44 mag and my custom bullet takes down elk!

[BT Sniper]

Just got word from a local friend of mine that his son took down an elk yesterday with a 44 cal bullet I had made him. Shot it with is Ruger super black hawk pistol.

Of course the bullet was made with a 40 S&W case for a jacket and probably weighted 255 grains with a wheel weight alloy core. It was 3-4 years ago when I made these bullets for him. The designs and quality has gotten even better since then.

If he sends me some pics then I'll post them here.

Love these bullets!

Good shooting and swage on!

BT

[no34570]

Would love to see the expansion of it too(bullet) and the elk?

[Lizard333]

You don't use pure lead for your cores?? My shoulder can't handle anything harder than 8 for cores. And I'm using a walnut hill.

[BT Sniper]

I made these bullets way back when. All I had at the time was a mix of wheel weight and stick on weights. I have gathered a lot more lead since then and for sure.... softer lead is a lot easier to make bullets with.

Spoke with my friend. He said it was a nice spike elk taken at 50 yrds. Bull didn't go more then 50 yrds after shot. Hit behind shoulder. They recovered the bullet. Hopfully I'll get some pics.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Back in the day I had what others here refered to as a "slot machine arm" on my press. I wore it out though, i got more then 10k worth of 44 bullets out of it before I retired the set up.

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/DSCF9635.jpg




and here is a look at most likly the bullets looked like that I made at the time

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/2009_1228bullets0017.jpg




I wonder if the recovered bullet will look anythign like this one???

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/mushroom.jpg


BT

[fredj338]

Very cool! Nothing like hunting w/ your own bullets, cast or swaged.

[SquirrelHollow]

Very nice.

It's a great feeling.

This is the 275 gr unbonded .431" bullet I recovered from the neck of my Elk this year:
Pure lead core - well, maybe 0.5% tin.
Jackets were not annealed. (They separate too easily when annealed.)
.444 Marlin
2,335 fps
~75 yards
Recovered (clean) weight was 181.6 gr for 66% weight retention. ;)
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=49392&stc=1&d=1352320550
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=49393&stc=1&d=1352320550

(All of my .40 S&W cases retain their primers during swaging, but they get blown out when the bullet impacts something and extrudes lead through the flash hole.)

[BT Sniper]

AWESOME!!!! JUST AWESOME! LOOK AT THE DIAMETER OF THAT RECOVERED BULLET!


It is possible to get away with making 44 cal bullets from 40 S&W brass without annealing because the diameter of the 40 is allready so close to the 44 at .425 vs ..429-.431. I wouldn't recomend trying to make any other caliber bullets without annealing and even the 44s from 40 S&W will be easier on your equipment when annealed.

Great Job! Any pics of the elk. Can you send me the grousome pics of the bullet performance?

Anyone else get anything hunting with their own swaged bullets?

BT

[scarry scarney]

That's quite the arm on that press!

[SquirrelHollow]

Sorry, I can't.

I dropped the poor guy on top of a mountain - literally 30 yards from the peak - and I was only planning on "scouting" at the time. So, I wasn't prepared; and didn't have a camera, pack frame, knife sharpener, or even cordage. It was a hot, dry day, and I had to get him gutted as quickly as possible. Recovery required a 2.5-3 mile hike each way, with a substantial elevation change. Even though I had 3 extra bodies to help me, we just didn't have the energy to document much with photos. The few that we did take don't show anything other than a dried up entrance wound.

The neck that bullet came out of was absolutely thrashed. It was beyond "hamburger"... just a nasty, shredded, bloodshot mess full of bone chips and some stray brass fragments. The wound channel was about 2" wide, with permanent damage in a diameter of about 6". It reminded me of what you see from high velocity impacts with bullets like the Nosler Ballistic tip. It was the second bullet fired.

The first bullet was not recovered. We looked for it, and dug through the gut pile a bit, but didn't have the time or motivation to really dive in. I REALLY wanted to find that bullet, because it went through a 5/8" to 3/4" pine branch before hitting the Elk. But... we had to get the meat off the mountain. (I'm weird, I don't give a 'flock' about antlers.)


Expansion of the bullet posted above was 0.699" (widest) by 0.634" (narrowest), for an average of .666" (154%). It also cut a tree branch... but only about 1/4" thick.


Yea... I shot through trees, willingly, twice, on a day I wasn't really "hunting". :roll:
I had two tags to fill, the Elk ran into us and had no idea we were watching them from some new-growth pine, and I figured there was no reason to waste time not filling a tag. First shot was no more than 75 yards - so close the herd of Elk couldn't even figure out what happened. They were so confused, I had time to close the distance through the new-growth, drop a round of Hornady 265 gr Superformance in the chamber, change my mind, reload with a 275 gr ".40 S&W" load, and take a few seconds to decide if the second shot was even needed. It wasn't, but I figured a quicker kill would be better. At about 75 feet, I took the neck shot, and he dropped like a ton of bricks. Game over. Tag filled. Then the real work began.....


It was a great hunt. I can't wait to see photos of your bullet.