Speer DeepCurl questions

[Isaac_62]

Hey guys!
I hope everyone had a great 4th. I have some questions about the terminal performance of the DeepCurl. First off my setup is a TC ProHunter, 110 gr. Bh209.
What caliber has anyone killed an animal with? Is the 45 colt bullet too soft for 1900fps? Or should I go with the .44 mag bullet? What is the difference between the DeepCurl and red hot? Does anyone have experience with these caliber bullets on an animal? What did the terminal performance look like with them?

Thanks again.

Isaac

 

[sabotloader]

Isaac_62"]Hey guys!
I hope everyone had a great 4th. I have some questions about the terminal performance of the DeepCurl. First off my setup is a TC ProHunter, 110 gr. Bh209.

What caliber has anyone killed an animal with?

I have used it the DC but I have only used the .452 size bullets while hunting, both the 250 and the 300 grain. I have shot a couple of boxes of the 44-270 at paper but have not hunted with them.

Is the 45 colt bullet too soft for 1900fps? Or should I go with the .44 mag bullet?

There are two 45 DC bullets - a 250 with a very deep hollow point and a 300 grain with a much more shallow HP. Both of them perform great on deer class animals. I do prefer the 300 for longer ranges and definitely for use on elk.

The good things about Deep Curls that are somewhat different than other lead copper bullets is that the copper is bonded to the lead to help prevent the two from separating. And the DC series has a small copper dot inserted into the lead to help control expansion of the bullet.

What is the difference between the DeepCurl and red hot?

The 'Red Hot' is or was a Knight name that they applied to the Barnes bullets there were selling. These bullets are all copper no lead and normally are a very good bullet. Since they are all copper with no lead they are often considered a stronger bullet and again with controlled expansion.

These are Barnes all copper bullets

Does anyone have experience with these caliber bullets on an animal? What did the terminal performance look like with them?

Thanks again.

Isaac

These two bullets are very popular and have been used by many. The DC is considerably less expensive and operate with the same characteristic that the Barnes do. Both have been extremely successful at harvesting game. Many people are aligned with each of these bullets and will swear by either one...

In my case, I prefer the new Knight Bloodline bullets to both of these bullets, but that is just my personal choice.

 

[cayuga]

I like .44 caliber bullets (as Sabotloader knows) and often purchase them instead of the .451 diameter. In MOST bullets the .430 work very well for me in my rifles. But I once purchased some 270 grain Deep Curls and used green harvester sabots. Out to 75 yards.. very accurate on the range. Then when I tried them at longer distances, for some reason (maybe my shooting skills) I could not keep tight groups with them.

I have never hunted with them. But I tested them in wet media for what little that is worth. They made large wound channels and expanded in a very controlled manner. One reason I changed and went to the 300 grain .452 Deep Curl (as Sabotloader suggested). I found the 300 grain a very good shooting bullet.

 

[ronlaughlin]

Isaac,

More deer in our freezer have been put there by the 270g Deep Curl than any other bullet. The 300g Deep Curl has also put a few deer into the freezer. What these bullet do is make an exit wound about 2" diameter, and leave behind a mess of heart and lung. These bullets turn out real pretty when one 'captures' them using water jugs. Following is a photo of four 300g Deep Curl. Three of them were captured at the range shown. Several times i have used 110g of Blackhorn Powder.

The VIDEO shows the capture at 200 yard.




Following are photo of the 270g Deep Curl captured and/or being captured at 100 yard.

 

[Isaac_62]

Just what I wanted to here. What caliber is the 270g DeepCurl ? How come all the places online are sold out? Best place to buy them?

 

[Lee 9]

I have taken deer with the 250 and 300 grain they work so well I do not feel a need for any more expensive, where I do feel a need is for ranges over 150 yds so when I expect to shoot long range I use a 250 Bonded Shock Wave.

 

[ShawnT]

I switched to the Deep Curl bullets 2 years ago. I shoot the 300 grainer (.452 for 454 Casull). It is the same one they are mentioning above. My terminal performance matches Rons description above, with one exception, I have never recovered one. I took 3 deer so far at 50yds, 85yds, and 206yds, all lazer checked. All pass throughs and terminal performance looked the same on the deer. 8) I have been shooting the .250 grainer (.452 for 45 long colt) in one rifle but have not shot it on game yet.

The 270grn bullet is a .429/.430 for the 44 mag and needs the green 44/50 sabots

The Barnes are great bullets, I just don't care for the price.

As far as availability, Thank your President and other Politicians for creating panic buying. The Anti-gun crap is causing hording and price gouging (by guys buying up what they can get and selling at huge prices). Availability is spotty as the manufactures are having a time keeping up with the damand. You just have to keep checking and buy when you see them available.

 

[GM54-120]

You might have better luck finding the Speer .458s 300gr+ or the .451 300gr JSP. I know my LGS had a couple boxes last week but they were out of the others. They probably wont expand as nice as the 300gr DCHP but they are both bonded. Speer lists the .451 300gr SP as jacketed but its the old Unicore which is a bonded bullet. I had a older Unicore labeled box and they appear to be identical including the part# 4485.

I really like the 300gr DCHP also. Its one of the best for the price.

 

[ronlaughlin]

Isaac,

As mentioned, this is a difficult time to purchase them Deep Curl. Normally i purchase them from Graf's, and Powder Valley Inc. Currently they are out of stock. There may be XTP bullets available for purchase, which are a good substitute. Wideners is a business where i have purchased bullets, and they have 300g Nosler Partition in stock, which is a great substitute for the Deep Curl. Wideners also has some XTP in stock right now.

 

[sabotloader]

Isaac,

As mentioned, this is a difficult time to purchase them Deep Curl. Normally i purchase them from Graf's, and Powder Valley Inc. Currently they are out of stock. There may be XTP bullets available for purchase, which are a good substitute. Wideners is a business where i have purchased bullets, and they have 300g Nosler Partition in stock, which is a great substitute for the Deep Curl. Wideners also has some XTP in stock right now.

The 300 grain Nosler Partition is by far the better bullet, actually one of the best, and for that price you can not go wrong. The only problem once they are gone they are gone.

 

[ronlaughlin]

Isaac,

As mentioned, at the moment Deep Curl bullets seem about impossible to find. Previously, i forgot to mention another possible alternative to the Deep Curl, might be the PT Gold. Myself, i have never killed anything using them, but have read several posts by folk that use them for hunting, and they are happy with the terminal performance. Regarding the Nosler bullet, the Nosler 300g Partition are no longer being manufactured, but at the moment, they are far easier to purchase than the Deep Curl, and as the saying goes, a bird in hand is worth more than the bird in the bush.

 

[Edwardamason]

Isaac_62"]Hey guys!
I hope everyone had a great 4th. I have some questions about the terminal performance of the DeepCurl. First off my setup is a TC ProHunter, 110 gr. Bh209.

What caliber has anyone killed an animal with?

I have used it the DC but I have only used the .452 size bullets while hunting, both the 250 and the 300 grain. I have shot a couple of boxes of the 44-270 at paper but have not hunted with them.

Is the 45 colt bullet too soft for 1900fps? Or should I go with the .44 mag bullet?

There are two 45 DC bullets - a 250 with a very deep hollow point and a 300 grain with a much more shallow HP. Both of them perform great on deer class animals. I do prefer the 300 for longer ranges and definitely for use on elk.

The good things about Deep Curls that are somewhat different than other lead copper bullets is that the copper is bonded to the lead to help prevent the two from separating. And the DC series has a small copper dot inserted into the lead to help control expansion of the bullet.

What is the difference between the DeepCurl and red hot?

The 'Red Hot' is or was a Knight name that they applied to the Barnes bullets there were selling. These bullets are all copper no lead and normally are a very good bullet. Since they are all copper with no lead they are often considered a stronger bullet and again with controlled expansion.

These are Barnes all copper bullets

Does anyone have experience with these caliber bullets on an animal? What did the terminal performance look like with them?

Thanks again.

Isaac

These two bullets are very popular and have been used by many. The DC is considerably less expensive and operate with the same characteristic that the Barnes do. Both have been extremely successful at harvesting game. Many people are aligned with each of these bullets and will swear by either one...

In my case, I prefer the new Knight Bloodline bullets to both of these bullets, but that is just my personal choice.

The XPB all copper bullets are the way to go on Large game such as heavy body deer or elk. No doubt. The DC should do well on most average white tail and medium size whitetail. Some other serious contenders are the XTP 250 and 300 Gr as well as Hornady Interbond Bullets. All are reasonably priced compared to the XPB and the DC and all have field proven performance.

 

[Edwardamason]

I like .44 caliber bullets (as Sabotloader knows) and often purchase them instead of the .451 diameter. In MOST bullets the .430 work very well for me in my rifles. But I once purchased some 270 grain Deep Curls and used green harvester sabots. Out to 75 yards.. very accurate on the range. Then when I tried them at longer distances, for some reason (maybe my shooting skills) I could not keep tight groups with them.

I have never hunted with them. But I tested them in wet media for what little that is worth. They made large wound channels and expanded in a very controlled manner. One reason I changed and went to the 300 grain .452 Deep Curl (as Sabotloader suggested). I found the 300 grain a very good shooting bullet.

I had great success with the 44 cal stuff at first so long as I kept the charges low and the ranges short. Say under 100 yards. But when I started to push the limits of the ML I learned there was more to the story.

What we have found over the years on the smokeless side of things and now with the BH209 side of things and pushing these saboted projectiles at speeds they were never intended to be pushed at is that the less plastic you have between the bullet and the barrel generally the more accurate the load will be. The green sabots have a lot of plastic taking up a lot of the space. When pushed with a heavy load such as a heavy smokeless load or a Bh209 load with a large pressure spike it tends to compromise the integrity of the sabot. This making it not as reliable a projectile for long range accuracy.

Even mild loads of smokeless I know of no one that has had success with the 429 stuff. Bueller???Bueller???

 

[Hornet22savage]

I can say that the sabots of today are far better than those of the latter days. My goto load is currently a .430 Hornady FTX in a MMP Green sabot on top of 130 gr. BH 209 and my accuracy has been great out to 100 yds. .75" groups. I have not had a chance to stretch these out but hope to in the near future and see if the accuracy holds. However on the other hand I also get good accuracy from the .458 Hornady FTX in the MMP Orange sabot over 110 gr. BH209. It really depends on the gun and the load. Several people have had good success with the 270 gr. deep curl.

 

[jg2006]

The DeepCurls may be hard to find, but Midwayusa.com has Barnes all copper Expanders on sale for about $16/box of 24 - I already stocked up!

 

[Omega45]

Just reduce the charge and go with a Power Belt :lol:

 

[Isaac_62]

What sabot do you guys recommend for the .452 DeepCurl 300 gr. ? Pushed by 120gr of bh209.

 

[ronlaughlin]

If your barrel is a typical tight TC barrel, the crush rib sabot probably. However, only you know. Three of my Omega need a crush rib sabot. The other Omega finds the crush rib too loose, and in it i use Harvester smooth sabot, both short and long. In my Omega(s), i use 110g of Blackhorn with the 300g bullet. Here lately i am using 90g of powder. Primers start leaking between the cup and anvil in my rifles when the day is hot, and the powder charge is over 100g. Right or wrong, it seems to me that the maximum range for 300g Deep Curl is about 250 yard, no matter how much powder one uses. Beyond that the bullet slows down to the speed of sound, and i think i have noticed accuracy suffers.

Good for you, finding them bullet in these times; happy hunting!

 

[Hulions]

The .452/300gr. Deepcurl is a great bullet. After hearing and seeing all the positive comments from all the guys on here and other sights I decided to give them a try last year. They shoot very well in both my Endeavor and Omega with 110gr. of BH209 and a Harvester short black sabot I was able to try them out on a deer last season at 100 yards. The bullet performed flawlessly and the deer never took a step. Complete pass through with what looked like great expansion. It has now become my go to bullet. I think you will be more than pleased with this bullet. Good luck.

 

[WV Hunter]

I'm shooting .429 / 240gr DC's with green CR sabot over 100gr pyro. Great accuracy out to 100, (have not shot further yet) and they performed very well for me last season on deer.