LBT style or Jacketed HP for deer?

What's everyones favorite a LBT style hard cast with a wide metplat or a jacketed HP like XTP or Nosler?

For deer a jacketed HP.

For deer, I really like a 240 gr. Starfire or Gold dot HP in my 44 Mag

210 grain xtp in the .41 mag for deer and pigs.

What he said ^

Haha, THE question

I use both but feel that deer are the perfect game for jacketed expanding bullets.

Interesting. Do they make a .452"er?

Smallest I can find is a .500 like James used then the 500 grain .510 for the Alaskan. Maybe Franchise or one of the others may know for sure. It's a great looking bullet!

I like honady xtp or nosler 240grain in my 44mag

I use jacketed hollowpoints, specifically the 240 grain XTP-Magnum out of my 460.

Geez, I've never seen this question asked before

Woodleigh makes a 280 gr. for the 44 & a 405 gr. for the 45/70 & 450 Marlin. You will have to order the 44 bullets directly from Woodleigh in Australia.

Is that a difficult process? I'll shoot you a PM Thanks!

Sounds good here as well with slight modification - the Casull gets 260 grainers and kinda fond of the 200gr JHP in the 44 too.

500WE my first thought on seeing this post was oh no not again ( lets keep it civil ) i like 240 gr hard cast, then thats what i use for everything

Haha, Me2. But I think because the question was asked not what is better, but rather what is your favorite the answers have been rather civil.

I don't have a horse in this race because I haven't taken anything with a hardcast yet. But what I have taken with the jacketed bullets never went very far.

For deer I would lean toward a GOOD JHP. But I don't get to hunt deer :-(

same here. Haven't killed anything with HC yet. but ive killed a couple bears and a deer with 45 colt and 260gr partitions... results were excellent.

Yep. I've used both weights,and the 300's too, of course. The Speer 200 gr. Magnum JHP kills deer like a thunderbolt. The plain truth is that any .44 or .45 bullet, cast or jacketed, will kill deer, given proper velocity and placement. You can pretty much run what ya brung, but most of us do have favorites ... based on something or other.

Well said!

Thanks for all the replies guys! Looks pretty one sided in favor of jacketed. That's kind of the way I was leaning too. Thanks again!

You could always throw the soft cast hollow point or solid slugs in just to make it interesting. I've been VERY impressed with performance so far

I have been looking at the Buffalo Bore Deer Grenade with a lot if interest. Anyone have any experience with these?

Ive looked at them on the web site and was kind of interested in them myself,pretty much what GlennS was describing.

Wow, he's running those hard out of the sixguns! I haven't seen those. I think the ones that Dick sent me are about 8-9 as far as hardness goes. But I don't run them near as hard as Tim is pushing them. I start them out about 1200 or less with the mixture Dick cast these from that I've been using. But as Dick has posted, you change the alloy composition to fit the velocity that you want to run. So, I'd say that the BB loads and hardness are probably about right. They should work really well.

Truth be told, deer are not very difficult critters to kill. Push your favorite FN cast or JHP bullet to an acceptable speed in it's performance window, and put it where it needs to go. A good cast bullet through the boiler room will kill deer just as dead as a good JHP. Currently, I shoot a 260 gr. JHP out of my .454 and have been completely satisfied with the results in the last 6 seasons. No sense in changing something that works, I suppose.

I've harvested my share in the pre-handgun days with everything from Foster-style and later, Barnes Expander slugs in a 12-ga., to patched round balls, 350 gr. conicals, 240 gr. .44 XTP pistol bullets, Hornady SSTs, and Knight all-copper bullets in the .50 cal. muzzleloaders.

I just prefer something that makes a large hole in, and a large hole out, and a bullet that's stout enough to punch through a shoulder blade should you only have a quartering-towards shot.

Either will work in proper place. I like the partition bullets,it is a shame they were discontinued, although critters have appreciated it.

Big and Dave,

You can get the "deer grenade" bullets as components from Rim Rock bullets. I have some that have yet to be tested. They are supposedly the ones used by BB.

Craig

I will say that with my limited real experience on real critters the hardcast work best where they can break bone (shoulder shot) while the HP's are at their best with soft tissue (chest cavity) shots.
I killed my moose this year with my (I hate to say it) Marlin Guide Gun in 450 Marlin with 420gr hardcast at about 1900fps. 1st shot right through the lungs. He flinched but never quit walking.. downhill... away from the road... He was dead & didn't know it (moose are like that) but I didn't want a longer packing job so I hit him again in the high shoulder. It was like you hit him with a lightning bolt. Down without a step.

Congrats on the moose and thanks for the input.

Im not sure where to get the bullets as components,they are just 240 gr cast hp with a 12 bhn hardness.

I have used jacketed hollow point bullets on all the deer I`ve handgunned. On a mule deer I took last Nov. I shot a handload with a 210gr Swift A-frame bullet that`s still going....

Thanks for your input James it is very much appreciated.

Well I just ordered a box of Double Taps 300gr. Nosler hollow pts. to try. I'll see how they shoot and start narrowing down from there. Thanks again for all the replies and input.

Good luck with the Noslers. They're known as very fine bullets. Though pretty pricey. In my limited expericence, the 300gr XTP (in .44 mag) will kill any deer around nicely and cleanly. And if Whitworth considers deer a kind of game worthy of jacketed bullets one should probably listen to him...;-)

I have had good luck with the Federal 158 fusion in .357 mag. out of 10" contender.

I like the HP's in 210 grain Hornady XTP's or Speer's Deep Curl for the .41 Remington Magnum..get good groups with both from my 14 inch T/C Contender

l handgun hunted in late 70's,early 80's with an 8'' Smith 44mag after getting into IHMSA silh shooting.. 0ver app 3 yrs l killed 6 whitetail with the gun..All were killed with 180gr jhp ammo..l think all were 1 shot kills and l dont remember seeing any recovered bullets..

A couple yrs ago l started shooting IHMSA again. Around Christmas past l bought myself a s&w PC Hunter in 44 mag w/reddot scope..At 67 my old eye can use a little help...l had hoped to be in the woods during my Christmas break,wife ill and daughter visiting put that off.. This year l will be shooting my new reddot SW 44 at our monthly silh shoots and come doe season will be in the woods..

My bullet will be a 180gr jhp

Hey sw282, NEVER too old! Got pics of that PC Hunter? I love some of the PC 44s!

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/s...playErrorView_Y


Here it is Vance....The Reddot is a Leepers l think..From the factory...$36 @ midwayUSA....My first experience with a reddot of any kind..After 260rds thru the gun it has not moved...My wife got me a little Bushnell 25 for Christmas.. The optics are MUCH clearer thru the Bushnell..l just cant understand why the factory put such a cheap site on it.. Kinda like putting a Tasco on a Jarrett Rifle

Beautiful gun! You do a
have to wonder on their red dot selection! But, hey it's working :-)

I've always had good penetration with LBT style bullets. For deer I'm sure the controlled expansion JHP's would work well, but where I hunt you also have the chance for black bear, so I just stick with my hard cast LBT's just in case I run into a large bear. For the pigs here, the 320gr hard cast LBT style bullets at 1150 fps punched through both shoulders of both pigs and went right out the other side, 2 shots and 2 hogs. Both pigs went down in < 20 yds of where shot. Photo is about 10 years old, I don't have a good photo of any more recent pigs with my handgun.


Big Bore Sixgun For Hogs by Mr. McPorkchop!, on Flickr

Hard cast! I've no problem w/most JFP's. I've used Sierra 300, Speer 270 & 300, Cor-bon Bonded Core(all of them), Nosler Partition Gold (not really a flat point). The problem is they don't do anything any better than a hard cast. Hollow points I've used XTP's, Remington 275's, & Winchester 265's. The XTP failed & I'll never use them again. If I had to use jacketed for deer it would be the Sierra 300. Never used the Swift A-Frames but they should be like the Partitions. Hard cast work predictably every time, every angle. Years ago this debate was taken up in an article between Sheriff Jim Wilson & Dick Metcalf. Metcalf advocated jacketed but I never liked him.

I've seen gel tests and real world animal tests, and you can get 36"s of penetration with a hard cast in a .44mag at pistol velocities. It kind of negates arguing which JHP will penetrate further than another JHP. If you use an appropriate weight JHP it will likely penetrate as much as you would need it to, while opening up some and killing your intended game. But when you are presented with a less than ideal shot angle, or when you are potentially shooting at a mean nasty animal that is coming for you, its nice to know you can just about figure double the JHP penetration with a hard cast bullet, and don't have to worry about jacket separation or what will happen if you center a large bone. My 320gr hard cast bullets in my .45 Colt will penetrate a deer length wise if they will punch .452" diameter holes through both shoulders of a hog and still be buried 18"s into the dirt bank behind the pigs. If all I shot were deer, then yeah an appropriate weight JHP will work fine. But its nice to have one load that will stop deer, pigs, bears, with reliable penetration from any angle.

Living in bear country I use HC for everything,why take a chance.