Hornady lead bullets for deer??

[catkiller45]

A friend of mine gave me a box of Hornady 240 grain lead bullets..
Would these be good for deer hunting? 44 mag 6.5 inch Taurus..

[Screwbolts]

In My somewhat less than humble opinion, Yes!

They are soft swagged bullets dry lube coated, they were the first projectiles that I loaded in Sabots to be shot from Muzzle loaders when BlackHorn 209 was first introduced, I had them on hand. they performed very good for me!

find a good accurate load for your Taurus and have fun. Put one threw the boiler room of a deer and it will expire just fine.

[shortlegs]

I put one in a sabot pushed by 80 grs of 3f from a 50 hawken thru both shoulders of a doe at about 30 yds. She went about 30 yds staggering before she fell. Should work great!

[Winger Ed.]

Oh yeah.

At handgun speeds, and that big of a caliber, they would be perfect.

[Larry Gibson]

I would not use them if you plan on above 44 SPL loads in your 44 Magnum. They are soft lead and they will lead.....severely..... if loaded above 44 SPL velocity.....many times if loaded above 800 fps.

[Three44s]

As Larry Gibson points out, way too soft for much speed.

Several years ago I was fooling with wadding to help with the leading issue. I discovered wonder wads. They cleaned the barrel each time you fired the revolver but the weather warmed up and the “juice” from the wonder wads leached into the smokeless gun powder killing it ..... squib city!

Three44s

[Mytmousemalibu]

Ive not used that specific boolit but ive used others with the knurled/dry lubed design. IMHO, that dry "lube" they use sucks! It might aswell be shot as bare dry lead, leaded several of my revolvers up something fierce. I don't recall the load but it was nothing remotely fast, like target wadcutter velocities. Too bad they don't have actually grease grooves. Maybe a guy could fill the knurling with some Ben's Red or etc.

[Gray Fox]

I have mitigated the leading somewhat by tumble lubing them in LLA. 45-45-10 might work a bit better. I would think Hi-Tek or one of the other coatings might work even better if you ran them through a Lee sizer afterwards. On the other hand, throwing them in the melting pot with some harder alloy might be the simplest solution. GF

[ABJ]

Ditto what Larry Gibson said, but out to 50/60 yard a great bullet for deer.

Tony

[catkiller45]

how does one determind muzzle velocity for deer...

[lobogunleather]

As others have pointed out, Hornady's lead bullets are swaged which means produced under machine pressure using pure (or nearly pure) lead with a rather minimal surface application of dry lubricant. These can work quite well in light to moderate .44 Special loads in a handgun, but heavier loads (especially when fired in longer barrels) can be expected to cause moderate to severe leading.

Your Hornady swaged bullets should work very well with moderate charges of medium-burning powder producing muzzle velocities in the 800 FPS range.

I have shot several deer with .44 magnum, .44 Special, and the good old .44-40. My favored bullet is a 240-grain SWC cast of relatively hard lead alloy and lubricated with NRA-formula Alox lube. Even at the modest velocities of the .44 Special or .44-40 (around 800 FPS or so) these will regularly penetrate completely side-to-side in deer-sized animals, easily taking out lungs and heart, and the critters seldom move more than 20 or 30 yards from the point of impact.

Within nominal handgun range (50 yards or less for a reasonably good handgun shooter) there is no reason to use magnum ammunition or excessively heavy loads in the .44 revolvers. Put the bullet in the boiler works, then get to work putting the venison into the freezer.

[catkiller45]

I really appreciate all of your replies..I have some 255 grain semi wad cutters of a harder alloy.
So I guess I will consintrate of using them then..So at around 800 to 900 fps I should be good
maybe out to 50 yards then? Thank you all for advice for this old man..

[smithnframe]

Don't use full power loads!