Here's one to ponder and it will be likely that few of us have the actual experience to answer it with more than conjecture.

If you are shooting hard cast bullets at medium to large game and you are getting full penetration (bullet exits the other side), is the heavy hard cast bullet better than the light one if they both have same velocity at initial contact with the game?

$bob$

"If you are shooting hard cast bullets at medium to large game and you are getting full penetration (bullet exits the other side), is the heavy hard cast bullet better than the light one"

If you are getting full penetration with both(I'm a little lost on that part of your question) then there is no advantage with the heavier bullet. BUT!!! If you contact bone the weight of the heavier bullet will penetrate much better than the lighter bullet will.
Have a friend throw a baseball to you at 45mph & you catch it. Now do the same with a shot-put at the same speed. You know, the steel balls they use at track & field events. About the same diameter but much heavier.
I'm thinking you'll have a hard time stopping the shot-put.
That may be an over simplifcation, but I'm an overly simple guy
My mod 29 is loaded with 320gr cast.
Vance in AK.

LDHunter, I've read and been taught from an early age that cast bullets should be used for one thing; Penetration. Given that, I always shoot 'heavy for caliber' slugs from my straight walled cartridges. They're not going to expand so I think it's better to have a 44, 45, or 50 caliber hole in both sides. The guns I shoot lighter JHC, or JHP's are mostly my self defense stuff, or for chucks, and squirrels and such. I have taken PA deer with .44 240 JHC and 300 XTP and not recovered bullets though! Vance AK, How long have you been shooting your 320 is teh M29? Has it stayed together? Any timing isues?

Bullelk Hunter,
Please tell me about your experiences with the 44 240 JHC and 300 XTP!

I am using 45 cal 240 xtp mag out of my 14 inch 209x50 over 90 grs of pyrodex P.

I have only killed one deer with them. this year I shot about 5 deer with them and have yet to find blood trail or recover one. I know I hit them because they fell in there tracks only to get back up and run away with no blood to follow. I looked for several hours for each deer and the only blood I could find was where the hit the ground.

I agree. I don't think the 300's are very good on deer-never shot an Elk or Bear with one. The Sierra 240 JHC and Hornady XTP seemed to exapnd OK. Neither deer went very far, and left nice blood trail. I really think the XTP's are pretty heavy in the construction department. I shot a small doe with a 200gr and the damage was massive. Fortunately I have been able to take 3 deer in east of the last 3 years with the doe allocations, but not all have been with revolvers. I'm a scientist by trade but I don't limit my experiments to the lab. The woods and fields are my real testing grounds. I've taken deer with .222, 6.5tcu, 30 herrett, '06, 308, 35 rem. 357, 44, 45lc, and 444 marlin. The one that went the fartherest and I amost didn't get was the .444! it was loaded with 300 XTPs. On the other hand, the one that dropped on the spot was with the .444 and a 240gr soft point! he was a 21" 6pt--he's on my wall. I shot him at 70yds, thru the lungs and he collapsed before I came out of recoil. Go figure. Of the Elk I shot, the only one that dropped in his tracks was with the '06. They ran with the 35rem, 300 maggie, and my 375JDJ (he was walking, but very sick!) Non of the Elk went very far though <100, my 6x6 and 367JDJ went about 60! I'm planning on using the .500 S&W this year and it's loaded with 440's. I expect full, blow-thru and lots of blood.

"Vance AK, How long have you been shooting your 320 is teh M29? Has it stayed together? Any timing isues? "

I've only put around a hundred of hot & heavy loads thru it but am finally set up to start reloading them so that # will go up quickly. I don't intend to feed the gun a steady diet of them though. I know it's no Redhawk, & that's good for some reasons & bad for others.
So far the gun doesn't seem to mind, but we'll see over time. The gun was well used when I got it. Timing is OK, & everything else seems to be pretty well in tolerance although there is some lateral play in the cylinder. My Mod. 10 PPC gun has the same play but not quite as much, so I'm not sure what's exceptable. It's a 29-4 & I know it's had a steady diet of heavy 240gr loads it's entire life(got it from a friend who's owned it since new).
I'm hoping to get some 320s loaded up tonight & maybe go chronograph them tomorrow. I'm hoping for an accurate load in the 1325-1350fps area, loading with H110.
Vance in AK.

Ok.... I'll agree that most of these answers make sense. Now... How about the advantage of the higher velocities of the lighter bullets.

As an example... 44mag bullets from my 6" 629 travel at about 200fps faster when comparing 240gr and 300gr bullets.

Does anyone see any advantage in terminal ballistics due to the higher velocity at point of impact? Remember that we're talking cast bullets and not hollow points here.

$bob$

As someone already noted, when your talking cast bullets you are generally looking for penetration, so I personaly think momentum is king & still lean toward the heavier bullet, even with the velocity reduction.
Much of the question can be answered by considering the game involved.
For whitetails you may get by with a hardcast 240gr driven fast, even hitting bone. On bigger critters I think the light bullet gets questionable fast.
I live in Alaska & the smallest big game animal I can hunt
without flying to offshore islands is black bear, & the most saught after is moose, with brown bear & caribou available in some areas(Lots of brown bear in my unit, but no brown bear hunting. Still a good idea to be ready to meet one up close & personal when hunting anything else), so in this neck of the woods, in my opinion, to hunt with a 44 mag revolver the 300gr is about the smallest bullet I want to mess with, & I'm willing to give up a couple hundred fps to use it. The bone(and muscle) structure of these animals is such that I want all the penetrating power I can get from my caliber.
Vance in AK.