The beginning of the season

[Dave Roelle]

Loaded up the truck and headed to the ranch Wednesday for some last minute blind touch up, scouting and to get the hunting cart ready to take advantage of the rut here in Texas.

With the blind tuned up and everything situated at the camp, i returned to the blind to sit a while to see what might be moving----didn't really expect much activity because of all the tromping around-------i was wrong !!!!!!!!!






A little later in the day the deer critters beat a hasty retreat to the thickets and this nasty ole boar hog showed up---------------i put the 375 paper patched NOE bullet through the near shoulder as he quartered to me-----------he bolted at the shot and made it perhaps 50 steps and collapsed in a heap, must had expired running because he didn't twitch after he piled up.

The 375 paper patched bullet is most likely burried in a tree down range !!!!

The load is 375 H&H 270 grain NOE bullet out of air cooled wheel weights 2% tin, wet Paper Patched using composition pad paper sized to 0.3765 O.D.---52 grains of 3031, 1 grain of dacron fiber fill---CCI BR2-----into the rifling perhaps 0.002

I can't comment on any expansion, however in the quest of a DRT load i think i'll cast a few using 50% WW and 50% pure lead + 2% tin----------might even hollow point one or two cavities of the 4 cavity NOE mold

Next trip will be a kids hunt for Thanksgiving weekend a Buck or two are destined for the grill shortly after Thanksgiving

   
   
   

Keep well and stay safe

Dave

[Don McDowell]

Awesome!

[Rick Mulhern]

My daughter Shellie downed this buck at 0705 hrs this morning:

Shellie8pt by Sharps45 2 7/8, on Flickr

The rifle is empty but I chewed her azz out anyway! Told me..."Dad you know I empty the rifle before I leave my stand!" Was 28F and her hubby had a 4' rattler slide betwixt his feet for further excitement!

[Don McDowell]

Thanks for sharing that Rick! How was Kansas this year?

[Rick Mulhern]

Haven't gone yet Don! Rifle season opens 3 December so I'll be going up around the 1st for opening date! Kansas officials it seems don't want rifle hunters to take advantage of the rut it appears! Fine with me! I'll still have a good time!

[Nuclearcricket]

Some fine shooting, great hunting and excellent kills. My congrats to all. Rick, I am afraid if I were in your son in laws shoes, where ever he was standing, would be badly soiled as well as my shorts and other clothing. Sorry me and snakes just don't get along at all. I am surprised that the rattler was out in temps that cold, I wouldn't think he would be moving all that fast and I know in some circles this is a bad thing to say but I hope he isn't moving any more.
Sam

[Dave Roelle]

Great Buck for your daughter Rick-------------hope Kansas treats you folks well

PP 45-70 and the Shiloh will go on the next hunt

i'm positively allergic to rattlesnakes, we have our share for sure

Dave

[Kurt]

Dave.

Using a mix of 50/50 WW/L you will not get the expansion you think, especially if you add 2% more tin.
Look at the recovered bullets in that picture. The intend of those recovered bullets was to see the setback o the nose not expansion but I have tested to see what the expansion is shooting into a box of gunny sacks.
WW have more then enough tin and antimony to hold the integrity of the bullet ogive with a 50/50 mix. The mix of 50/50 WW/Tin holds the bullet just as well as 1/18 tin/lead.
Those bullets marked 95/5 1/40 is 1/2# roll of no lead solder that is 95% tin 5% antimony added to 20# of pure lead. That small percentage of antimony holds the nose a lot better then much more tin.

Kurt

[Dave Roelle]

Thanks Kurt !!!!!!!!!!!------------i can run any alloy with what i have on hand

Have you done any expansion work with 30/1, 40/1 and so on ?

I plan to do some casting this PM perhaps i'll just run a series of alloys and see what happens-----i can easily shoot them into my compost and dig em out the piles about 8 ft through ---perhaps at least get an idea of relative performance on impact----------looks like you started to see major set back around 40/1-------the last bullet in the bottom row looks like the nose moved a bit as well----its 20/1 pure right ?

Thanks for the help

Good hunting

Dave

[Kurt]

Yes the L/T is just tin and lead.
No I don't do much for expansion Dave. I pretty much use the same bullet for hunting that has proven to work well. I mostly check out the bullets I use for shooting matches to see how the nose profiles stands up for long range shooting.
For hunting I mostly use a round nose or very close to a round nose and use 1/30 tin/Lead or 1/20 Tin/Lead with a shallow hollow point of not more then a 1/8" if I use a HP. Below is a HP bullet. That bullet has a 5/16" deep HP cast at 1/20 T/L.



That 1/50 T/L bullet made me scratch my head for a while wondering what was going on It actually got longer then it was before I shot it. This is what it looked like before I shot it.
I also have some cast .30/30 bullets that where longer after I shot then also just one of those things. Alloy to soft and getting pushed to hard.