45 Colt, MP 454640 Penta HP Field Report

[pdgoutdoors]

Was finally able to connect on a late season doe with a cast boolit out of my 1894CB. The mold is as stated in the thread title cast with straight range scrap measuring 11BHN and weighing 262gn. It is loaded with 10.5gr of Unique at 1310 FPS. The shot was 53 yards. Complete pass through, deer ran 45 yards and dropped in eyesight. I was not able to recover the bullet to evaluate expansion. Given the exit hole size I don’t think it expanded great, but looking at the heart there had to be some level of expansion. I am going to try 50/50 +2% in my next batch and see if I can get some test results on some hogs to compare. Overall I am pleased for my first kill with cast (I have only been casting for a few months).



Exit


Exit

Heart and lungs



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[nidrab]

Congratulations!

[Gray Fox]

I doubt if any more damage to the heart would have made a difference. Only a CNS hit will reliably drop an animal in its tracks. You also have to consider how much meat you want ruined if you happen to get less than a perfect shot location. GF

[versa-06]

Congrats!!! & a good shot!!! -06

[ChristopherO]

Perfect shot placement, had to have been expansion to cause that much disruption of the heart. I've seen that organ drilled with 50 caliber pure lead 100 grains heavier that didn't come close to such a picture perfect display of contained destruction. You have a winning combination there.
I never expect a DRT result with slow moving projectiles. When it happens on the rare occasion that's a plus, not a normal occurrence.

[sixshot]

That's a great bullet, I use it in revolvers & from the looks of those lungs & the look on your face she wasn't happy but you sure were, congratulations!! Don't change anything.

Dick

[mnewcomb59]

Congrats buddy! I shoot lots of similar loads. Save some milk jugs then shoot them with your bullet! It looks like it worked great.

I shoot lots of 255 gr hollow points from my 45 Colt rifles and handguns, but the few deer I got were with heavier loads with a 315 at 1650 fps. One thing I noticed when testing 12-1300 fps loads in different alloys with my 250-260 HP mold was that 7-9 BHN bullets with 100% weight retention mushroomed HUGE and penetration was very low, like 10-11" ballistic gel. 10-11" would not exit even on broadside smaller southern deer with no shoulder bones. I had a few that I recovered from milk jugs that were over 80 cal, which is just too big if you want any kind of exit wound.

Lighter, slower 230 JHPs from the ACP only mushroom to 60-65 cal and they penetrate deeper than my softest 255 lead HPs. I got a little bit more penetration when using the shallower HP pin. I finally got to 18-20" penetration range by using 2-2-96 alloy which still had 100% weight retention but the expansion was controlled down to 65 cal. 2-2-96 is pretty close to your range scrap, which is probably 1(tin)-2(antimony)-97. Your range scrap is probably low on tin, middling in antimony, and therefore the edges of your mushroom flake off. I am willing to bet that you had a nice mushroom out to 60-70 cal right as it passed through the heart, then the edges of the mushroom broke off because of your low tin, then you had a 45-50 cal wadcutter that passed through and made the exit wound. Shoot some jugs and let us know what you find! If you passed through a deer that size you need at least 4 milk jugs to catch your bullet, and if it is completely shedding the HP and turning into a 180 GR 45 cal wadcutter you probably need 6 jugs.

It looks like the bottom half pound of the heart was turned into high quality venison burger. It looks like the bottom 3 inches completely missing. Not just a hole poked through it. Definitely mushroomed. You just gotta determine how far it penetrates and then figure out if its good for big pigs or quartering deer, or if it's just enough for broadside deer.

If you get 5 jugs you could shoot big pigs or any quartering/Texas heart shot on a deer. If you soften your alloy you might get a LOT less penetration as your bullet turns into a parachute. If you add a little bit of tin you might get more weight retention and a little bigger exit wound, but penetration will also go down. I would say that is a great sized exit wound and don't change too much, but shoot some jugs at different ranges to see how much penetration goes down at close range and what is your max distance the bullet mushrooms. It will mushroom more at 10 yards than 100 yards, and therefore it will penetrate less up close and it will penetrate more and more as it slows down down range.

[farmbif]

excellent. its great to see some young talent taking interest in casting, real nice rifle too. bullets cast From that mold from miha is all I ever shoot through my old Rossi 92 in 45 colt.
I stopped at 1200 fps while working up load with 4227. maybe I'll give that unique charge a try next time I reload some more 45 colt.

[pdgoutdoors]

I appreciate everyone’s kind words and advice


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[pdgoutdoors]

excellent. its great to see some young talent taking interest in casting, real nice rifle too. bullets cast From that mold from miha is all I ever shoot through my old Rossi 92 in 45 colt.
I stopped at 1200 fps while working up load with 4227. maybe I'll give that unique charge a try next time I reload some more 45 colt.

I just did a ladder test with unique from 9-11 grains. I can give you the speeds I got for reference if you need.


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[Tripplebeards]

Nice job. I'd tell you to try 40/1 alloy at that speed. My 40/1 alloy is 7.5 bh. I run it at 1600 fps in my 77/44 along with a Lyman devastator HP with sub MOA accuracy. 50/50 with COWW and pure drops me from 12bh to only 10.5 bh. It works excellent in HPs I use on deer at 2100 fps. Imo 50/50 is still going to be to hard at 1300fps to get good expansion.

[pdgoutdoors]

Nice job. I'd tell you to try 40/1 alloy at that speed. My 40/1 alloy is 7.5 bh. I run it at 1600 fps in my 77/44 along with a Lyman devastator HP with sub MOA accuracy. 50/50 with COWW and pure drops me from 12bh to only 10.5 bh. It works excellent in HPs I use on deer at 2100 fps. Imo 50/50 is still going to be to hard at 1300fps to get good expansion.

Thank you I may have to try that. My plan was to mess around with different combinations this spring. I planned on messing with increasing speed. I have lil gun and H110 that I was going to try and use to push these things more towards the 1500-1700 range. My only worry at that speed is leading as they are not GC'd.

[Wheelguns 1961]

One thing that I do is decrease the hp size as I increase the velocity. I use the large hp pin for up to about 1200 fps, then I use the small pin up to about 1350 fps, after that, I use a cup point.

[pdgoutdoors]

One thing that I do is decrease the hp size as I increase the velocity. I use the large hp pin for up to about 1200 fps, then I use the small pin up to about 1350 fps, after that, I use a cup point.

Why is that?


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[farmbif]

I just did a ladder test with unique from 9-11 grains. I can give you the speeds I got for reference if you need.


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thanks but I always work my loads up when trying different powders, my gun has 20" barrel. when I first worked up loads for the 45 I quit at 1200 fps just because I was thinking if I want something faster, more powerful, I would just use a 44 mag. and the load I was at was good and accurate and I didn't really want to beat up this fine example of an old pre safety Rossi. but the interest is in using half the powder and another 100fps won't kill the gun as the 1200 fps load with that bullet is 20 grains of 4227. even though I'll probably never in my lifetime be able to use up all the 4227 or unique that I have but it has served me well in life to be frugal.

[Wheelguns 1961]

Why is that?


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Because I always want a complete pass through with expansion. I don’t want to shed the petals. Too much expansion limits penetration. I rarely use the penta points, but if I did, they would be in loads under 1000 fps. Mnewcomb59 explains it better than I can.

[Thumbcocker]

Nice shot placement.

[lar45]

Great shot placement.
Nice deer
Very Nice rifle.

[ohiochuck]

Nice job- congratulations!
Jim

[JDL]

Congratulations on your deer! Performance was exemplary so don't jump to conclusions and fix what isn't broke. Shoot a few more and find the pattern.