Gregory Hardy
Member
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2019
- Messages
- 7
Anybody out their reload and shoot a TC Encore 12" 44 mag? Any favorite whitetail hunting loads?
Even Elmer once said something like '1200 fps is all you need', referring to his 240-250gr projectile.
For deer, I think a good bit less velocity is suitable.
Yes, but the bullets in Elmer’s day were complete fecal ma
Whoa Dude! Tell us what you really think!
It’s true. It’s intellectually dishonest to suggest otherwise. We are in the golden age of bullet quality as far as I’m concerned. I have spent a good portion of my career on testing the limits of various bullets on animal flesh, and there are some truly stellar options available nowadays. This is what I really think.
I disagree that the Keith bullet is complete fecal matter. It's been used with great success since the late 50's...and continues to be used with great success.
I don't dispute that today's projectiles benefit from modern improvements, I disagree that the Keith bullet is complete fecal matter. It's been used with great success since the late 50's...and continues to be used with great success. BTW, I'd like to hear about your test results.
Now, as far as cast bullet designs are concerned, there are much better choices (for hunting) than Keith’s semi-wadcutter. The smallish meplat is my biggest criticism. Veral Smith’s (LBT) designs are vastly superior. The various semi-wadcutter designs do work and will continue to work, but there are better designs available that don’t appeal to nostalgia.
Paul is correct, I wasn’t referring to the Keith bullet. I was talking about bullet technology at the time of Elmer Keith’s tenure.
Now, as far as cast bullet designs are concerned, there are much better choices (for hunting) than Keith’s semi-wadcutter. The smallish meplat is my biggest criticism. Veral Smith’s (LBT) designs are vastly superior. The various semi-wadcutter designs do work and will continue to work, but there are better designs available that don’t appeal to nostalgia.
I prefer bullets in the 250gr/260gr weight range doing +/- 1300fps. Nothing fancy a simple 250gr cast hp in a 10" contender.
View attachment 854224
I use the same 11.5gr load of unique with these home swaged jacketed hp's for the contender.
View attachment 854225
Tell us a little more about those homemade JHP's if you can
I wish this amazing post was a sticky at top of page. Thank you for posting it so clearly explaining it ! Amazing !Making jacketed bullets out of free range brass is actually caveman simple to do and doesn't take a lot of $$$ in equipment. With nothing more than a rock chucker press and common reloading dies, cast bullets and push thru sizing dies. I can turn out jacketed bullets.
Take a little time and look in a book that have diagrams of the different shell cases and their dimensions. The 6mm & 244 Remington, 257 Roberts, 6.5mm x 257, 7.7mm Japanese all have .429" diameters at the shoulders of the cases. Any of those fl sizing dies can be used as a nose forming die. I use a 6mm/244rem fl sizing die simply because I don't want a wide flat nosed bullet.
Free range brass/ 40s&w brass tumble cleaned
For the lead cores I used a 41cal hbwc cast out of free range lead. Some of the different hbwc'sI cast.
View attachment 854391
I don't have a 40s&w shell holder so I use a 38spl/357 shell holder instead.
Use a 41mag expander die to expand the 40s&w case.
Drop a cast bullet in the expanded case (.401" 40s&w bullet or a .410" 41mag bullet) I prefer the .410" cast bullet.
Use the rod that goes into the shell holder from a set of lee push thru sizing dies. I use a .429" set
Set the expanded case with the cast bullet core on it and screw the 6mm fl sizing die in the press and adjust the fl die up/down until you get the nose profile you want. As your forming the nose of the bullet the body of the 40s&w case will be swaged/compressed into the correct diameter and the lead core will compress tightly against the 40s&w case.
Take the newly formed bullet and run it thru the lee ..429" sizing die.
When I make hp jacketed bullets out of shell cases I use a cast hbwc bullet for the cores. I also use a set of Hornady blank dies to put "XTP" notches in the nose of the bullets. If you look at the jacketed bullets in the post above you will see 2 lines/rings in those bullets. Those are there from the lube grooves in the cast hbwc. That's how tightly the core compress/expand/grab those 40s&w cases. They make excellent crimp grooves.
Making the bullet was simple enough to do, making the cores stay intact was a lot harder. It took 4 or 5 tries with different alloys to find a core that didn't implode. Testing @ 25yds into wet pack with a 1100fps load that simulates a 75yd to 100yd velocity/hit.
View attachment 854392
Anyway simple enough
clean the cases
expand the cases
drop a lead core (cast bullet) into the expanded case
Run the case/core up in a fl die and form the bullet
Run the formed bullet thru a .429" lee push thru sizing die.
Wash rinse repeat
I'll need to double-check but I think the 10" Contender loads I made for deer a few years back were 300gr. Sierra JSP's with "around" 17gr. of 2400 making "around" 1000fps. I don't use a scope or max-pressure loads for hunting so if it was that load, they would have been setup for under 50 yard shots. Down here in Florida the deer are pretty small. I could have used a .38Spl hot-loaded with a 158gr. LSWC-HP just as easily but I wanted something for gators, black bear or panthers if I should have to shoot one of them. I have walked up on bears before and big cats too but they mostly skittered off like I caught them doing something naughty. About the only animals really dangerous in the swamps is gators and men - neither ones got any brains or sense.Anybody out their reload and shoot a TC Encore 12" 44 mag? Any favorite whitetail hunting loads?