Bullet (lead) hardness for deer hunting?

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ndswede

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I cast some 265 grain flat nose bullets and am wondering what would be a good brn hardness to shoot at deer? The ones I have are fairly hard. I don’t have a brn tester, but I have to press and “saw” pretty hard with my thumb nail to make a small mark. I water quenched them to increase the hardness and am wondering if I should cast some more and not water quench and powder coat them.
I’m very interested in your feedback. Thanks in advance.
 
I harden bullets so they shoot better. The hardest bullet I shoot is around 8.5 BHN. This one was a 45 cal paper patched RCBS 11mm rifle bullet. This one came out of the neck of a deer. The deer was shot in the flank and the bullet was found under the skin in the neck.

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My personal preference is between 6.5 and 8.5 BHN. Bullets in that range will expand but not unwrap.

These bullets are 50 cal 410 gr Hornady great plains bullets.

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These bullets never hit any bone. They totally unwrapped and that reduced penetration.
if a guy has the ability to customize his lead you can make bullets that far exceed the bullets of the major manufactures.
 
Pure lead may be a bit soft and not penetrate good. Adding wheel weight lead would harden it up but how can one tell when enough is enough without a BHN tester ? Or would it be better to water quench the pure lead bullets??
 
Pure lead may be a bit soft and not penetrate good. Adding wheel weight lead would harden it up but how can one tell when enough is enough without a BHN tester ? Or would it be better to water quench the pure lead bullets??
Water quenching pure lead has no effect on bullet hardness. Lead alloyed with some antimony and tin will harden.
 
The lead alloy I’m using is melted range scrap which has an unknown (to me) composition. On YouTube there’s a well known poster who goes by Fortune cookie 45lc who has some very good videos about bullet casting. He has one video where he does a thumbnail scratch test to estimate bhn hardness. According to those guidelines I think my bhn is about 12-13.
Do you think this is to hard for a deer hunting bullet? I’d like it to expand nicely without fragmenting or punching right through like a solid.
Additional thoughts appreciated.
 
How are you planning on using this bullet ? Do you plan on shooting it in a sabot or just a bore sized bullet ?

Not all bullets are designed or preferred to expand to be effective for killing. Depending on velocity,weight of the bullet and the size of the meplat a wide meplat bullets will cause tissue displacement and a wound diameter. A deer is not a large animal compared to say an Elk and quite frankly not that hard to kill providing you put your wide meplat bullet in the vitals. I prefer a double lung shot myself, once you open the lungs to air they fill with blood and deer basically drowns in its of blood sometime they go down immediately other times they will run approximately 50 yards. Others go for heart shots or the shoulder, I prefer the lungs because its a big area not requiring a lot of thought and sometimes I miss and hit the heart instead. Win Win.

I've used bullets with a wide meplat for hunting that were made from wheel weights for years. I've taken several deer with a 44 special revolver at velocities in the 1000-1100 fps range, bullets in a sabot in the 1600 + fps range and even as a bore sized bullet in the 1300 fps range. Yes you can shoot a WW bullet in a muzzleloader as a bore sized bullet provided the muzzleloader has shallow groove allowing obtrusion which many of the faster twist do. Truth is the deer I took this year was with a 40 caliber bullet made from WW that I had designed for sabot use but since I recently acquired a 40 caliber muzzleloader with shallow grooved 1:37 twist barrel I thought I would try it.
 
For some interesting reading on bullet design and alloy used in casting, pick up a copy of Veral Smith book. Jacketed Performance With Cast Bullets.
 

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Thanks for the help.
The bullet is a .452” “pistol” bullet that I cast for my 45 ACP Super. I’d shoot it with a sabot at 1600-1700 FPS. It has a large meplat at .35”. It weighs about 264 grains with this alloy. The gun is a Hawkins replica with a 48” twist barrel. I put peep sights on it and would most likely shoot out to about 75 yards. I’ll try to attach a picture of the bullet.
 

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Providing you can consistent accuracy you should have good results on deer size game.
 
That bullet will work, the wide meplat makes it effective. An ideal bullet will expand like the 11mm bullet Idahoron posted. You get an energy dump and an exit wound. I killed an elk with a hardcast bullet a coulple of years ago. It went in at right shoulder and exited left ham. It ran about 200 yards. Not ideal, but it worked. I've killed several deer with 300 to 330 gr. pure lead bullets. DRT every time, but no exit wound.
 
That LBT tester just seems so simple. Does this one really work accurately? These are both in my price range.

I would love to test the LBT along side my Cabin Tree, It is a VERY Simple design, that actually gives you the BHN Reading in the Test, Instead of having to Cross Reference The Machinest dial # to a Chart like my Cabin Tree
 
The Cabin tree could be made better in my opinion, I wish it had a more Precise way of Landing on it’s 1 Full turn, It would be SUPER if they came up with a Way that it ONLY made 1 Exact Turn, A built in STOP so you couldn’t go past it. The way they are, you have nothing more than Numbers/Lines to go off of, It is easy to make a Mistake and go slightly past 1 Full Turn, When/If that happens, That test is NO GOOD
 
My idea to better the Cabin Tree is Tiny, PRECISE numerical lines, with Clicks that you can slightly feel, Sorta like dialing a Good Scope.

Or, When you get the Test piece in place, There is a Way of Setting it So it can ONLY make 1 Full Turn and It Comes up against a Stop, So you can’t go past the 1 full turn and Ruin the Test reading
 
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