Alloy for a saboted bullet

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Makinsmoke

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I've casted bullets for centerfire rifles forever,always used Lyman #2 , or clip on wheel weights. I've successfully harvest a deer this year with a large metplat saboted .451 bullet cast in #2 alloy in a 50 cal, knight. I'd like to get a more streamlined mold from accurate, but with such a small metplat, I'm thinking I need a softer alloy. I don't want to go to soft,where it's damaged during loading or firing in a sabot. Any ideas or experience ?
 
I have recently started shooting Harvester hardcast bullets in my Bighorn 50. 400 gr harvesters to be exact, in a black crushrib sabot. I know, why so big? I'm just used to shooting big bullets in my BPCR Sharps rifles. And they shoot well. I mix my own lead / tin mix for hunting bullets at 30/1. I'm not sure what the Harvesters are but they shoot well and get even better groups if you weigh them. I too am going to have a custom mould made for a flat nosed bullet .Prolly in the 350 - 400 gr range.
 
I would try a 30-1 and see how that goes. You might also try sabots that are not quite as tight when using softer lead. Soft lead will obturate in the sabot so they get tighter when fired.
 
I cast my sabot bullets out of 1/1 + 2%. that's COWW/soft + tin. They are meplat .458 bullets that come out at 311 grains and I shoot them in black crush rib sabots and use them in my Savage MLII. They are pretty much a clone of the Harvester hard cast ml bullets but have a slightly smaller meplat. They shoot really good and I get an exit wound no matter what angle I shoot the deer. They certainly make practice and trigger time way cheaper than the J-word bullets. I do use jacketed bullets when hunting sometimes, depends on which rifle and where I'm hunting.

Accurate molds has a great selection of molds for sabot shooting.
W
 
I cast my bullets out of pure lead they weigh 451grs and I resize them to .503 for my Whitelightings. The reason for the heavy bullets, I only shot one deer over 80 yards in 50 years of hunting. That was with my Ruger Redhawk. Most kills more like 60 yards. So I use a light powder loads (70grs of 777 by volume) works for me.
 
I use the same load of 70 gr with either 777-3F or Swiss 3F for my 451 Whites with my 350gr Gould Hollow Points bullet and my homegrown 465gr conicals.

Here's my 13yr old grandson group shooting the 350gr Gould bullet at 100 yds using a load of 60gr of 777-3F. I think he's ready for this season as long as he can stop shaking! :D Naturally he was shooting from a solid rest on a bench.

Rylan.JPG
 
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The hardcast bullet from Harvester will penetrate! In at the shoulder and exited at the opposite ham on a cow elk at 70 yards. More penetration and less expansion than is ideal for deer. It wasn't the quickest kill though. Pure lead works great for deer in my experience. Expansion to over 1" and and exit wound not needed because they are DRT. Pointed bullets tend to slip in without much of a entrance hole, so you'll want lots of expansion. I'd try pure lead for deer. I'm going to try a BHN of 12 for elk. Near as I can tell, that is what the old buffalo hunters used. I think a lot of the old tiimers used 20:1 mix for their bullets. I've had some good groups in my .45 cal shooting home cast bullets over a wool wad with 85 gr. Black MZ powder. In my .50, I've been using 405 gr. .45-70 bullets for elk with outstanding results.
 
Dead soft lead in a sabot can do 2 things

1) Deform the nose when loading if the sabot is tight
2) Flow between the sabot pellets when fired. Ive actually seen this with the Precision Rifle QT bullets. You could even see the "fin marks" in a target.

So i really think something a little harder is the ticket or try dead soft in a easy loading sabot like the T/C Super-Glide. It only has 2 petals/slits between petals. Soft lead should obturate in the sabot and tighten up once fired. The less places it can flow the better.
 
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I use the same load of 70 gr with either 777-3F or Swiss 3F for my 451 Whites with my 350gr Gould Hollow Points bullet and my homegrown 465gr conicals.

Here's my 13yr old grandson group shooting the 350gr Gould bullet at 100 yds using a load of 60gr of 777-3F. I think he's ready for this season as long member: 80"]I use the same load of 70 gr with either 777-3F or Swiss 3F for my 451 Whites with my 350gr Gould Hollow Points bullet and my homegrown 465gr conicals.

Here's my 13yr old grandson group shooting the 350gr Gould bullet at 100 yds using a load of 60gr of 777-3F. I think he's ready for this season as long as he can stop shaking! :D Naturally he was shooting from a solid rest on a bench.

View attachment 5687
Hey Ed how about a pic of those bullets ??? Everybody raves about them Goulds of yours !!!

I think i see ear wax in the corners of his mouth g--pa !!! I bet you got some too !!! Lol !!! Glad youre involved with him like this . Good for everybody !!!
 
Here are two links that Ronlaughlin did for me in testing my bullets.

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/400985-ed-350-grain-homecast-hollowpoint.html

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/405587-ed-359g-45-caliber-fp-80g-blackhorn.html

I had a fellow MM forum member widen the HP to .1555. He then created two pins for me which to me is WAY better than what Lyman sells with their molds. One naturally is to create the Hollow Points, the other to create a Solid bullet. Was it necessary to create a wider HP, NO. But at the time my youngest grandson was only 8yrs old and he was shooting 50gr of 777-3F and we were restricting his shooting to 50 yds. So I thought a wider HP may be beneficial to ensure better mushrooming. Did it, probably not, but it was my thinking at the time and I personally like a wider HP. Oh and by the way my Grandson got a nice size doe at about 45-50 yds and she died right where she was standing. Since then all of my grandsons have harvested several deer and they were all bang flop or ran a short distance away with the furthest shot being about 80yds. Their loads were with 70gr of either 777-3F or Swiss 3F.
 
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Here are two links that Ronlaughlin did for me in testing my bullets.

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/400985-ed-350-grain-homecast-hollowpoint.html

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/405587-ed-359g-45-caliber-fp-80g-blackhorn.html

I had a fellow MM forum member widen the HP to .1555. He then created two pins for me which to me is WAY better than what Lyman sells with their molds. One naturally is to create the Hollow Points, the other to create a Solid bullet. Was it necessary to create a wider HP, NO. But at the time my youngest grandson was only 8yrs old and he was shooting 50gr of 777-3F and we were restricting his shooting to 50 yds. So I thought a wider HP may be beneficial to ensure better mushrooming. Did it, probably not, but it was my thinking at the time and I personally like a wider HP. Oh and by the way my Grandson got a nice size doe at about 45-50 yds and she died right where she was standing. Since then all of my grandsons have harvested several deer and they were all bang flop or ran a short distance away with the furthest shot being about 80yds. Their loads were with 70gr of either 777-3F or Swiss 3F.
Ed how deep is that hollow point ??? Mr. Goulds was eventually deepened to .400" . But if i.also remember he really liked big heavy bullets in his designs . I figure this one was adjusted lighter ? Thanks by the way . I enjoy your easy style too .
I test in stacked wet newspaper horizontially . Easy to find bullets that way . Gotta soak them in a garbage can first though cuz any dry ones really messes up the results . Ive put bones in between bunches to see how they work on them too and then afterwards . WORKS GOOD !!! Gotta be REALLY WET and a long line of them too . Good job for grandsons !!! :lewis:
 
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Here are two links that Ronlaughlin did for me in testing my bullets.

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/400985-ed-350-grain-homecast-hollowpoint.html

https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/black-powder/405587-ed-359g-45-caliber-fp-80g-blackhorn.html

I had a fellow MM forum member widen the HP to .1555. He then created two pins for me which to me is WAY better than what Lyman sells with their molds. One naturally is to create the Hollow Points, the other to create a Solid bullet. Was it necessary to create a wider HP, NO. But at the time my youngest grandson was only 8yrs old and he was shooting 50gr of 777-3F and we were restricting his shooting to 50 yds. So I thought a wider HP may be beneficial to ensure better mushrooming. Did it, probably not, but it was my thinking at the time and I personally like a wider HP. Oh and by the way my Grandson got a nice size doe at about 45-50 yds and she died right where she was standing. Since then all of my grandsons have harvested several deer and they were all bang flop or ran a short distance away with the furthest shot being about 80yds. Their loads were with 70gr of either 777-3F or Swiss 3F.
The hollow point seems to measure .3880 Deep.
Thank you Ed !!! Hope you and those boys can do some testing in the summer. Theyll geta kick out of looking for mushrooms and have a cool memento for the day too !!! Good luck this season too for all of you !!!
 

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