480 Ruger

[Elpatoloco]

I load an accurate mold 48-395BG to approximately 1050fps. Accuracy is superberb with WDWW. Will this hard of a slug cause tissue disruption on a whitetail or just pencil through and have them runnoft without much blood trail?

I just melted 100lbs of range scrap. It was gold and purple on the top in the pot. Has to be stupid soft.

I dunno if I should mix them 50/50 and mess with a good thing or leave my load alone.

[475/480]

A deer is soft so don't expect the bullet to expand unless you hit bone. I have gotten 5/8" - 3/4" wound channels with the same type of bullet. It will kill it and yes it will run a little 50-75 yards.
I would shoot Speer 275 gr HP at 1550 for deer (I shot a 6 point with my TC 480 with this load) and leave the heavier cast bullet for hogs .
For deer I prefer a little more velocity and a smaller cast bullet 325 gr -350gr . More velocity does help a cast LFN/WFN create a bigger wound channel



Sean

[megasupermagnum]

I normally like a hollow point myself, but that bullet is getting to where I think a non-expanding solid is a good bet. You could leave things be, and have a good outcome. At just over 1000 fps, I doubt you would see expansion with most alloys, certainly not water dropped COWW. Being a gas check design, with such a mild load, you could likely get away with very soft alloy. Try your range scrap, air cooled. Maybe it will work, maybe not.

[KYCaster]

If you're concerned that your WDWW at ~20 BHN are too hard for your intended use, why don't you air cool them to get 11 BHN or so? Proven to work well at the velocity you're loading to.

I guess I just don't understand this fascination with heat treating for low velocity handgun loads.

Jerry

[bosterr]

I use that exact same boolit in my 475 Linebaugh and have taken 7 whitetails with it. I currently use 70/30 ww/lead and water drop. At about 1380 FPS there's no sign of boolit expansion whatsoever and the deer go no more than 40 yds. with decent blood trail. My BFR is my favorite deer gun.

[Elpatoloco]

If you're concerned that your WDWW at ~20 BHN are too hard for your intended use, why don't you air cool them to get 11 BHN or so? Proven to work well at the velocity you're loading to.

I guess I just don't understand this fascination with heat treating for low velocity handgun loads.

Jerry

There is no "Fascination" with it. I have water dropped every bullet that I have ever cast. Mostly out of pure convience. I dont have hot slugs all over the table top.
I have also never used anything other than straight wheel weights for the last 15 years. Again, they were free and easy to obtain.

I recently noticed spent bullets laying all about the range back stop. I scooped up right at 100 lbs worth in a hour. Melted them down and have some new, different, yet free lead to play with.

[Elpatoloco]

I use that exact same boolit in my 475 Linebaugh and have take 7 whitetails with it. I currently use 70/30 ww/lead and water drop. At about 1380 FPS there's no sign of boolit expansion whatsoever and the deer go no more than 40 yds. with decent blood trail. My BFR is my favorite deer gun.



Did you test a bunch of different alloys or that's just one that stuck. I figure if I can get away with cutting my good alloy with soft and still get the grouping, then I'm no worse off. Especially since there isnt any expansion.

[bosterr]

I only chose that alloy to save wheel weights and use a lot of lead pipe, cable sheathing and stick on weights I have a big surplus of. I've found ZERO difference in how they shoot against 100% WW.

[KYCaster]

There is no "Fascination" with it. I have water dropped every bullet that I have ever cast. Mostly out of pure convience. I dont have hot slugs all over the table top.
I have also never used anything other than straight wheel weights for the last 15 years. Again, they were free and easy to obtain.

I recently noticed spent bullets laying all about the range back stop. I scooped up right at 100 lbs worth in a hour. Melted them down and have some new, different, yet free lead to play with.


I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. My "fascination" comment was not aimed at you individually, but at the water dropping practice generally. I just think it's counter intuitive to believe that adding steps to the casting process is convenient; especially when it doesn't add any benefit to the end result.

In your initial post you asked if your WDWW is too hard for your intended use. A couple of responses indicate that with your .480 dia. boolit it doesn't matter, you'll have a dead deer. I don't doubt that a bit, but why go through the extra steps to get a much harder boolit that "doesn't matter" when you can get the same result by eliminating a couple of steps in your casting process.

I've tried it both ways and I don't see any advantage to water dropping. In the time it takes to recover the boolits from the water and dry them sufficiently to prevent oxidation, my air cooled boolits have been inspected, sized and lubed.

Please forgive me for using your post to present my rant, but that's just my not-so-humble opinion.

Jerry

[Elpatoloco]

I'm sorry if I touched a nerve. My "fascination" comment was not aimed at you individually, but at the water dropping practice generally. I just think it's counter intuitive to believe that adding steps to the casting process is convenient; especially when it doesn't add any benefit to the end result.

In your initial post you asked if your WDWW is too hard for your intended use. A couple of responses indicate that with your .480 dia. boolit it doesn't matter, you'll have a dead deer. I don't doubt that a bit, but why go through the extra steps to get a much harder boolit that "doesn't matter" when you can get the same result by eliminating a couple of steps in your casting process.

I've tried it both ways and I don't see any advantage to water dropping. In the time it takes to recover the boolits from the water and dry them sufficiently to prevent oxidation, my air cooled boolits have been inspected, sized and lubed.

Please forgive me for using your post to present my rant, but that's just my not-so-humble opinion.

Jerry

No offense taken sir. I find it more convenient to cast over a 5 gallon bucket of water than any other way. The slugs are immediately cool and dont stack up on a bench/towel or whatever. I dump the slugs out on a large elevated window screen. They are dry the next day when I sort them by weight and either store or run them through the lube sizer for loading. My casting sessions are generally several hours long. I do not particularly enjoy the hobby. I do it solely for the cost savings. At $.52 cents a slug for commercial cast, gas checked .475, I can make the savings add up in a hurry.

Emptying my bucket full of slugs once on my screen racks is less "labor intensive" than constantly moving semi Hot slugs all around a towel ever so gingerly so as to not dent or deform them. The hardnening is just a by product of my laziness.


By your account, powder coating would be useless as well if you have to size the slugs. It adds an extra step if you already have to run them through a lube sizer.

Each to his own, I suppose.

No harm, no foul.

[Elpatoloco]

https://i.postimg.cc/Lg2HdZJG/20200114-111903.jpg (https://postimg.cc/Lg2HdZJG)

I generally have this 4 x 8 screen full in a casting session. I support all the weight with strategically placed buckets.


Some would argue that sorting by weight is a waste of time. I do that as well. I find that accuracy doesnt suffer because of my quirks.

https://i.postimg.cc/k2bXb9P1/20200208-114412.jpg (https://postimg.cc/k2bXb9P1)

[gwpercle]

In 41 magnum I find COWW - soft lead 50/50 air cooled works better than WDWW .
After doing some re-reading of Elmer Keith's books "Sixgun Cartridges & Loads" and his book "Sixguns" I re-learned that hard wasn't the best for game hunting .... Seems I had forgotten that with all the internet wisdom saying ..."harder is better" It's not .... soften up the mix , deer aren't that tough .
Gary

[41mag]

My main bullet for my 454's is the Lee 300RF GCed. It simply works hands down. Are there better designs, maybe, probably, but I get 6 of the Lee with every dump. My alloy is straight ACWW and I lube those with 45/45/10. Loaded over around 26gr of AA9 they get me right at 1600fps out of the 8.375" barrel of my Raging Bull. They hit with authority and I haven't had much of anything go more than a few steps.

That said, when I cast I usually do major batches. I shoot more 45acp and 9mm than anything else so they usually get 20 or more pounds each. I use cake pans about 10x14'ish with a towel laid lengthwise and hanging out the close side. Also set it so its tilted away so the initial pours will roll to the far end. Once I get going I just pick up the close end and roll things out of the way as needed. When you he pot need lead I transfer the already poured ones to a smaller container so they are out of the way.

As to your alloy, I might suggest giving a blend a try. I'm running plain base HPs out of a blend of around a 12-14bhn outta my 41 and 357 mags up into the 1500fps ranges with no issues using Carnuba Red lube.

By all means use what works for you but you could probably cut you straight WW 50/50 with your range lead or even get by with the range lead depending upon how you sort. Just a WAG but putting the intact bullets in one pile and the expanded stuff in another might get you a pile of harder alloy with the whole bullets. You also might get some expansion from the softer alloy.