Cast bullet expansion?

[Cedric]

Is there any information available about the suitability of cast bullets for hunting with regard to their expansion properties?
In particular the .22 Hornet. It is normal to use expanding ammo (here in the UK at least) for foxes, hollow point, soft nosed, ballistic tipped. I was wondering about the efficiency of a 40gr solid lead bullet driven at over 2,000 fps. at ranges of 80 -150 yards.

[jcren]

Check out "hunting with cb" here, lots of info on the details, but basically, if cast from a soft alloy or hollow pointed, you will be amazed what a chunk of lead can do.

[Texas Tinker]

It just takes a little experimenting to find the right combination of velocity and lead hardness to develope a varmit pill that will expand or break apart. Test as you go by firing them at various ranges into wet paper. Once you find the sweet spot for your rifle/ bullet combination it will be like the cartoon. It dont end well for the coyote :)

[richhodg66]

Cast the bullets of 50/50 Wheel Weights to pure lead and I'm pretty sure that will be a killer in the .22 Hornet on something the size of a fox at the velocities you're looking to get.

The Lee Bator mold shoots well in my rifle with about 5 grains of 2400. I'm guessing it's about 1500 FPS, but because of the gas check, I can get away with a very soft alloy, so I bet it would give great terminal performance.

[DIRT Farmer]

The Lyman 225-415 cast at 1 tin to 10 lead will not exit a coyote at 100 and is a bang flop. No it does not expand but it does shatter

[ammohead]

Cedric,

I once took a cottontail rabbit with a sheridan air rifle in 5mm/20cal. I recovered the pellet after going through the lungs and it had expanded. Expansion with a 22 hornet is way doable.

[jhalcott]

I cast a bunch of .22 bullets some years ago. I cast them from Linotype and used them in a 223 and 22-250 at much higher speeds than you want. I was looking for DEAD critters NOT meat! Never found any of those bullets in a fox or ground hog and exit holes were not very large. For some reason I could not get COWW to cast well in the mold I had. I tried about 5 pounds of Lyman #2 alloy and did get some expansion in ground hogs(according to exit holes!) ALL the .22 bullets were gas checked. I used a magnifying glass to inspect the bullet for defects.

[Shooternz]

I have the NOE 225107 mould my lead mix is 50/50 ww/ lead with 2% tin boolit weighs 41gr ready to shoot loaded with 10.00 gr 2400
in the.22 Hornet have not chrono'd it yet getting some fliers will back it off a little, any way shot 3 rabbits last week 2 neck shot last one through
both shoulders it had an exit wound of about 1/2" all 3 DRT never even twitched, the neck shot rabbits had more of a tear than a hole so I would say the boolits did expand, I sell 71gr 25 cal boolits to a customer for his 25/20 Winchester 92 his first hunt with them scored 8 feral goats,
He is loading them to 1650fps, a lot of people discount cast boolits as plinking ammo they are missing out on a great experience hunting with their own creation, Robert.