Ed' 350 Grain Homecast Hollowpoint

[ronlaughlin]

The photo shows the jugs after the trigger was pulled. Range was 25 yard. Powder charge was 80g Blackhorn. The plywood has a caliber size hole through. The first jug was blown in half. The one half was found 15' left of the horse. The other half was found 15' right of the horse. The second jug was toasted. The third jug has a hole in and a hole out. The boolit bounced off the fourth jug, but didn't hurt it. The boolit was found on the ground about 3' to the side of the horse. Five of these hollow points averaged 346.2 grain each. The mushroomed boolit weighs 340.8 grain. The mushroom is 15/16 " at the widest portion.

 

[cayuga]

that is very impressive. I think that conical would do great with Triple Seven behind it. I personally don't like Black Horn for conical bullets, but you're changing my mind. The expansion and the over all devastation of that bullet really caught my eye.

 

[WV Hunter]

Nice!
Ed, I'd say you have a couple winners there... :yeah:

 

[LarryBud]

Another great result.

The Home Cast are winners.

 

[52Bore]

That one used about all it had and is about as good as it gets for lead. Unfortunately, I've never recovered any of my heavy lead bullets - they just go thru the deer here in TN. fivebull is the only one that has recovered a 500gr+ in a large whitetail at 435yds thru both shoulders. I wish I had a photo of his bullet.. It looks just like Flounder's (50 cal's) and Ed's (45 cal's) - at least on the nose end.
Whether it be 350gr to 500gr , what I noticed is the amount of deformation seems to be about the same with respect to the diameter of the soft lead mushroom (I'm assuming they use soft lead), the only difference is the base that's left in tack. With the 350 there is not much.

The Federal 350gr on the other hand, that was made with antimony (wheel weights), didn't have as much mushrooming yet penetration was greater. Make since as the early 19th century large caliber roundball/BP hunters did the same in Africa, used antimony for greater penetration on elephants and such.

Thanks Ron

 

[Squeeze]

what is the hardness of those bullets? about clip on wheel weight? I have tried some similar home cast, and for me, the WW are about the best. last year I tried some pure lead, and they flattened out to pretty much a concave pancake about double as wide, And did way too much damage. Ive never recovered anything from deer, but dug plenty out from sandbanks.

 

[edmehlig]

I don't actually know what the hardness is, but if someone had a hardness tester, I'd be glad to send them a bullet to test.

 

[ShawnT]

Ed,

Great looking bullets. Are you using WW or some other source. I started casting last year but I cast .500s for my .54 caliber. I cast mine from Pure and am thinking of adding some shot to bring up the hardness some. My Pure (0 to 5bhn) tests at 5bhn, on my Cabine Tree tester, but then again I am not adding anything to it at the moment. They have worked fine on deer so far but I am thinking it will not hurt to bring them up to 6 or 7bhn. It would help with the dross some too. If Ron had a .54 I would send him one of mine.

 

[52Bore]

With ww the antimony will make the bullet appear to be 'sand blasted' or 'frosted'. These don't look to be.
They could have a bit of Tin to give them some hardness, but tin makes them 'shiny'.

When I cast out of my pure lead pot, about a 40# pot and when I start getting bullets looking tarnished, I add a piece of tin about 1" long and the diameter of a pencil - them they come out nice and shiny.

Lyman's molds are made to their No.2 alloy (20:1). 10 parts lead, 1 part tin and (I think) 1 part antimony is added.

 

[edmehlig]

Squeeze, I don't know how hard my bullets are but they scratch pretty easily with my finger nails. A fellow member on this forum has volunteered to test the hardness of my bullets. Once I find out, I'll let everyone know. I do suspect they might have a touch of tin in them as they seem to stay somewhat shiny longer. But then again I always liked the silver bullets the Lone Ranger used. GRIN

Ed

 

[shguns]

Idahoron has a tester and will test lead bullets for hardness if you send the sample.
Might try sending him a pm.

 

[GM54-120]

I really liked this bullet today. So much i risked a 5 shot group at 50 yards.

These should make a fine shorter range deer hammer with 70gr of BH209.

 

[edmehlig]

Great shooting!! That is pretty typical of what I get with my White M97 and M98 with them bullets at 50 and 75 yds with a load of 65-70gr of 777-3F depending on which rifle I shoot. My 8yr old grandson shot his first deer with that bullet using 50gr of 777-3F and she dropped where she was standing.

 

[GM54-120]

I really like this bullet. I would probably like it more as a flat point but that mold is no longer offered by Lyman. It turns out i did only resize half the boolits. The unsized were stiff loading but still easier than a sabot.

I will need to try them with 60gr and then run both over a chrono. IMO this bullet does not need much speed and more than likely around 1300fps is ideal.

Thanks again....GREAT bullet.

 

[edmehlig]

This was posted by 52Bore on another site regarding the hardness of my bullets.

Ed:
I checked the hardness of this bullet you sent a while back - 4 BNH. Saeco chart indicates pure lead at 3-5 BNH.