Cast bullets are widely recognized as being more
economical than their jacketed counterparts, equally accurate, faster at lower
pressures and gentler to rifled bores. In articles about reloading handgun
ammunition intended for the hunting fields, there is an interesting trend to be
noted: the value of cast bullets for hunting is widely espoused, but they are
almost always promoted as non-expanding, deeply penetrating solids. To be sure, this is a role they fill in superb
fashion; whether you're talking about the SSK truncated cone designs, the LBT
wide flat-nosed slugs, or Elmer Keith's time-honored semi-wadcutters, they all
drive deep and cut a big leaky hole. This is especially true given the current
popularity of casting bullets extremely hard, using alloys of high antimony
content (6-15%). Occasionally, one will read about some intrepid caster who has
thrown some Keith SWC's out of 30:1 (lead: tin) alloy so as to make them soft
enough to expand on whitetail when fired from a .44 Magnum, but that's unusual
anymore. The bottom line for handgun hunters these days seems to be, "If you
want bullet expansion, use a jacketed hollow-point, if you want a deeply
penetrating solid, use a heavy hard-cast flat point."
There is unquestionably a great deal of truth to
this line of thinking, but it also overlooks some very fertile territory. One
area that is virtually ignored today is the casting of hollow-pointed bullets
and hunting with same. Elmer Keith was a major proponent of cast hollow-points,
but interest in this area has waned in recent years. This is really unfortunate
because some really fine hunting bullets can be made, and in fact, the hunter
can tailor the final expansion characteristics to his (or her) specific desires
and needs.
I feel that cast HP's are better bullets than
their commercial jacketed counterparts. Undoubtedly, the personal pride of
creating the cast HP's factors into this bias, but I feel that there is a solid,
structural basis for this conclusion as well. Commercial JHP's, as good as some
of them are, have a significant structural "flaw" stemming from the fact that
they are made from dissimilar materials -- a hard (sometimes brittle) jacket and
a soft, malleable core. Once the jacket opens up and exposes the soft core, the
unsupported core can erode away, the jacket can fragment and the two distinct
pieces can separate. The core must have the support from the jacket to withstand
all the forces crushing it during the expansion and stoppage of a bullet.
Therefore, the basic composition of a strong jacket/weak core requires a careful
balancing act on the part of the manufacturer to get the jacket thickness and
ductility to properly offset the core hardness, as well as cavity size, shape
and depth. Obviously, these decisions require a certain amount of compromise,
and the manufacturer's final choices may or may not suit your particular needs.
The cast HP, on the other hand, is made of a
homogenous alloy of moderate strength, that undergoes uniform and predictable
deformation. The caster can easily dictate the degree of expansion to suit a
particular application by varying the alloy composition and hardness.
Concerning the casting of hollow-pointed bullets,
there are a few key points to keep in mind. On the choice of alloys, make sure
to keep the antimony content low (around 3% or less) to keep the alloy soft
enough (and not brittle) to expand smoothly at typical revolver velocities, and
a small amount of tin is a must (1-2%). I like to use 9 lbs. of wheel-weights,
with 1 lb. of lead and a couple of ounces of tin. This gives an alloy which is
roughly 95% lead, 3% antimony and 2% tin, and makes excellent bullet metal.
Elmer Keith's favorite alloy for casting HP's was
16:1 lead to tin, with no antimony (roughly 94% lead, 6% tin). The tin serves to
lower the surface tension and viscosity of the molten alloy, allowing it to fill
out the convoluted shape of the HP mould more readily. Without the added tin, it
can be very difficult to get fully filled out cast HP's. When casting HP's, make
sure to keep the alloy hot and cast as fast as possible. This is important
because the spud cools quickly once removed from the mould blocks and you only
have one cavity's worth of molten alloy going into the mould blocks per cast.
Casting quickly with a hotter than normal alloy helps keep the mould blocks and
HP spud up to temperature.
Some HP moulds are readily available (for
example, Midway carries an assortment), others are old designs that haven't been
made in years, and others yet may exist only in your imagination. Is this a
problem? Not if you know (or are) a good machinist. A single-cavity base-pour
mould in good shape can be converted to cast HP bullets by any machinist worth
his cutting oil (index off of the internal faces and cavity, the external faces
of the mould blocks may or may not be square to the internal faces). With the 4-
and 6-hole gang moulds that are all the rage these days, single cavity moulds
can often be found at gun shows for very reasonable prices, making
experimentation affordable.
Where does the cast HP fit in, in terms of
hunting? Obviously, these expanding bullets are not well-suited for dangerous
game, or other situations requiring extremely deep penetration. However, they
handle vermin, small game and medium game beautifully, and after all, these are
what many handgun hunters spend most of their time in pursuit of. The smaller
cast HP's are typically heavier than the light JHP's chosen for varmint hunting,
so the cast HP has better long-range stability, accuracy and thump, as well as a
flatter trajectory. And trust me, expansion is every bit as dramatic as with
their jacketed counterparts! For the larger calibers, the combination of weight
and controlled expansion makes them ideally suited for the taking of deer-sized
game. In Sixguns, Elmer Keith recounted tale after tale of favorable results,
obtained over many years, with cast HP's on chucks, jack rabbits, coyotes,
bobcats, mule deer and black bear. That qualifies as a solid endorsement in my
book.
The following are some of my favorite hunting
loads that take advantage of home-grown cast HP's. In .32 caliber, an old Ideal
3118 single cavity mould was modified to reproduce the original factory
hollow-pointed version (which I've spent years searching in vain for). Bullets
drop from the blocks at 112 grains, when cast with my pet alloy.
Sized .312" and loaded into .32 H&R cases
over 6.5 grains of Acc. Arms # 7, these bullets leave my 6" S&W Model 16 at 1100
fps and group into delightfully small clusters (this gun just loves cast
bullets!).
This makes a
flat-shooting, hard-hitting varmint load, delivering dramatic expansion on
rodents. Even after a busy day of varmint shooting, this sweet little load
leaves the bore spotless.
The .38 Special is one of my favorite
varmint/small game calibers, and a cherished 5-screw K-38 Masterpiece is one of
my favorite .38 Specials. The Lyman factory used to offer, as an example of
old-world customer service, hollow-pointed versions of any of their standard
line of moulds (sadly, this is no longer true). These moulds are identified by
the standard mould number, followed by the "HP" designation. An example of this
is found in my Lyman 358480 HP mould, which drops a 128 grain SWC-HP, and makes
a delightful varmint bullet when loaded in the above mentioned K-38 Masterpiece.
Stoked with 4.6 grains of Bullseye, this little pill gets motivated to 1030 fps
and delivers exquisite accuracy.
Searching for accurate .38 +P loads can be a
little more challenging. HS-7 is a powder that has provided consistent and
repeated success in this area. There are two very similar cast HP's that I prefer
for .38 +P loads: the Lyman 358429 HP (a customer ordered hollow-pointed mould,
as described above) and an old Ideal 358439 (an unusual example where the HP
mould was numbered as a separate design, distinct from the "parent" SWC), both
of which are based on the classic Keith 173 grain SWC. These two moulds have
very similar external profiles, but differ in terms of their cavity depth and
diameter. The Ideal 358439 drops bullets that weigh in a 154 grains, while the
Lyman 358429 HP makes a product weighing 162 grains. In my tests to date, the
lighter version seems to be slightly more accurate.
Interestingly, in spite of the difference in
weight, velocities of the two bullets are identical when launched with the same
powder charge. 8.5 grains of HS-7 sparked with a magnum primer, gives about 1060
fps and very good accuracy. Expansion with both bullets is positive on rodents
and other vermin. This is as good as it gets with the timeless .38 Special.
When the Ideal 358439 is stuffed into a .357
Magnum case over 14.0 grains of H110, a new realm of handgun varminting is
experienced. This combination delivers 1350+ fps out of most .357 revolvers, and
its impact behavior puts it into the .22-250 class out to well past 50-60 yards.
"Explosive" is an over-used cliché in the
shooting industry, but it's really the only word that fits here. Envision a
suicide-bomber prairie dog, with an M80 strapped to his chest, and you'll get the
idea. Again, accuracy is good and leading is not a problem.
The Lyman 429421 HP (the 235 grain HP version of
the classic SWC, and a "standard" mould for many years) was one of Elmer Keith's
favorite hunting bullets. In Sixguns, he included some beautiful pictures of
cast HP's, one of which was of a perfectly mushroomed 429421 HP, recovered from a
mule deer that he shot with his famous .44 Special load. This picture was the
genesis of my fascination with casting hollow-pointed bullets. In my experience,
this bullet only expands modestly at an impact velocity of about 1000 fps,
unless cast quite soft. The reason for this minimal expansion is that the spud
is the same diameter as in its .357 little brother (the Ideal 358439), leaving
much thicker walls in the .44 HP than in the .357 HP. Elmer Keith designed this
bullet for 1200+ fps, and it shines indeed when launched with his .44 Special
load using 17.0 grains of 2400. For hunting deer-sized game, this load delivers
all that a handgun hunter really needs.
When the 429421 HP is loaded into a .44 Magnum case over 23.5 grains of
Winchester 296, velocities jump up to the 1350-1400 fps range. Expansion of the
429421 HP is smooth and positive at this velocity. This combination makes a
great jack rabbit load, unless, of course, you're trying to make hasenpfeffer (it's just too destructive for edible small game). For larger
game in the deer/antelope class, this flat-shooting, hard-hitting load delivers
the goods, and is hunter-friendly on all counts. The Lyman 429244 HP provides
more of the same for those who prefer gas-checked bullets.
After searching for years, I was finally able to
track down and purchase a Lyman 454424 HP, the 245 grain HP version of the
traditional Keith SWC for the .45 Colt. This particular mould is one of the
finest HP moulds I've ever run across. The cavity is so round, and the spud so
concentric with the cavity, the spud must be "popped" before the sprue is
struck. If the sprue is struck first, the bullet simply spins in the cavity as
there is insufficient resistance to "pop" the spud free at that point. The
cavity on the 454424 HP is somewhat larger than for the .429" family, but the
resulting wall thickness is quite similar. The 454424 HP was found to quite
accurate with several favorite "recipes" for the .45 Colt (e.g. 8.0 grains of
Winchester 231, 9.0 grains of Universal Clays, or 14.0 grains of HS-7), but once
again expansion was found to be marginal in the 950-1050 fps ballpark (but I'm
sure they'd expand just fine if cast of a softer alloy). Now keep in mind when I
say that expansion is marginal for the .44 and .45 HP's at 1000 fps, that means
they perform just like their SWC brethren, which to say the least, is none too
shabby. Not surprisingly, when driven to 1200 fps (from a 7 1/2" barrel) with
20.0 grains of 2400 (this accurate load is for Ruger Blackhawk's and other
strong, modern revolvers only) expansion is smooth and positive. The most
accurate load with this bullet (from my 7 1/2" Ruger Blackhawk, anyway) was
found to be 23.0 grains of Winchester 296 (again, Blackhawk's only) which
delivers just over 1300 fps and prints ragged, one-hole groups at 25 yards.
I haven't shot any critters with this load yet,
but that's only because one particular 200 lb. whitetail doe got very lucky last
month. I was hiding in some waist-deep bunchgrass when she stepped out,
broadside, 45 yards away. The front sight blade nestled in tight behind her
shoulder, the hold was solid and the trigger broke cleanly ... unfortunately, the
bullet encountered some of that bunchgrass that I was hiding in and was
deflected off into parts unknown. She was untouched. Sigh, maybe next time...
Expansion is not solely the realm of the
commercial jacketed bullet. You can make your own, and you can make them perform
however you want a handgun bullet to perform. The cast hollow point can be one
of the handgun hunter's deadliest allies.
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