Compare hand casted boolit and a commercial one.

[Art in Colorado]

Say a black bear was shot with a hand casted Keith 44 boolit and a Laser Cast commercial one of about same weight from a six inch S&W 629 using 20 Gr of 2400 would there be any difference in the result? Just curious.

[Char-Gar]

Providing the bullets retained their shape at the target and hit the same place, there would be no difference, except the satisfaction of doing it with a bullet you made and did not buy.

[memtb]

“IF” and I repeat if the bullets are of very similar BHN (hardness), impact speed, and tissues encountered are the same...the results should be similar! IMO memtb

[contender1]

Too many variables involved to give an educated response.

[358429]

Say a black bear was shot with a hand casted Keith 44 boolit and a Laser Cast commercial one of about same weight from a six inch S&W 629 using 20 Gr of 2400 would there be any difference in the result? Just curious.

I agree with the previous posters above.

I am certain it would depend who cast it (skill level running the mold), and what lead alloy they cast it with. There is a huge variation that is possible here, for hardness/toughness for internal, and terminal ballistics.

Malleability (resistance to impact forces) and ductility (plastic deformation strength) of the bullet all depend on alloy type, for two examples of possible differences. Good question, many answers.

Do you cast bullets, Art in Colorado?

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[reddog81]

Any commercial cast bullet can be replicated by someone at home. You’d just need a similar mold, similar alloy, and use the same lube and you’d have the same performance. Or use a better mold, better alloy and a better lube and you’d get better performance. Or do a poor job casting the bullets and you’ll get worse performance.

Casting and hand loading are pretty dependent on you putting in work to get good results.

[hondo1892]

I've shot deer with my Winchester 1894 carbine in 32WS using both home cast bullets and Speer jacketed bullets. All the deer dropped within feet or on the spot. Each was shot in a different location on the deer's anatomy so was it the bullet or shot placement. I think it's a no brainer since the one that dropped in it's tracks was shot in the neck and others through the lungs. Like others have said way to many variables to say for sure but if you cast a quality bullet most critters can't tell the difference and are just as dead.

[ddixie884]

I don't think there would be much difference at point blank range as long as the bullet didn't fail to hold together. Most alloys available should do a good job whether it is WWs, range lead or salvaged lead from isotope storage. Pure soft lead might expand a little too much on a skull or major bone. Early .44 Mag loads from Remington was very soft yet killed a lot of big animals.

[Art in Colorado]

One reason I posted this is that in Taffins articles he has stated he pretty much gets the same results with Laser Cast as with his home cast boolits. He says he always has Laser Cast on hand.

[rintinglen]

If two bullets of similar design and construction, impact identical animals in an identical location, traveling in an identical direction, the results should be very similar.

My personal experience has been that my boolits, properly sized to fit my barrel shoot tighter groups than the mass-produced, one-size-fits-all, castings of commercial manufacturers. Different companies produce different quality, so it may well be that Lazer Cast are better than others. But the worst leading I ever got was from commercial, hard-cast, 240 grain, .429 SWC's. It took me a week to scrub my old Redhawk's barrel clear of the layer of leading.

[usedtobeyoung]

Same here, I've had better results from my casting than from commercial.

[Winger Ed.]

If they are the same design & weight, the same hardness, and going the same speed, the results should also be the same.

For myself, I don't cast boolits any harder than I need to for their particular application.
Being softer, with everything else the same,
I'd expect mine to have a little more 'splat' and expansion going on than store bought cast which tends to be on the hard side.

[Norske]

I have the same experience as Mike venturino mentioned in an article. The bevel-based Laser Cast bullets work well with starting loads, but not much more. Flat-base bullets slug up better at higher velocities, and gas check designs work best for really hot loads.

[358429]

Sometimes the thing you really want is not available, making it yourself is the only realistic option, to gain satisfaction.

"Compare hand casted boolit and a commercial one."

For my purposes there is no comparison. The more bullets I cast, the better I get at casting bullets.
About 1/4 of my lead ingots were made in frustration, melting the commercial bullets that were fundamentally flawed. At this point these bullets cost me propane, sweat and beer.
The gun show lead bullets in 38 caliber were the worst, the biggest disapointment.
With those I discovered the meaning of horrific leading, nasty toxic choking smoke.
Those, I recast into .49 caliber round ball, powder coated them eastwood ford light blue, to feed my daisy wrist rocket slingshot.


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[littlejack]

Everything being the same, I'll bet the aminal being hit couldn't tell ya which one hit harder than the other. That being on 4 legs, or on two.

[Jtarm]

Say a black bear was shot with a hand casted Keith 44 boolit and a Laser Cast commercial one of about same weight from a six inch S&W 629 using 20 Gr of 2400 would there be any difference in the result? Just curious.

With similar alloy, I don’t think the bear’s going to know the difference.

[Tar Heel]

The hand cast bullet will shoot better, perform better, look better, last longer, shoot straighter, and smell better than the commercial one. It's a scientific fact proven again and again with scientific data by scientists.

An additional benefit to hand cast bullets is that game animals taken with them are deader than ones shot with commercial cast bullets. That too is an undisputed scientific fact. There are degrees of dead and hand cast bullets make the animals the most dead.

[Conditor22]

Hand casts are generally from softer alloy than commercial cast and will expand more when they hit an animal.