38-55 and Hollow Points

[northmn]

Posted this on another thread but I want a few opinions. Mostly from folks that have used them and shot deer with them.
I have a 336 38-55 Cowboy and am looking at deer loads. I keep thinking about how well the 45-70 Gould bullet worked and wonder if a HP would not be better in a 38-55. I could buy jacketed bullets and soup it up a bit, but my Go To load seems to be with 4198 at about 1550 through my chronograph. I use 1/2 lead to WW. Don't really know if I need a HP but keep wondering if it would not help. I have some wooded stands where one takes the shot one gets and really may not be able to wait around fro the ideal.
I have kind of figured out how to HP my Lee bullets on my Drill press. Any screw ups go back into the pot anyway and I really don't need a lot of bullets.

DEP

[cwheel]

First off, let me start by saying that I've only taken 3 deer with my grandfathers old 38-55, and those were taken with my reloads. Small black tail deer at 75-125 yards or so. My bullets were cast from a old Ideal mold that puts out gas check bullets @265 gr. ( Ideal #375296 ) These loads go through the chronograph @1600 fps. You could almost see 2 of the 3 little 125 lb. bucks knocked off their feet sideways when hit. No shortage of knockdown power with these loads. All were 1 shot kills, instantly dead. Don't think any deer with a good hit with these needs any more impact from this round, and hollow points might end up being a waste of time. Guess if you were hunting something much bigger it could matter.
Chris

[Jeff Michel]

I use this in my 38-55 and .375 Winchester http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=52_229&osCsid=nsucre2g4u1566os553bqj9tl3 It works real well as a hollowpoint on deer 50/50 alloy sized at .379