What alloy for deer?

I shot a deer last year with my 3006 and the Lee 170g FN in ACWW at ~1950fps at the muzzle, deer at 80y. Complete pass thru front to back, no sign of expansion. No significant leading working up loads. My plan was to use AC 50/50 this fall, but all summer I have been working with WD 50/50 with decent hunting accuracy and no leading. To verify any POI change as fall approaches, and experiment towards better accuracy, I shot 24 AC 50/50s anywhere from low 1800s-low 1900fps. Leaded like CRAZY! Been scrubbing for days.

All alloys are +~2% tin btw.

So what alloy are you shooting at deer? My WD 50/50s blow up in the berm. Do I find the best accuracy with WD 50/50, shoot a couple AC 50/50 to see if there is a POI change, clean and take the AC 50/50 to the field? I guess another option would be try AC 80/20? I have a very accurate load with 27g of 4895 that runs low 16s that might be good with the AC 50/50, but it is filthy, and I end up cleaning almost as much as I am now.

I have never had a deer show any preference. They all seem to be just as dead. I would suggest that you use whatever alloy and load that works best with your rifle and not worry much about the rest. Deer don't take much killin.

Complete noob here. Just lurkin and learnin. What does wd, ac, mean?

WD= water dropped
Ac= air cooled

Ive shot several deer and coyotes with my alloy. It's about a 10 bhn. It's one part wheel weights to two parts lead and a scootch of tin. My original batch of WWs were quite hard, 16 bhn. The wheel weights I've been getting lately are much softer.
my point being my 1/2 alloy is about the equiv of 50/50
i haven't had any leading problems but my velocity is just under 1800 fps. I get good expansion but I have a small HP to help get it started.

I'd say go with the AC WW's that you first mentioned but aim for bone.

I like AC WW's in my 30-06 with the 311284 and it does fine.

Since, you're wanting a softer alloy and it's leading on you, I would look to the fit of the bullet (diameter) and your lube. Maybe go up a thousandth in dia, see how that works, I'd also get a good lube.

If the deer you shot is still dead, the alloy you used works. Dead is dead.

Like Blammer says, check boolit size & maybe PC to eliminate the leading.

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Originally Posted by Blammer

Since, you're wanting a softer alloy and it's leading on you, I would look to the fit of the bullet (diameter) and your lube. Maybe go up a thousandth in dia, see how that works, I'd also get a good lube.

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I've actually been thinking bout that. bore is 308, and I've been using the lee 309 push thru. was trying to get a good record of what 309 did prior to honing it out to 310 in case it wasn't as good.

Using carnuba red as well.

I have been wondering this same thing too. I have killed deer with cast in my 44 mag revolver and muzzleloader. This will be my first year with cast in a rifle. I had to get my alloy a little harder than i wanted to get good accuracy.

Im shooting a 357 max with 180gr bullet cast of 50/50 coww/pure lead water dropped at 1930fps hope it works out. I just went with the softest alloy I could get accuracy with.

If you had bad leading with 50/50 AC alloy, something is wrong. I would guess your bullets are smaller in diameter than they need to be. I size all mine to .311 (mainly because I'm lazy and that dies stays in the sizer) and used both standard NRA formula lube and LLA and didn't have any leading. I never shot long strings though, 10-12 rounds or so between cleanings.

By the way, in .30 calibers, I used ACWW once and 50/50 + 2% tin twice. I think either works fine, but I'm going to stick with the 50/50 + 2% tin.

COWW/pure 50/50 doesn't WD worth a darn - <1.5% Sb. IMHO, 2% tin is way too much, expect leading.

I have used as hard a Lyman#2 and as soft as 22 range lead. So far no deer has said That not going to work! Most just lie there. Clint

My first thought was diameter to small, then I thought about the lube being wrong. I never used carnuba red but have used LLA and other lubes. Felix seems to be the best I've tried with ACWW. I use a 310 sizer and so far haven't had a leading problem. Barrels were/are 12" .308, 14" 30-30 and 22" 30-06!

ACWW and a meplat will put a deer in his grave.....err uhh, your freezer.

Perhaps I am thinking about this all wrong, but here goes anyway. The first deer I killed with one of my own Boolits was cast from 90% pure PB and 10% clip on WW. They were sized appropriately for the bore of my 30 / 30 and lubed with carnauba red. When I did load development, my main concern with accuracy revolved around the first one or two perhaps three shots in quick sucsesion. After all this is a load that will spend a fair bit more time just hanging around in the mag or chamber just waiting to be sent, and not to be fired wholesale fashion. so long as the one or two do their job as intended ensuring a accurate clean humane kill of the game animal. I can put up with a " small " amount of bore fouling. YMMV.

Deer dont take alot of power or energy to put down, I would be more concerned with accuracy and bullet placement. Being able to put the bullet in the vitals is the more important than expansion of the bullet. A bad hit isnt going to get better with a softer alloy and some expansion. A solid well placed shot is going to do the job even with no or little expansion. Accuracy is the key