Hard cast or jacketed bullets. What do you prefer.

What's your flavor for hunting.

Jacketed, although I'm going to try some cast bullets out of my 41 next season.

Expanding monometal as young children eat the game I bring home. If it was just me I wouldn't care as much, but life is hard and I'd rather the little keep all the mental capacity they were born with rather then having me handicap them them right out of the gate with lead in their food.

I can hear it coming already--

"Guys.... I'm watching!!"

karl,
minimal amount of lead would be deposited in what ever critter you shoot if you were using lead or jacketed bullet.
Besides. You can't eat the bullet hole.
Just cut around it when it is butchered and your good.

Charlie, It would be very nice if that were true, believe me when I say it. Unfortunately back in 08-09 the MN DNR did a study where they they shot sheep and deer carcasses with a variety of common rifle bullets and a shotgun slug and then x-rayed them and found this isn't true. If you like to read, the summery of their findings is here.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/lead/short-summary.html
Here's a choice quote.
"The ballistic tip bullet (rapid expansion) had the highest fragmentation rate, with an average of 141 fragments per carcass and an average maximum distance of 11 inches from the wound channel. In one carcass, a fragment was found 14 inches from the exit wound."

What convinced me was the images they had in the preliminary report. The only place I have been able to find them since is in this online slideshow.
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/fish_wildlife/lead/index.htm
The images I found most convincing were slides 8 and 13.
Here is the image from slide 13.





Of course, bullet placement, bullet design, muzzle velocity all play a huge role but they didn't go that in depth. I wish they would have tested a hard cast bullet. I doubt they would leave any particles in most situations, unless you had a poorly made bullet.

The other part of this discussion, is how harmful is lead, specifically how harmful is it in small children? I don't think we will ever have a well controlled study to tell us (can you imagine asking a mother if you could enroll her child in a study to test the effects of small levels of lead exposure?) but it is well understood that our body (which uses and benefits from many elements at trace amounts) has no use for lead and that high levels are definitely a big problem. In the end, given that there are viable alternatives, the risk wasn't worth for me.

Understand and thanks for providing that study. As for lead. Probably have a amount in me. Grew up when lead was in gasoline.......

Gas, hell. I was fascinated with lead musket balls and mini balls when I was a kid. I know i injested a lot of lead, or at least that's what I try to say to the cops

Jacketed for deer sized animals

Here as well. I like jacketed for the ease of use, no messy lube, smoke, leading, etc. If I ever go on a hunt where hard cast penetration would be prefereble I would look to a clad or perhaps powder coated version rather than naked lead.

i like jacketed with hard lead and bonding like the a frame or a deep curl but the barnes for deer up to large elk is my favorite, i'm moving more and more to monometal solids as well for my solid work. thanks for the link karl, that's good info.

There is a big difference between organic and inorganic lead! So much of the fear is unfounded and with blanket reasoning from a lack of knowledge of the difference.

Lead can change properties from organic to inorganic, so it is not totally cut/dry.

You can eat a bullet and you will "pass" a bullet. With NO elevation of lead levels. You can cast bullets with NO elevation in lead as long as you use a thermometer and don't get your pot too hot.. At 1,100F lead will start to vaporize, which is 400F TOO HOT for casting!

Now if you snack on a bullet covered in lead oxide (white dust) that is different.

Firing a gun can raise your levels..not because of the bullet, but because of the lead used in the primer. Lead vapor "may" form from the bullet/barrel friction..but doubtful, because the lead has to heat to 1,100F in order to start to vaporize.

The cast bullet is most likely shielded from most friction because it is riding on a thin oil film of lube soon after rifling engagement. And the lead doesn't boil until 3,180F, way past the melting point of your barrel.

Shoot what you want, but remember the anti-gun crowd wins another battle every time their unfounded lies get parroted by someone that has no foundation in the truth.

Excellent post freedom475.....

I prefer heavy lead at slow speeds. But I shoot heavy calibers, and that might not apply well to smaller caliber, lighter, faster fare.

x2

Yup!

Jacketed or solid copper...I like shooting big bullets fast 😁.....if everyone would actually shoot bonded bullets or XPB this "which is better" would cease to exist...test them side by side...not what you heard, not what you read, but you, actually test them side by side. If you really want a solid bullet...monometal is far superior

I use both. Mostly jacketed for medium sized game. Nothing I shoot requires the penetration of hardcast. But, it's still fun to experiment with them for comparison.

These are what I would love to be able to use, but state regs only allow "modern mushrooming ammunition". Therefore, I use good ole XTP"s. Powder Coated Hardcast shoot well in all my guns with no leading.

I haven't near the experience of a lot of you but I have been casting for handguns and rifle for 20+ years. I have never found an application in revolvers where a cast bullet didn't meet or exceed the performance of jacketed. In other words I have no need for jacketed bullets in a revolver. I can tailor a cast bullet to meet my every need when shooting revolvers. That doesn't mean I'm disparaging jacketed bullets, it just means I see no need for them in revolvers.

Hi, well this would be my first post but here goes. Jacketed vs. hard cast, I can only speak from experience: Bull Moose, 300gr LBT at 1200fps, about 50yds, two in lungs, complete pass through moose, animal took off, I caught up and put one through both shoulder and spine at 10+yds, dropped, recovered slug, you could reload it. Fortunately the bull did not make it to the nearby swamp and blow down thicket, but that's only because I ran like a mad man through some stuff I should have walked slowly through...

Cow elk, 25yds, 300gr LBT, lungs, complete penetration ran half mile, finished with head shot, not impressed. Again, animal didn't die somewhere real inconvenient.

Cow elk, 250gr Nosler Partition,35yds, lungs, 10yds, DRT, complete penetration, OK.

Bear, Hornady XTP (not MAG)broke up on shoulder, followed up with 2 Nosler Partitions, these ripped through and put the bear down.

Deer, close to 2 dozen plus? Anyway, Hard cast LBT resulted in long runs unless smacked in shoulders, one ran over a half mile and died on some guys lawn, fortunately no one was home, could have been embarrassing. I EAT deer why do I want to blow a hole in already skinny meat on the shoulders? Almost any reasonable expanding bullet put them down quickly and cleanly with a lung shot.

240gr Hornady XTP MAG at 1750fps out of the Casull, DRT lightening strikes out to 100yds (longest shot so far with this.

Current handguns, Ruger Super Redhawk 454 Casull 7.5 inch with Ultra Dot Sight. Ruger Redhawk 45/45ACP 4.2 inch with factory sights.

Defense of Life and Property bear shooting was handled with my 12ga over 7x57R combination gun, a 1 oz Brenneke slug and a 175gr Partition at 23ft. WILL put down a 350 lb bear RIGHT NOW.

Final thoughts, there is a universe of difference between what a cheap bulk jacket bullet will do on large game and what a purpose built, premium jacket bullet will do. Compare Hunting bullets to hunting bullets NOT paper punchers to hard cast.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

Thanks for sharing you insight and experience Paul
Welcome to the Forum. Hope to read more of you posts in the future.

Good info.