Hello from Scotland~

Im looking at 170 gn - 200 gn cast bullets for my .308 either Lyman/Lee/Rcbs ?

Im already a caster for my .444 and want to try them in my .308 for Deer.

Would like to hear from anyone who's got experience with cast bullets in .308/.30-06 taking Deer ??

Interested in bullet performence ? Carcass damage ? Killing performence ? velocity ? etc, etc ?

Cast them hard ?? cast them soft ??

Englander

I have never shot a deer with a cast bullet in the .308 or .30/06, but I have with a .30/40 Krag caliber in a Ruger No.3 carbine. The bullet is the Lyman .31141HP bullet that casts about 170 grains as a hollowpoint using wheelweight metal. I cast my bullets neither soft nor hard. Wheelweights are about 10 to 12 on the Brinell hardness scale. I harden the base section of my bullets by standing them on their bases (after sizing to .308") in a shallow jar lid, and heat them to 465 degrees in my oven for an hour. Immediately after removing them from the oven, I fill the jar lid with cold water, which hardens the driving band section of the bullet to about Brinell 30, so they can stand up to some pretty high velocities, but the noses stay soft for expansion. I now attach gas checks, and lube them by hand with LBT Blue Lube, a high-velocity lubricant. These bullets are now loaded in the case with 46 grains of IMR4350 powder, and give a muzzle velocity close to 2400 FPS. This load will shoot into 1" groups @ 100 yards from my Ruger No. 3 .30/40, and kills deer very well. I suspect this same bullet, sized to .311", would give good performance in the .303 British also, with a similar load of IMR4350. I don't know what kind of an alloy wheelweights are made from in England, but it can be duplicated from lead, tin, antimony, and a touch of arsenic. The arsenic is essential to heat treatment. There is a description of bullet casting alloy compositions in the Lyman Reloading Handbook. Most people who have been using jacketed bullets all their lives would be ASTOUNDED at the performance one can obtain from cast slugs!! (Read Ross Seyfried's article in this month's issue of HANDLOADER Magazine about "softpoint" cast bullets!!)

[ 03-05-2003, 00:35: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

Thank you for the reply.........

Im looking at the RCBS 180 gn FN like the wide meplat and ample lube grooves. Im really impressed with the cast bullets in my Marlin .444ss
I seem to have a lot to learn about casting for a bottle neck cartridge, but im sure i will have fun on the way !

Englander

Englander, you WILL have fun, if you enjoy fooling around with metallic cartridge reloading!! Cast bullets at high performance levels are a whole new world!!

Shooting cast is a lot of fun, and you can kill deer cleanly with that load, if your very carefull...but compared to a soft point it is a miserable failure in the killing dept.

Think solid, when shooting cast bullets at high velocity. I use straight wheel weights, dropped in a 20 litre pail of water, in the 30-30, and a gas check. Never recovered one. Full penetration is the rule, even end to end once onn a 100lb doe whitetail. You can go higher, but I think 1900 to 2000 fps is about best for me. Looking at the wound, I must be getting at least some expansion, and no fragmentation.

My experience with a 6.5X55 with a 140 gr. "bumped" flat nose bullet, at around 1600 fps. on three separate deer was good. The shots were all through the chest cavity. Wound path was generally 1 1/2" completely through. One shot hitting a liver on an angling shot shattered the liver with a four inch star shaped wound.

On another three deer, I used the Lee .30 cal. 170 FNGC at 2250 fps. Wound channels went to about two inches completely through.

Both of these calibers worked very well, and gave performance I like in a bullet. Nothing travelled far after being hit, four out of six dropped in thier tracks. The farthest any travelled was forty yards. After seeing the results, I would not be afraid to shoot an elk out to 75 yards with the 6.5, and out to a hundred or so with the .30 cal.

The 6.5 bullets were air cooled, the .30's were water quenched.

I say again: Read Ross Seyfried's article in this month's issue of HANDLOADER Magazine about "softpoint" cast bullets!!

Ok
I heard you the first time!

I read it already anyway!