GT Bullets ! Cast Hollow points ?

[tj3006]

I bought some 225 grain .41s for 41 mag.  Nice bullet. Shoots well,  
    Looking at there web sight , they seem to specialize in Cast Hollow point bullets.

       Seems sort of contradictory to me, I think of hard cast Semi wadcutters Cutting clean Holes through anything you shoot with them.  But i don,t rule the hollow points out, anybody use them on a big game animal ?  Do they expand ? or just break apart ? How well do they penetrate and at what velocity ?

       Might be great on small critters and as self defense loads ,  But on a 250 lb Mule deer or a Black bear, i kind of wonder if its not risking sure  penetration , for expansion,  seems 41 to .45 caliber bullets  make big holes with out expanding . 
      Any body know how they work ?   ...tj3006

[taffin]

I HAVE TAKEN GAME WITH HPs. MOST NOTABLY CAST KEITH HP IN .44 SPECIAL AT 1200 FPS. TWO FERAL PIGS. COMPLETE PENETRATION ON A 500#+ AND BULLET PERFECTLY MUSHROOMED UNDER HIDE ON OFF-SIDE OF A 650# HOG.

[bula]

Elsewhere here, you'll find Sixshot has some 41 cast HP's available. PC'd but not SWC I think. But tried and tested. Others chiming in with reports of kills. 

[bigmuddy]

GT Bullets are definitely not "hard" cast. Their alloy produces a pretty soft bullet.(2-2-96). Not sure how well they penetrate on game but I am sure that their solids would give some expansion as well.

Dan

[sixshot]

It's all about mixing your alloy to match your speed. HP's can give great expansion & also a lot of penetration if they are made correctly. Drive a soft one too fast & it can fail, just like a jacketed bullet.

I try to match mine to the game that I'm hunting & it's worked pretty good. If I'm hunting something really big, I'll either use the correct solid or use my 480 & the 385 gr HP & it's been shot through mature bison, elk, bears, moose, very large wild boar, etc. Just match the bullet hardness to the speed & you are usually just fine.

You can also change the size of the pins to adjust the amount of expansion.

Dick

[boolitdesigner]

There is more to the " mixing your alloy to match your speed" than is apparent or what people do. I've written it up several times now and here it is again.

You can get a certain hardness bullet two ways. The first is by using lead, tin, antimony with trace elements of arsenic, silver or copper. These are alloyed conventionally to get an air cooled hardness you want or heat treated to a higher hardness that usually doesn't expand in a handgun. There is a lot of literature out there about how to achieve this. The other way has relatively nothing out there about how to do it or directions. The second is what I do. In the second one relatively little antimony and tin are added to straight lead and either air cooled to about 8 BHN or heat treated by water dropping to about 19 BHN. The alloy consists of half wheel weights and half pure lead with nothing added because you don't need to. You end up with an alloy of 2% antimony and a 1/4 to 1/2% tin with the rest trace elements and pure lead. The air cooled stuff works fine in most of the 35 caliber and above cartridges with a working velocity up to 1100 fps..... above that velocity you probably want to try water dropping you bullets for magnum velocities. Air cooled bullets turn into the hollow points Dick shows. Magnum velocities usually will shed the nose (having secondary projectiles) to the base of the hollow point and drive out the other side of the animal (I do this also with rifle cartridges up to 2400 fps with excellent accuracy and no leading whatsoever). I watch what happens when I shoot deer and the water dropped HP's simply show a lot more reaction when the animal gets hit with the deer usually dropping. No more running of and having to try and find it! MP molds come with three hollow point depths so you can decide how much nose either creates a smaller mushroom with a longer shank to drive thru and exit. I usually use the large hollow point and have only recovered one bullet in all the deer I have shot. Bigger animals need judicious use of this method when you hunt big game and where you hit them............................

[Encore64]

I've been testing the GT Bullets for several years. So far, 25, 32, 40, 41, 44 and 45 calibers.

They work great when pushed at velocities ranging from 950-1450 fps. I've been shooting for accuracy up to 1600 fps, but no penetration or expansion tests yet.

In my experience they are great for the non-magnum revolvers. But, nothing works like buying a few and trying them.

[edk]

Nov 28, 2019 11:55:44 GMT -5 tj3006 said:

I think of hard cast Semi wadcutters Cutting clean Holes through anything you shoot with them.

In Veral Smith's book "Jacketed Performance from Cast Bullets" he explains why this is only true on a paper target, hence the WFN design.