Here’s some testing I did when I started out two years ago. It was my second gun I tested with cast.
I learned how to make an accurate cast bullet, crimp style, and make my gun accurate for cast...
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...man-devastator
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-ruger-77-44
And my results on three deer the season before last with too hard of cast like yours....
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...my-devastators!!!
Take in Account I only tried this on three deer and it’s the only three deer I’ve ever shot with cast so far. Next year I’ll make sure to connect with my soft 16:1 alloy if and when I see a test deer.
I was all worried about my 16 to 1 alloy figuring it was too soft and too shallow of a penetration stopping in three water jugs. I learned water testing cast bullets is fun but it’s nowhere near the same as shooting through an animal as the 8020 with 15% pewter that looked perfect didn’t even expand on the deer I shot as you can see the exit holes in the Hides I posted. Which explains why they ran with no kinetic energy transfer. It was like poking a hole through them with an arrow. If I would’ve hit the bone like I did with the third one in my post I’m sure they would all have dropped because of the bone fragments going in every direction like a shattered, expanded bullet would have.
Here’s a picture of my 16 to 1 at 1600 FPS Lyman devastator that I recovered from the dirt back stop at 25 yards last summer. It looks quite a bit different than the water retained cast bullet I recovered.
You can see the petals flowed very good and stayed together with all the tin content in it.
And here’s the goofy water test I did that made it look like a flat penny that made me doubt using it.
My boolit weighed 184 grains recovered from the dirt at 25 yards. I believe it weighed 131 grains from water if I remember. Anyways shooting water is almost like shooting a brick wall imo.