1st deer with a rifle and cast bullets

[Elpatoloco]

I am primarily a handgun hunter. Have killed a slew of them with handguns. Developed a load with a MP 358-200 for my 350 legends for feral hog duty

It shoots extremely well at 1700 fps. Gave a box to buddy hunting to try it out and this little fella stepped out. Ran about 30 yards. No exit or blood trail. Heart and lungs were mush. Have him hanging tonight and hope to recover slug tomorrow.

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[Elpatoloco]

Forgot pic.

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[35 Rem]

Congratulations on your cast bullet deer! I'm anxious to see that recovered bullet. Must have expanded well to stay inside the animal. Was it a straight on frontal shot? Nice buck too!

[Elpatoloco]

Congratulations on your cast bullet deer! I'm anxious to see that recovered bullet. Must have expanded well to stay inside the animal. Was it a straight on frontal shot? Nice buck too!

Buddy said it was quartering towards him. Blood is entrance wound or running down hill from entrance.. I am anxious to see the bullet as well. They gutted and hung the deer tonight. Hopefully he will send better damage pics when he skins it in the morning.
I hope like heck the slug didnt come out when gutting. He said it got dark when they were cleaning it.

[725]

Well done. Good for the hunter and good for the craftsman who created the bullet.

[pworley1]

Congratulations

[sukivel]

Very nice!


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[missionary5155]

Good morning and Congratulations to your hunting buddy !
Now you need to get that handgun lined up on your corn cruncher. Are you equipped with a 350 handgun ?

[Rapier]

The 358 / 200 is my favorite 357-58 bullet it does not require expansion to do a job on critters. Your buddy had a good hunt, with your ammo. May get a cast bullet convert from the outing.

[Elpatoloco]

Good morning and Congratulations to your hunting buddy !
Now you need to get that handgun lined up on your corn cruncher. Are you equipped with a 350 handgun ?

No Sir. If I am deer hunting, I use the 475 Linebaugh with a 400 gr WNFP loping along about 1150fps. Gun is like hitting deer and hogs with lightning bolts. Used to use 44 mags exclusively, but found deer ran about 75% of the time. Tried the Linebaugh and fell in love. The way that I load it is like a 480 Ruger Lite.

[gumbo333]

Deer taken with the 350 Legend with a bolt rifle, AR 15 or handgun of some sort?

[Elpatoloco]

Deer taken with the 350 Legend with a bolt rifle, AR 15 or handgun of some sort?

Bolt gun. 79 yards.

[missionary5155]

We have a BFR 475. We run ours pretty close to what you are doing. Just like a 45-70 on BP.... a 400 grain FN chugging along over 1100 fps sorts things out real fast. Big, slow and soft. Fine combination for those bean eaters.
Have a 350 NOE we use for plinking at about 950 fps. Although I cannot imagine to many corn crunchers getting wacked with that FN cast of range scrap (PC) and getting very far. Fun caliber !

[Elpatoloco]

Entrance hole. Deer was basically facing head on. Tenderloin on opposing side back was damaged where bullet hit it. He did not recover slug. Must have ended up in the guts. Bullet must have really opened on impact

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[Elpatoloco]

Entry point at shoulder crease up front.

Nastiest wound I have ever dealt with a cast slug. I think its a winner.





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[versa-06]

Maybe I'm strange, but I don't want bloodshot meat. Or severe bullet trauma on pass thru. I want all the meat I can get. Yumm!!!!!! Venison smoked real slow is tender & hard to beat.

[Elpatoloco]

Maybe I'm strange, but I don't want bloodshot meat. Or severe bullet trauma on pass thru. I want all the meat I can get. Yumm!!!!!! Venison smoked real slow is tender & hard to beat.

I guess I am different. Id rather put the deer down clean than have one pencil through and run for ever.

[waksupi]

Entry point at shoulder crease up front.

Nastiest wound I have ever dealt with a cast slug. I think its a winner.





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To me, that is bullet failure.

[mnewcomb59]

I would say the bullet did what it was supposed to do. The real test though is how far does it penetrate? It might only penetrate 3 water jugs or 12" ballistic gel, which would be more like a varmint bullet. It might retain 80% of its weight and penetrate 20" ballistic gel or 5 jugs and perform as good as a factory JSP. I bet it doesn't penetrate too well though and that looks like a smaller body southern deer compared to how big the rack is.

The only thing I would do is a few penetration tests with that bullet at your muzzle velocity, 200 fps less, and 400 fps less than MV to get an idea how the performance changes as you go down range. Remember there is no CONTROLLED expansion with a cast bullet. It mushrooms more and more as it goes faster, unlike a Core-Lokt that mushrooms to the same diameter from 1800-2200 fps. That thing might completely explode up close, but suddenly at 45 or 50 yards it penetrates just like any other "deer bullet" JSP with 80% weight retention, then at 150 yards it is going slow enough that you finally get 100% weight retention and penetration goes up.

That doesn't look like excessive meat damage to me either, just bad shot placement. Try not to hit them in the eatin' parts! I get wounds like that with a 158 gr 2-2-96 at 2000 fps with 98% weight retention. Which brings me to my only critique - why such a light load? That is within 100 fps of what a 357 mag rifle can shoot that bullet weight. You should be getting around 2000 fps with that bullet weight.

My only advice as a guy who has over 25 deer with my own cast bullets - make sure you know how that bullet acts at different ranges. The penetration of an expanding cast bullet can vary WILDLY as the speed changes going down range. Okay, second piece of advice - for deer try to get a bullet that penetrates at least 4 milk jugs (5 is better) at close range. Once you know your bullet will hold up at the high speed, check how far down range it will still mushroom. As range increases, penetration generally increases so add a few extra milk jugs at 100 to 200 yards. A bullet that penetrates 4 jugs up close will penetrate about 5 at 100 yards if it is still mushrooming some, or a bullet that penetrates 4 jugs up close might penetrate 10 jugs at 100 yards if it drops below its expansion velocity.

Just some anectodal evidence - I have 3 bullets I recovered from deer and all 3 loads were tested on milk jugs before hunting with the load. In every single case, the bullet recovered from the deer was at the same weight retention and expanded diameter as my water jug bullets. Even one buck that I shot under the chin and passed through every neck vertebrae and ended up on the top side of the spine above his shoulder blades. Jug bullet went through 5 jugs, 98% weight retention, .66 cal. Two of these bullets from the same lot were recovered from deer in the following few years, the neck shot from above and a Texas heart shot. Both were 98% weight retention and .66 cal. Shoot that thing into some jugs and let us know what it does!

[Elpatoloco]

I would say the bullet did what it was supposed to do. The real test though is how far does it penetrate? It might only penetrate 3 water jugs or 12" ballistic gel, which would be more like a varmint bullet. It might retain 80% of its weight and penetrate 20" ballistic gel or 5 jugs and perform as good as a factory JSP. I bet it doesn't penetrate too well though and that looks like a smaller body southern deer compared to how big the rack is.

The only thing I would do is a few penetration tests with that bullet at your muzzle velocity, 200 fps less, and 400 fps less than MV to get an idea how the performance changes as you go down range. Remember there is no CONTROLLED expansion with a cast bullet. It mushrooms more and more as it goes faster, unlike a Core-Lokt that mushrooms to the same diameter from 1800-2200 fps. That thing might completely explode up close, but suddenly at 45 or 50 yards it penetrates just like any other "deer bullet" JSP with 80% weight retention, then at 150 yards it is going slow enough that you finally get 100% weight retention and penetration goes up.

That doesn't look like excessive meat damage to me either, just bad shot placement. Try not to hit them in the eatin' parts! I get wounds like that with a 158 gr 2-2-96 at 2000 fps with 98% weight retention. Which brings me to my only critique - why such a light load? That is within 100 fps of what a 357 mag rifle can shoot that bullet weight. You should be getting around 2000 fps with that bullet weight.

My only advice as a guy who has over 25 deer with my own cast bullets - make sure you know how that bullet acts at different ranges. The penetration of an expanding cast bullet can vary WILDLY as the speed changes going down range. Okay, second piece of advice - for deer try to get a bullet that penetrates at least 4 milk jugs (5 is better) at close range. Once you know your bullet will hold up at the high speed, check how far down range it will still mushroom. As range increases, penetration generally increases so add a few extra milk jugs at 100 to 200 yards. A bullet that penetrates 4 jugs up close will penetrate about 5 at 100 yards if it is still mushrooming some, or a bullet that penetrates 4 jugs up close might penetrate 10 jugs at 100 yards if it drops below its expansion velocity.

Just some anectodal evidence - I have 3 bullets I recovered from deer and all 3 loads were tested on milk jugs before hunting with the load. In every single case, the bullet recovered from the deer was at the same weight retention and expanded diameter as my water jug bullets. Even one buck that I shot under the chin and passed through every neck vertebrae and ended up on the top side of the spine above his shoulder blades. Jug bullet went through 5 jugs, 98% weight retention, .66 cal. Two of these bullets from the same lot were recovered from deer in the following few years, the neck shot from above and a Texas heart shot. Both were 98% weight retention and .66 cal. Shoot that thing into some jugs and let us know what it does!

Bullet stopped after hitting tenderloins between back legs. It penetrated lengthwise to the rump. Speed is what it is because of the superior accuracy.




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