Viability of casting for hunting

[TFin04]

Hello all,

I have a couple bricks of pure lead that were gifted to me a while back, I would wager about 100lbs worth. I hunt with a 50cal modern inline using 44 cal saboted bullets. I have a few questions on casting up this lead into what would probably be a lifetime supply of hunting projectiles for me. I am looking at molds to produce 250ish grain 44 or 45 cal pistol bullets to shoot in a sabot over Blackhorn 209.

- Is pure lead suitable for this task or will I need to create an alloy?
- Do cast bullets shot in sabots still need to be lubed?
- I use modern hollowpoint bullets now. What is the preferred cast bullet type for whitetail deer?
- Assuming I find a combo my rifles like, are home-cast bullets able to maintain sufficient accuracy to kill deer at 150 yards? I don't usually like shooting at distances much more than where I can produce a 2" group off a bench. I shoot a CVA that will do 2" at 150 pretty easily, and am considering buying a Knight Ultralite which includes a MOA accuracy guarantee to 200. Is that still doable with home cast?

Shooting and hunting are hobbies of mine, but I have a young family and putzing around with bullets and various loads just isn't something I have a ton of time/patience for. My goal here would be to find a suitable load, spend a few weekends casting up everything I have, and sit back knowing I have projectiles for decades of hunting. Does this seem like a feasible goal, or should I just pick up a few OT shifts with my time and buy a bunch of bullets I know already work?

Thanks for your time.

 

[edmehlig]

I like to use pure lead, others like 1-40. It all depends on what your rifle likes better. Regarding Hollow Point or solids this is what I posted earlier on another post.


Lew, you are correct in that both HP and Solid Lead conicals will work just fine on the game we hunt. I would definitely prefer solids if going for Elk.

There are two reasons why I went with the 330gr Gould HP bullet. One Doc wrote me one time and said for Deer you couldn't find a better bullet. In fact, just before White went under he was looking to see if there was a way to mass produce them and sell them under White. So that got me interested in that bullet. The second reason was my young grandsons wanted to go hunting and they couldn't handle recoil. So I tested a load of 50gr of 777-3F and got a Muzzle Velocity of 1000FPS. Not only was the recoil light enough for him the accuracy was great at 50yds. We had him keep his shots to within 50yds. I felt with the lower velocity a Hollow Point would be better to help ensure the bullet performed appropriately. Well as luck would have it a nice size doe came in around 50yds and at the shot, she dropped right where she was standing. Since then he has taken another doe with that load and she ran about 20 yds. My other grandsons shot loads of 60-70gr of 777-3F with the same kind of results.

From the tests Ron performed on both the HP and Solids on my bullets, they both had the same devastating results on the first two jugs. (Which is would be the diameter of most deer). The only difference is the solid had a little more shank left as compared to the HP. Both seemed to expand to approximately 1". You really can't go wrong with either or, but you couldn't convince my grandsons to switch to a solid bullet. GRIN

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=27287&p=210213&hilit=350gr+HP#p210213

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=28537

 

[MSalyards]

No, lube is not needed in a sabot. I have not started casting for my muzzleloaders , yet! However I cast prolly 50 lbs of bullets a year, mostly for my Sharps rifles and a couple of pistols. Casting is another hobby in its self for me. I've only been playing with ML's for about 20 years and only in the last couple have I gotten serious. . Other than round balls for a pistol, I buy my hunting bullets . I may get to playing around after hunting season and try to find cast loads that work in my smoke poles. Mike.

 

[GM54-120]

My personal opinion is when casting bullets for sabots soft lead has one problem. You can deform the nose of the bullet if the sabot is a bit tight. So either go with hardcast and a large metplat or use something a little harder than dead soft with a sabot that loads slightly easy. You might be able to get away with a .22 metplat with the softer lead to improve the BC a little bit.

Look at the Harvester Hardcasts and go to Accurate molds for some ideas. Both offer cast lead bullets for sabots.

 

[451 whitworth]

My personal opinion is when casting bullets for sabots soft lead has one problem. You can deform the nose of the bullet if the sabot is a bit tight. So either go with hardcast and a large metplat or use something a little harder than dead soft with a sabot that loads slightly easy. You might be able to get away with a .22 metplat with the softer lead to improve the BC a little bit.

Look at the Harvester Hardcasts and go to Accurate molds for some ideas. Both offer cast lead bullets for sabots.

Agreed. Pure dead soft lead doesn't like high velocity even when in a sabot in my experience. Air cooled wheel weights works great in sabots and will expand in game when driven at the speeds BH209 is capable of.

 

[GM54-120]

IF BC is not a concern, fast hardcast with wide metplat is extremely nasty on tissue. Penetration is off the charts if needed too. Softer lead will do fine with less speed but i would advise more weight. I would go a bit heavier than 250gr with either one really.

Like i mentioned. checkout Accurate molds website. Their listed weights are for wheel weight and they can alter a mold you like if needed. The molds have complete pics with dimensions. They have both .429 and 45cal smooth sided molds just for sabots plus some others that could be made to work in sabots.

I saw this on another board and thought it was kinda cool. Its a SST clone in ww lead.

 

[TFin04]

Thanks guys. What ratio and additives would you recommend to harden up my pure lead?

 

[Idaholewis]

Thanks guys. What ratio and additives would you recommend to harden up my pure lead?

I use 1-20, 1-30, and 1-40 in all of my Muzzleloaders, 1-40 being my all around Favorite. If you have 100 lbs of lead you would ad 2.5 pounds of tin to Make 1-40
Try a 40 pound Batch and see what ya think? To 40 lbs of lead you would ad 1 pound of tin

Tin bars here
https://www.buffaloarms.com/pure-certif ... -pound-tin

 

[Buttonbuck]

Can you use solder and old tin/lead bars? I think they were 50% tin 50% lead I picked up a box with several of them and some rolls of solder at a sale

 

[Idaholewis]

Can you use solder and old tin/lead bars? I think they were 50% tin 50% lead I picked up a box with several of them and some rolls of solder at a sale

Right Here is the most informative place i have found on the Net in regards to Alloys, etc. etc. etc. I highly advise you to Read it. Absolute TON of info packed on this Site!

http://www.lasc.us/CastBulletAlloy.htm

 

[munchoman]

Can you use solder and old tin/lead bars? I think they were 50% tin 50% lead I picked up a box with several of them and some rolls of solder at a sale

solder is a good source of tin, you can also find pewter cheap, at thrift stores