Post by sixshot on Jun 17, 2019 14:42:09 GMT -5
Recently we've been talking AGAIN about the merits of both cast & jacketed bullets & it was mentioned that there has been a lot of new technology in the world of jacketed handgun bullets. That's very true, for a long time us six gunners were left on the back burner when it came to bullets but in the last decade or two many bullet makers have seen a major market for premium bullets for serious six gunners. The normal cup & core bullets were OK up to a certain point (velocity & animal size) & after that things got kind of dicey. The good thing is, they listened & as I've stated before, we now live in the golden age of great premium six gun bullets which will withstand almost any velocity & any animal on the planet, it's been proven over & over many times.m
Now we have Punch bullets, Swift A Frames & other premium solids that will handle any big game animal on the planet with correct bullet placement. Yes they cost more but it's a small price to pay when hunting Cape Buffalo, Elephant or some other animal that might weigh a ton or more.
Can they fail? Any bullet can still fail, I have a friend who placed a premium bullet on the shoulder of a smallish Fallow deer with a FA 454 & had a long chase to close the deal. It's hunting & sometimes things happen that can't be explained but that bullet did not penetrate the shoulder! Recently world famous hunter Lynn Thompson killed a large Grizzly bear with a cup & core 240 gr Hornady 44 Magnum. Two extremes that leave us shaking our heads, just like Phil Shoemakers life saving kill of a large Alaskan bear with a 9mm & 147 gr cast bullets.
Which now brings us to cast bullets, the lead bullets that killed millions & millions of Buffalo, even though they were pure lead, round & many times shot from a fair distance from fairly slow rifles. So what's the new technology? POWDER COATING! We are now able to shoot soft bullets, with or without gas checks & in solid form or HP at high speed & do it without leading! Bingo, true story.
In the last few years my alloys have changed so much I can hardly believe it & I've been casting for over 50 years. More & more I keep making my alloys softer & softer & powder coating them & still getting great accuracy, almost always better accuracy without leading, this without gas checks many times. I still use gas checks on some very high velocity calibers like the 327 & 357 Maximum but truth be told a gas check, for the most part is a waste of time with powder coating.
Recently 2 Texas gunsmiths contacted me & said they had a clients gun in the shop & it was a real problem 44 magnum in the accuracy department. They ask for some PC 245 gr HP bullets to test. In a few days I got a phone call wanting to know what I was doing, the gun was now shooting consistently under an inch & down close to 1/2" with no other changes. Powder coating! They ask for some 150 gr plain base 357's HP's to test drive, I sent some & they ran them 1600 fps with no leading & they told me amazing groups out to 100 yds. No bullet lube on the planet will do that, trust me. So, there is new technology in bullet casting, & beyond the very, very big animals they will & always have been, able to take large game. We've drove them completely through Bison, bull Moose, many Elk & large Black bears.
The thing about powder coated cast bullets is, you can change the alloy & get the same performance at 800 fps as you do at 1000 fps,1200 fps or 1400 fps, jacketed can not do that.
Look back at your last 10 hunts & ask yourself if a cast bullet wouldn't have worked just as well as a jacketed bullet?? Yes there is new technology in cast bullets, you just have to give it a test drive.
Dick
Now we have Punch bullets, Swift A Frames & other premium solids that will handle any big game animal on the planet with correct bullet placement. Yes they cost more but it's a small price to pay when hunting Cape Buffalo, Elephant or some other animal that might weigh a ton or more.
Can they fail? Any bullet can still fail, I have a friend who placed a premium bullet on the shoulder of a smallish Fallow deer with a FA 454 & had a long chase to close the deal. It's hunting & sometimes things happen that can't be explained but that bullet did not penetrate the shoulder! Recently world famous hunter Lynn Thompson killed a large Grizzly bear with a cup & core 240 gr Hornady 44 Magnum. Two extremes that leave us shaking our heads, just like Phil Shoemakers life saving kill of a large Alaskan bear with a 9mm & 147 gr cast bullets.
Which now brings us to cast bullets, the lead bullets that killed millions & millions of Buffalo, even though they were pure lead, round & many times shot from a fair distance from fairly slow rifles. So what's the new technology? POWDER COATING! We are now able to shoot soft bullets, with or without gas checks & in solid form or HP at high speed & do it without leading! Bingo, true story.
In the last few years my alloys have changed so much I can hardly believe it & I've been casting for over 50 years. More & more I keep making my alloys softer & softer & powder coating them & still getting great accuracy, almost always better accuracy without leading, this without gas checks many times. I still use gas checks on some very high velocity calibers like the 327 & 357 Maximum but truth be told a gas check, for the most part is a waste of time with powder coating.
Recently 2 Texas gunsmiths contacted me & said they had a clients gun in the shop & it was a real problem 44 magnum in the accuracy department. They ask for some PC 245 gr HP bullets to test. In a few days I got a phone call wanting to know what I was doing, the gun was now shooting consistently under an inch & down close to 1/2" with no other changes. Powder coating! They ask for some 150 gr plain base 357's HP's to test drive, I sent some & they ran them 1600 fps with no leading & they told me amazing groups out to 100 yds. No bullet lube on the planet will do that, trust me. So, there is new technology in bullet casting, & beyond the very, very big animals they will & always have been, able to take large game. We've drove them completely through Bison, bull Moose, many Elk & large Black bears.
The thing about powder coated cast bullets is, you can change the alloy & get the same performance at 800 fps as you do at 1000 fps,1200 fps or 1400 fps, jacketed can not do that.
Look back at your last 10 hunts & ask yourself if a cast bullet wouldn't have worked just as well as a jacketed bullet?? Yes there is new technology in cast bullets, you just have to give it a test drive.
Dick