savage.308

Just wondered if anyone has had any experience with any cast bullet loads for deer. I was planning on using the Black Hills Cowboy load which is a 405 gr. flat point with around 1300 fps velocity. Is it effective? I'll be shooting it from an 1895CB, 26 in. tube. Thanks for your input, hunting time is getting close and I want to practice with what I'm going to use.

Charley

Haven't used that particular load, but have hunted with cast bullets in .45/70 and .444 Marlin. A 405 cast FN at 1300 will kill any whitetail in North America with a decent hit. Penetration will be thru and thru. Stick one into the chest cavity and you will have a very dead deer!

savage.308

Thanks Charley, have you used the 45-70 much and how do you like it? It definitely penetrates, my bucket of silt that I use to check bullet performance in has not been able to stop one yet. I've shot my .308, 7mm08 into the same bucket even with Barnes bullets and never had any go through it. Do the deer you have shot with your 45-70 drop quickly? Thanks again.

James B

That load will certainly kill deer. It may take a little time for them to drop unless its a near perfect shot.

savage.308

Thanks James B, will it leave a good blood trail on a double lunger?

max the dog

The 45-70 is a real deer killer and cast bullets can drop them as fast as any premium bullet. BUT I'd stay away from the cowboy loads. I'm sure they're fine loads for compitition shooting but just not for deer hunting. My advice to you is to stick to real hunting loads designed to kill deer. They may kick a bit harder but the distance you're going to drag that deer back to the truck will be a lot less.
Try loads from http://www.buffalobore.com/

Charley

I've killed deer with cast bullets in the .45/70, .444, .44 Magnum, and .38 WCF. Bullets of that caliber don't need to expand, they are as big going in as most expanding bullets are exiting. Put 'em thru the lungs, and then watch. Many deer react to cast bulets the waythey react to arrows. They know something is wrong, but don't quite know what. If you don't give them a reason to run, often they will stand until they bleed out and drop. The only runner I've had was with the .38 WCF. Upper chest cavity at about 50 yards. He bolted and ran, and showed no signs of distress at all. I was questioning if I had even hit him until I found hair. Tracked him 90 yards, and he was dead in a heap. I've had them run further with .243s and even .30/06s.
My .45/70 experiences are with an 1873 Trapdoor carbine. Cast bullets at original BP velocites work just fine, even though they "aren't real hunting loads", according to some.

max the dog

I'm not saying that black powder loads can't kill deer, they sure did a great job on buffalo. I'm just saying that most of the cowboy loads are not designed for hunting. They are almost all designed for cowboy action shooting competitions, not hunting. If you're going on a deer hunt use a cartridge where every part of it is designed for one thing, killing deer.

Charley

405 flatpoint at 1300 FPS meets or excedes origuinal BP ballistics.
Granted, many cowboy loads are very anemic, shot by sissiy pretend cowboys trying to increase a score. This one isn't.

ths78

The cast bullets will work great, but I recommend shooting through the shoulders wth them. The velocity is so slow that it won't damage a lot of meat, just break the deer down on the spot with a caliber sized hole.

Buffalo Bore, etc work really well, but you don't need all that recoil or cost.

The Winchester Super X 300 gr JHP is the best deer round I've ever used, and the recoil isn't at all that punishing...about like a 30-06. It fires out at 1880 fps, is relatively flat out to 150 yds, and expands nicely. I've hit deer through the lungs, heart and shoulder with this load, and all worked perfectly. Big blood trails with little not much running after the shot.