question for bullet casters

im looking to buy or cast an expanding lead bullet for 357 and 44 spl/mag for general carry and up to deer. I have been casting WW and then powder coating and it gives a great bullet to plink with, however i was looking for performance closer to what kral got from sixshot's bullets. either cast my own or buy from Sixshot if possible. Thoughts?

I used to cast alot but now not so much but with current conditions I may have to break the pot out. I always did well with water dropped wheelweights and gas checks. Leading was not bad in rifles so they were generally pretty fast for cast bullets. I have a hollow point mould that I have used very little but I would think they would perform pretty well. I have not water tested any so the nose petals may just break off or shatter since pretty hard if water dropped. I need to find time to do some testing for my own curiosity now.

thanks for the info

If you want good cast bullet performance on deer size game you want to cast towards the soft side & don't even consider water quenching, it's seldom needed anyway. Now that powder coating has passed the smell test & almost everyone has accepted it you will find that you can cast your bullets a bit on the soft side, even without a gas check by powder coating & get outstanding results.

I'm talking about using HP's here. If you want more penetration on bigger game like elk, bear, etc then you can use solids & bump up the BHN just a bit, again with powder coating & be very happy with results.

A well known gun writer friend recently run some of my gas checked HP 41 bullets over 1700 fps from a rifle with groups under 3/4" with 4 different powders. These bullets were soft but powder coated.

Dick

Dick,
could you pm me with options and prices on your HP bullets that you think would fit my needs, I would like to give them a try.

Thank you Sir!

Dave

Best of luck finding alloy to pursue this, it's getting scarce at least in my area.
Steve

i have hundreds of pounds of ww and plumbers lead. i should be able to get what i need with alittle trial and error, however it is always easier to just buy some to start with until you can figure it out.
dave

I agree water dropped would be too hard and act as a solid but the nose can be annealed and if a hollow point I think it would peel back or even shed petals while the base drove on thru;Even without annealing the nose but again I would want to test it. I really want two holes so water dropped always worked well for me but usually required some tracking. A shoulder shot was always preferred to break them down vs the double lung. I have not dabbled with powder coating but it seems like a gas check for the whole bullet so a softer bullet could be driven faster with no or reduced leading. Please post your results, thanks

I would suggest these folks for cast bullets, got some really nice hp's.
http://www.gtbullets.com/

On a bear and an antelope, straight wheel weights worked fine for me.....complete penetration! That?s very limited experience, but those were my results. memtb

I'm not sure how Dick's bullets perform on game ( yet ) but his .475 slugs were nicely done and shot real good out of my 475L.

I'd get an assortment from him and see what you like.

For the time and money involved, it's probably cheaper to purchase slugs from those like Dick or GT bullets.

I'm going through this right now. It's damn expensive to get started. At this point, I don't know if I'll fully commit on top of having other various expenses and wants.

i already cast bullets for my 44,45,357 however none of my mold throw a HP version. I only cast WW right now but will be messing with mixing different lead recipes this summer. i have seen a lot of posts on the forum about Dick's bullets I finally ordered some to test in both 44 and 357. I have a spring turkey hunt to the black hills where you can use a handgun and am hoping this 44 HP will do the job.

I had a couple molds modified for optional HP configuration. Just google "mold hollow point service". They will modify your mold if you have one you like. It has been a while so I have forgotten who I used but they performed well as far as casting. Have not tested on flesh. I usually WD but with HP I did straight air dropped WW. It will be hard to beat the performance of the experienced guys here selling their proven alloys and configurations - depends on how much you want to cast your own. Other hot topics on here point out the possible inconsistency with Cast performance and I have witnessed some long chases myself using well placed cast but we old guys have not forgotten when jacketed bullets were not very good either. Cast can be sized to fit better if it is needed but real good jacketed bullets now give me the performance I need for hunting. I only say this as to why I don't cast as much anymore. Good luck.

MP Molds made the best one I have. I bought the 359-640 Hollow Point Plain Base, and it came with 5 sided as well as round pins. I only got the two cavity. Casts well.

I have bought some very nice molds off of E-Bite.

in retirement i have been able to mess with making my own. that being said, i want to learn to make the best bullet i can. HP design is what i will shoot the most of for hunting with the thin skinned game i hunt- working with other lead mixes such as dick has outlined in other posts should help in getting a quality bullet that i dont buy somewhere else.
thanks for all the imput guys.