

[Static line]

In Ohio,if a hit deer crosses onto another person's property,you MUST obtain written permission from the landowner to recover the deer,blood trail or no blood trail.

[David2011]

I've dispatched a bunch wounded of feral hogs with XTPs. Then I got to thinking about it. Head shots don't really need XTPs so I started using boolits and saved the money I was wasting on XTPs. Pigs were just as dead with a traditional round nosed boolit coming out of my Blackhawk in .45 Colt as with the high priced XTP.

[Walks]

MT Gianni,
A 120gr JSP might not drop a 200lb Whitetail, but a NOSLER .25cal 115gr Partition will drop a 300lb Mule Deer. I took one a thousand or so feet above Colo. Springs, CO back in 1978. Rear quarter shot, did break the off shoulder. Made quite the mess. They didn't have the 120gr Partition back then. The .25-06 is a heck of a flat shooting cartridge. Too small for lead loads, but we have bigger cartridges for that. 175yrds is a bit far for a revolver cartridge.

Just a different opinion.

[lightman]

I have shot a half dozen deer with handguns and clip on wheel weights have worked well for me. Hardness is probably in the 12 - 13 BHN range. I favor Keith type SWC's in my pistols. Hopefully I can try my new Accurate molds 45-70 bullet out this year. Its a more traditional style bullet.

[Tripplebeards]

If you check my first deer(s) with cast devastor HP boolits post I used a BH of 15.4 using 80/20 accoww and lead flooring mixed with 12% pewter. My. Muzzle velocity was 1750 FPS. I shot three deer all with complete pass through and massive devastation. I don’t believe my boolits ever expanded with the 15.4 BH boolits but tons of shattered bone fragments everywhere inside the deer with boolit diameter exits. Next season I plan on trying 7.5 and 10.5BH next season I already have made up with 16:1 and 50/50 alloys to get some expansion for a bigger than boolit diameter sized exits along with penatration.

[Markopolo]

Tripplebeard... your messages are full and I can’t PM Ya... time to clean up the shop!!!

[Tripplebeards]

Tripplebeard... your messages are full and I can’t PM Ya... time to clean up the shop!!!

Cleaned out again