First cast boolit buck

[Kylongrifle32]

Used a NOE 430-265 deep hollow point to harvest my first buck taken with a boolit that I cast. I split time this year between my two Contenders a 7-30 Waters and a 44 mag. Sunday morning I choose to hunt a blind set up in a thick hardwoods. Since my shots would be limited to less than 100 yards I choose the 44 mag. At just about 20 minutes after settling into the blind I heard something walking to my left when out popped a 10 pointer at 35 yards. I wasn't expecting a shot so soon so I had to let him start walking again and by the time I was set up he was about 75 yards out but a nice broad side shoot. The boolit entered and broke the right front leg and continued thru and out the other side just behind the left leg. After walking to the spot he was standing when I placed the shot I found no sign of a hit. No blood or no hair on the ground so I started on the route he took to escape. As I follow the trail of disturbed leaves I still found no sign of blood.walked the thicket for about 65 yards and caught sight of some brown down by the creek and it was him. Inspecting the wound channel revealed a finger sided hole out both sides of him and upon field dressing the same hole thru the middle of a heart that was largely intact. Not the devastating result I get with the 7-30 Waters or the 7mm-08 I use in a rifle.

[rking22]

Nice buck! Have to say the “damage report” is not what I expected. I, too have a 44 super14 and it is pretty nasty with hp. What alloy? Load data??

It did the job but I understand the concern of no blood trail. Only time I have seen that with a big bullet was a very fat deer and heart shot, the fat seemed to seal the leaks.

[richhodg66]

Nice buck! I sure would like to run into one like him in a week and a half when our rifle season opens here.

[winelover]

Very nice buck. Lack of blood trails, with 44 caliber cast, is all too frequent. IME, to the point, that I'm about ready to give up using them for hunting. I've tried SWC and RNFP designs, with relative soft alloys. Makes no difference. The last resort will be a HP of RCBS 300 grain SWC, done by Eric. Currently, in the chamber of my Marlin 1894, in front of 18 grains of 2400 and a WLP primer. We are midway through our hunting season. Heading out on my acreage, this AM.





Winelover

[Friends call me Pac]

Great deer. Even with jacketed hp in my Ruger Super Blackhawk the 3 deer I have killed all left minimal blood trails. I was thinking it would knock them down big time but it just wasn't the case. They were all does and not of any great size either. Out of a 44 mag rifle the NOE 265gr rf dropped a buck in his tracks, not even a twitch. On the negative side I had more bloodshot meat than any other deer I have shot with cast to include my 30.06 rifle. Bullet was 50:50 pure lead and ww.

[Kylongrifle32]

Rking the alloy I used my have contributed to the results I got. I cast the boolit with an alloy of 95% lead and 5% antimony. Loaded the 430-265 HP on top of 18 grains of 2400. I have no chronograph so I'm guessing 1100 fps. In this situation I'm glad it worked out but I was hoping for better results I placed the boolit where I was aiming so perhaps I should move up to a full shoulder strike and use the extra bone fragments to help anchor them.I have shot several does in the past with a 50 cal muzzleloader using a Lee 430-255 SWC in WW alloy in a sabot over 90 grains of FFG. I know the velocity is much higher but the results were devastating.

[white eagle]

glad you found the deer
nice buck

[ikarus1]

Short barrels are akin to bow hunting. You have to severely restrict your range and shot placement to near and perfect. I lost 2 deer last year with a 8.5" .300blk pistol and 125gr Noslers. 110gr would have been a better choice. In your case, lighter would have helped I am certain...maybe a 200gr cast and coated HP

[rking22]

What did that right front leg look like when skinned out? May have lost the petals on that bone and continued as a much slower and lighter solid. Pure speculation on my part. I like equal parts sn:sb and not a whole lot in my hollow points. Like 1 1/2 %, keeps them malleable. I had massive damage from a similar placement an loading last year.. 30 yard ish. Don’t know if I had a blood trail or not, he fell after about 20 to 25 yard sprint. Straight into a tree, takes a while for them to figure out they are dead. Lots of time breaking bone going in creates lots of damage from the fragments but lower down they might not get “inside” to do their work. At any rate, good job on the follow up! Lots of time they may not act dead while in sight!

[444ttd]

good job!!!!

i usea 300gr fn gc with 24.0gr of 2400/dacron(1624fps) in my 444 marlin(tc encore with 23" MGM barrel). i've shot 3 deer(1 buck, 2 doe) and only the buck ran. it was shot at 55+/- yards and it ran about 25-30 yards. it was a behind the shoulder shot(about 12+/- bhn, 10 coww .5 tin) and i did have a blood trail. the two doe were shot at 25+/- yards and they were behind the shoulder too.

[superior]

Feels good to take a buck with your own bullet, doesn’t it? Welcome to the dark side.

[Tripplebeards]

Doesn’t sound like your boolit ever expanded.

I had the same type of results last year on two out of three deer I shot with my Ruger 7744 loaded at 1750 ft./s. I used 265 grain Lyman devastators. I believe my alloy was too hard because none of the boolits never expanded and sailed through all the deer leaving bullet size exits. One deer that dropped I hit the ribs and they shattered into the lungs and I went through the heart. It made a fist sized extry and exit holes through the ribs (found out when I skinned it) but “boolit” sized exit through the Hyde. That deer was straight down from me out of my tree stand so probably a 15 foot shot. My alloy was 80% accoww and 20%pure...and then I added 15% pewter to the total weight. 15.4 Bh. I’m using the same gun and bullet this year for antlerless only hunting here to try it again. I switched to a 7.5 BH at 1575 FPS. It’s a 16 to 1 mix of pure lead and pewter. Imo It expands very well and holds together at that speed. We’ll see if the softer alloy helps with expansion to leave a large exit hole for a better blood trail and hopefully a more instant kill. If I have poor results this year I will actually shoot J words out of that gun for the first time next year and try it and see if it’s the same, better, or worse results. I’m going to try the 180 grain XTP‘s as fast as they can go and see if speed and expansion prevails. The more I hear about deer running like they haven’t been hit with hard cast I sure wouldn’t use it for a bear self-defense load! I realize if you hit one square in the head it probably would drop it in its tracks but anywhere else it sure isn’t going to. I like my cast boolits but I would rather trust my life to a 3000 ft./s J word.

Here my post with pics...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-devastators!!!


Good shooting and nice deer, glad you found it, if you find the magic cast boolit that drops deer in their tracks please let me know. Hopefully my softer alloy is the answer with a hollow point. I would at least like to try and find a bullet that makes a decent blood trail out of the 44 mag. If not maybe I’ll bump the speed by a few hundred feet per second next year and sacrifice some accuracy and take a close range shot and see what happens.

[Kylongrifle32]

Rking I was being helped by a crew of four other guys and we had three other deer to process so I didn't get to do to much wound investigation. The wound channel looked just like you stabbed a sharpened piece of half inch rebar thru him. Same with the heart just a clean hole dead center thru it. No real blood or hydro shock jelly so I'm thinking the boolit just pass thru without any expansion at all. The heart shot worked out but a little blood for trailing sure helps to insure a hit. I will be out this weekend trying to fill more antlerless tags and fill the freeze. Now that I think a solid shoulder shot will not destroy as much meat as I was thinking it would I will use that approach.

[rking22]

Interesting, yep full on the shoulder with that one. There is a thread with pictures of cast bullet damage, last years revolver deer is posted there if your curious. Probably some more of interest to you as well. Good luck this weekend!
Curious about your name, so,, you squirrel hunt much . My long rifle is a 36, wanted a 32 for years!

[marshall623]

Thats a great buck , sometimes when they are all jacked up on testosterone they can absorb alot of impact and keep on going .

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Kylongrifle32]

Interesting, yep full on the shoulder with that one. There is a thread with pictures of cast bullet damage, last years revolver deer is posted there if your curious. Probably some more of interest to you as well. Good luck this weekend!
Curious about your name, so,, you squirrel hunt much . My long rifle is a 36, wanted a 32 for years!

Rking I loved squirrel hunting as a younger man still do just don't get to do as much as I would like to. Fall archery for deer and turkey consumes most of my free time now. I have four 32 cal rifles and still most of my squirrel hunting is done with them but I got a 10" 22lr barrel for my contender this year and I'm starting to enjoy hunting with it.

[rking22]

After a couple deer hunts in primitive areas, and the wicked drag, I decided that my next hunting adventure was to be squirrels in Boone National Forest with my flint 36. Lots less work and just as much fun! Sadly, haven’t gotten rountuit. I like squirrel hunting better than deer hunting, myself. Good luck this weekend, I am going to terminate a buck that is tearing up my maple trees in the yard!

[Silvercreek Farmer]

Very nice!

[T-Bird]

that's a nice'un!