.44 mag bullets

[Mike / Tx]

See there PawPaw, I was looking up pictures and you were typing. Looks like I covered a lot of what you already posted.

Good to see you round, hope things are well with you and yours.

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

Hey there Texas Mike:
Son was vacationing at our cabin. Boar came into the yard a little to close for liking while He and wife were cleaning fish. Thing wouldn't budge in its leaving the yard no matter what those two's kids did in their unusual behavior in wanting to see it leave under its own power. So, only one thing to do. It required only two shots of your solid large flat points to tip it over on the spot from my Redhawk. Kid called here and asked what He should do. I told him to call the local close by warden. Warden came took a look and said keep the meat as it was too big for him to load into his pick-up. Now I have at least a couple hundred lbs in the freezer up there for the barbeque. (I taught the son how to butcher quite a few years ago.) So between He and his troops it only took about a day & 1/2 to skin cut & wrap the entire thing. Thanks for the samples Mike. Thy seem to work better than mine ever did Sir.-

S/S >lol

[Mike / Tx]

Cool deal Sure Shot,

Yep those things DO for sure put a whollop on things. There is no doubt when you hit something solid with them, that things are going to come to a quick conclusion.

I haven't been able to get on the hogs in a while. The wife has even started to sit a stand with me in the hopes one or the other of us can get one. I have my own "Great White Whale" so to speak keeping me up at night while up to the farm. It's a huge ol thing that I see once in a while that just seems to be out of range or able to slip into the woods just in the nick of time. I have had it in snares three times only to have it ruin them. I have been letting it get nice and comfortable now for a few weeks and will be a few more before I get back up. Soon as I do though, you can bet we will be on him.

[PawPaw]

Originally Posted by Mike

See there PawPaw, I was looking up pictures and you were typing. Looks like I covered a lot of what you already posted.

How did you get those down-bore photographs? That is cool.

You're right about a soft bullet. You can get leading at 800 fps if the fit isn't right. I like to load dead-soft lead in my .45-70. I push that bullet to about 1200 fps, but it's one of those Marlin barrels that has the microgroove rifling and I've got to scrub the bore every dozen shots. It's fairly accurate, as accurate as I can be with my old eyes and iron sights, and because I use it in the thickets, there's no reason for me to shoot farther than about 60 yards, anyway. That soft lead kills like the hammer from hell, but it leaves a little behind in the bore. That's what I put up with to have a load that will be accurate in that barrel.

I can't really see the benefit of using a jacketed bullet in that rifle. My cast bullets are almost free, the powder is old military surplus, the primers cost me about 3 cents each, so I'm pulling the trigger for about a nickel a pop. In this day and age, that ain't bad.

[TimSr]

I've killed several deer with .44 Mag, and the 240gr cast SWC was my favorite for a long time. Then is discovered the Hornady XTP and found it to be far more effective in that it still passed through but made a bigger hole. XTP is a controlled expansion HP with cast interior. I've taken a dozen or more with them. I don't care for the 300gr for hunting distances though, and stick with the 240gr.

Avoid standard JHP or JFP with a soft lead core. The do not stay together on impact at high velocities. The first deer I killed with a .44 I used a 240gr JHP. I killed a nice buck, but what was left of the jacketless bullet I recovered weighed under 120gr. I later found out this was common.

Pentration and an exit wound is the primary objective. Controlled expansion is icing on the cake. A bullet that doesn't stay together and retain its weight on impact is not a hunting bullet.

You'll also find that soft core bullets are easy to deform while seating, which greatly affects long range accurracy.

I sitll use 240gr cast SWC fgor practice as they zero about the same place at 100 yds, as XTP bullets are not cheap. Leading is never an issue. For either bullet I religiously use W296 or H110 for full power magnum loads.

[Real Gun]

Mike / TX - Ya might want to do a little bit more research on bullets and less talking rumors, and hear say.

And that research would find what sources? I think many are educated by the answers to what some regard as annoying questions. That's a normal process and why many are here.

[Paul B.]

"I am wondering if the key here is the fact that 1100 fps limit warnings for lead bullets are talking about more or less pure lead, while all the exceptional cases citing otherwise are about alloys used for hardening. We are not saying cautions about velocities above 1100 fps are nonsense, are we? Isn't it always about a specific context?"

A while back I was given a bunch of what was suposed to be wheel weights. Turns out they must have been the stick on kind as they were quite soft. Pure lead runs 5 on the BHN scale and my LBT tester calls these at 8 BHN. I ran a bucnh of bullets before I tested the hardness and as mentioned, soft. A friend asked me to load up a box of full power .357 mag.s for him and I told him the only bullets I had ready were those soft 158 gr. SWC with gas che cks. I told him they would probably lead his bore badly and that if they did, bring the gun over and I'd get the lead out for him using mercury.
Fastest way there is, especially if the bore is very badly leaded. Well, to make a long story short, not only did his barrel not lead up, it stayed shiny clean. Those very soft bullets must have been the perfect fit for his revolver. I'll have t play with that alloy a bit more before I decide to alter it. I have close to 200 pounds of that stuff so if I can make it work as is, great. If not, well I can change the mix to anything I want.
Paul B.

[Paul B.]

"You're right about a soft bullet. You can get leading at 800 fps if the fit isn't right. I like to load dead-soft lead in my .45-70. I push that bullet to about 1200 fps, but it's one of those Marlin barrels that has the microgroove rifling and I've got to scrub the bore every dozen shots. It's fairly accurate, as accurate as I can be with my old eyes and iron sights, and because I use it in the thickets, there's no reason for me to shoot farther than about 60 yards, anyway. That soft lead kills like the hammer from hell, but it leaves a little behind in the bore. That's what I put up with to have a load that will be accurate in that barrel."

I have to ask, what are you sizing your bullet to? When I had my marlin 45-70 I sized my bullets to either .459" ot .460" rather than .458". and accuracy improved and leading was almost nil. One rifle was a marlin with the MG barrel and the other a Ruger #1. I still have the Ruger. That marlin was one of the very first guns with that curvered buttplate designer by the Marquis de Sade. Very painful to shoot more than a few rounds of factor level and my loads were a tad warmer. If you're doing .458" ot .459" and getting leading, try .460" The .460" worked very well in my rifle with a mix of wheel weights and pure. Bullet, FWIW is the Lyman #457122, the 330 gr. Hollow point. It's a bear to get good bullets with but the good ones all like to crown the first shot hole.
Paul B.

[Mike / Tx]

And that research would find what sources?

Well I can tell you there is more to learn about cast bullets than can be written in one book for sure. Before I ever poured up my first I researched about every aspect of it for close to a year. Even while I was setting things up and sorting out my WW's I was still reading and asking questions.

As for a solid source of info that will guide one through the processes, along with plenty of other solid info, it is hard to go wrong reading the info on the following link,
The Cast Bullet / Hunting Articles Of Glen E. Fryxell

There are several other places like Veral's writings, as well as Linbaugh, and others. If you have enough dedication to dig and learn verses having to have instant gratification there is a ton of great info to be garnered, "IF YOU LOOK FOR IT".

Now I don't hold everything I read up to the sun and call it holy. I have some sense about me and have been handloading most of my life. I also learned along the way to take some of what you find, and if it works, there might be something to it. That is what is with Glen's writings. He is a shooter and loader and about as knowledgeable a fellow on the art of pouring lead into a mold and ending up with a bullet as one could hope to find.

I also know that there are a LOT of folks who consider Castboolits some sort of a hick hangout. But there are folks there who have been casting their own lead since before I was even a gleam in my daddy's eye. I take what I can, I read between the lines, and it isn't hard to figure out what is being said by the more knowledgeable folks, and what is being tossed out as manure. There is plenty of all to go around, but when your looking for an apple you don't go to the orange isle.

PawPaw,

On those pic's, well I had an issue with a leak in my wall, so I thought. So I asked my boss VERY nicely if I might burrow one of our bore scopes for the evening. Well it only too half an hour or so to look for the leak down in the wall, so I figured I might as well look at a few other things while I had it in hand. I couldn't possibly afford one like that myself, they run mid 30K for the package. We use it mainly to inspect very tight areas of our equipment.

They are pretty cool aren't they....