Long time lurker first time poster. I have a SBH with a 7.5" barrel that I've killed several deer with using 240gr XTPs. They worked well except I didn't always get an exit and in the thickets that I hunt that 2nd hole definitely helps the tracking job.
I have purchased a ranch dog design 265gr RNFP a lee 240gr swc tl and the lee 310gr. The 265 is intended to be used in my 1895 and I have gotten limited success thus far both with PCed bullets and my attempt at bens red lube. No leading but accuracy is only about 5" or so at 100 yards. The 240gr is intended for everyday plinking with about 10gr of unique and the 310gr is intended for hunting with my SBH.
What I've worked up so far with my SBH is it tends to favor the 265gr bullet at about 1150fps but the accuracy isn't that much better then the 310gr at 1200fps (these are actual chronographed velocities) as the 310gr only gives up about 1" of accuracy to the 265gr at 60 yards. If I push the 310gr much harder I either loose accuracy with the load OR I begin flinching not sure which.
Now for the meat of the question. I'm planning on using the 310 for deer this year but I'm not sure on what alloy to attempt to use. I've thought about using a 1 in 20 mix, as I have oodles of roof flashing around, and hope for a bit of expansion within 50 yards but I'm not positive that my velocity is high enough to expand and thus I may loose my sharp meplat apon impact creating the effectiveness of a RN. If I go to hard like my target alloy of 50/50 COWW/#2 alloy it'll have tendency to shatter right? So I suppose the question is what would/do y'all use given the velocity range I'm getting? Most reports I've seen people are using the 310 over 21-23gr h110/296 which gave me nearly 1500 fps so my 19.5gr of 4227 seems pretty anemic compared to that.
Perhaps I'm just overthinking this whole thing and I should just put it in the boiler room and enjoy back straps
: I'd just hate to loose a deer due to a lack of research potentially turning me off to cast for hunting. That's what happened when I tried mechanical broadheads for the first time, shot 1 doe lost both blades of a 2 blade head, got the deer but I'll never use mechanical heads again.