I just wanted to ask the opinion of any handgun hunters as to which bullet do you think is better for deer sized game, cast or jacketed? Hard cast is tough to beat for penetration, but do we need more penetration on deer than good jacketed bullet designs can provide?
Thanks,
Don

Jacketed bullets are made to much higher quality than casted boolits, thus usually they have better consistency in longer range performances.
OTOH, to standard hunting needs at standard distances, hard casted boolits are much more economical.

I have used only casts boolits for the last 5 years or so and notice absolutely no difference in hunting performances from the jacketed ones.
And I save a bundle of $$ because I cast them myself.

YMMV.

I use to think jacketed was the way to go !!!

A few years back a couple of friends switched to the Federal Cast Core and said they'd never go back to the jacketed bullet.
They both us 44 mags.
www.federalpremium.com...spx?id=347

What I don't know is if they ever used any of the premium pistol bullets such as Nosler Partitions, Swift A-Frames and Barnes Expanders to compare with.

Up until the mid 90's I always used jacketed bullets for hunting and cast for practice. After recovering the fragments from a jacketed soft-point from a medium sized whitetail I began to question my choice. I now use cast bullets exclusively and have no problems with either accuracy or performance. Jacketed soft-points usually don't expand and hollow-points either over-expand or fail to expand at all at handgun velocities, so a well designed cast bullet with a substantial meplat will do plenty of damage and do so reliably. My preference is for either the original Keith SWC or LBT LNFP designs in substantial weights - 250-300 grain in .44, depending on design and what each gun likes best.

I have been using a product from South Africa made by Frontier Metal Processing (PTY) Ltd in 9mm CMJ Cast 115gr RN .355" in my MP9mm pistol and they work very well and I am very pleased with them. I don't have issues with copper or lead fouling and the barrel is easy to clean.
Their website is: www.frontierbullets.co.za/ and the bullets are availible in Canada at www.marstar.ca and in the USA at Black Hills Shooters Supplys at Rapid City SD, www.bhshooters.com/

I paid $89Cdn for a box of 1000 rds.

The website is worth a look and from speaking to my doctor who is from South Africa he says that Frontier is well known in Africa and in Europe.

I forgot the boys down under the contact info for the pistol bullets is:
Practical Shooting Supplies Contact - Greg Moon Tel: 0414 965 788

Cast bullets for thin skinned game is hard to beat, I cast for the 357, 44mag and the 30/30 and when the bullet hits the boiler room, its over. Making your own Lyman #2 with a little 95/5 solder added makes for one tough lead bullet.

Omi, what shape and weight are you using for the lead 30/30? Do you shoot a Marlin (microgrove?) or a Winchester? Length of the barrel? Want to share your loadinfo?

And have you ever used such a casted bullet in a .300 WM?

You renewed (is that a good word?) my interest... I love to hunt with home-cooked things. (after they have proved themselves on the range)

I use a Lyman #311291 mould which makes a Lyman #2660291 bullet, its a 2 cavity gas checked mould which the bullets weigh in at 170grs. My loads for the cast bullets for this round is Imr 4227 at 17grs good for 1600fps and also Imr 3031 at 24grs good for 1675fps. I still have plenty of room to crank up the speeds but the loads I use are acurate with no lead deposits at all.

Yes I have a Marlin 336 Zane Grey with the micro groove any never had a problem with accuracy with either jacketed bullets or lead bullets. Barrel is 22" long. I don't own a 300Wm but I do own a 340 weatherby, hmm you might have just gave me a reason to buy another mould.


I use 9 lbs wheelweights (make sure they do not have zinc in them). Add to this mix 1lb 95/5 solder (95% tin & 5% antimony) solder. this will give a hardness equivilent to Lymam #2 alloy. I use this for rifle and handgun bullets and have no leading problems.

Get all the lead you can get because them stupid tree huggers are making it pretty scarce in my area.

The reason I'm asking about the difference you've experienced between cast and jacketed is for a recently bought Ruger Blackhawk Flattop in .44 special. I have some .431" Keith style 250gr. cast bullets coming from Beartooth Bullets and also have some 180gr and 240gr. Horn. XTP bullets that I've used in a .44 mag. leveraction carbine previously. I'm not sure if the XTP bullets would work as well at the lower .44 special velocities. I checked Hornady's website and didn't see any reference to velocity parameters for their bullets. I don't think I'd have a problem pushing the 250gr. cast bullets to 1,000 FPS using either 2400 or Unique.
Don

BigBlue wrote:

I checked Hornady's website and didn't see any reference to velocity parameters for their bullets.

Don, here's a pdf that will give you what your looking for !!!

www.hornady.com/assets...andgun.pdf

That's exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!!
Don

Once again it pays to read all the posts around here, even when I don't think it will apply to me. Thanks for the Lyman #2 recipe Omni, I just started melting stuff together for my .405-"06 belted cartridge. And am in the accumulation phase for that project.

Omi, many thanks. The closed I have is a 180 grs Saeco mould with gas check. I should have casted bullets arround somewhere, even in 92 % tin from the time I was thinking ahead that the use of lead in hunting bullets is going to be forced obsolete one day...
going to get things in .308 talking again real soon. Thanks for the extra work in this year's shooting/hunting program, it will be fun.