Lead Ban Chronicles – Another First Hand Story
Wow, so I asked for first-hand stories from folks who are using non-lead ammo, but I really thought we’d hear more from the folks who’ve had good experiences. I guess like anything else, there’s not much interest in the good… only in the bad.
But anyway, here’s another one from Don Hutchison.
A friend of mine shot a buck on our ranch in D8 Sunday morning. Using 300 Win. Mag, Ammo was Federal 165 grain Barnes X (TSX), shot was taken from about 50 yards. Placement was mid point on the shoulder, deer was not knocked down at impact, simply ran off, traveled approximately 60 yards, jumped a fence and collapsed. When dressing the deer we discovered the exit wound was not much larger than the entrance wound. Bullet traveled through the both shoulders and took the top of the heart out. Meat damage was minimal. After viewing this I am not sure if anything other than a should shot will be effective with these bullets. There was no blood at point of impact or where the deer fell.
So what I’m taking away here, is that the non-lead bullets are quite lethal (every story has included at least one dead animal), but they don’t leave enough blood trail. I really haven’t had to trail anything I shot with non-lead ammo, so I can’t say… although, of course, the fact that I haven’t had to track anything that I’ve shot with non-lead ammo says something in itself, doesn’t it?
Keep ‘em coming folks.
I’m hoping to add my tale with non lead soon Phil. Gotta find me a buck or bear to stand still long enough.
October 20th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Two pigs last saturday one shot with a 270 130gr copper bullets,both hits were in the chest one just behind the shoulder punched a hole in the top of both lungs hit the should bone and exited the front of the chest. The Pig went from a dead run to a walk, next round hit onside should square on and the pig dropped and never moved again. Both shots at about 180 yds. Other pig hit with 7mm remington mag 140gr bullets. One hit right hind foot and also right front foot, never slowed down the pig, next one was a gut shot and put a whole about 2″ at the exit hole, pig stopped and lay down, next one in the chest it went clean thru both lungs, pig still down, my son walked to within 15 feet and the pig stood up and snorted at him, one between the eyes ended it. Exectpt for the last shot they were all at about 220 yards with the pig running up hill. I need to see how lead bullets do on pigs to really draw a conclusion on how good or bad they are,
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
Here’s a report for you. On Friday October 10th, I took a friend hunting at a small ranch I have access to. We saw hogs out in the middle of the afternoon on the way in (very unusual), probably because of the huge acorn crop. We headed out at about 3:30pm and immediately saw a group of 3 hogs. My friend took a 190 yard shot (ranged) at one of the hogs. He was using Federal Premium ammo in .25-06, loaded with 100 grain Barnes Triple Shock. Muzzle velocity of about 3200 fps and muzzle force of about 2300 ft-lbs. The three hogs took off running, and we lost track of which one he had shot (two were black and the same size). We saw one of the black ones peel off from the other two, obviously limping. My friend shot it twice more to drop it, once at about 100 yards, and once at about 40 yards; both shots hit the lungs. At first I thought his initial shot was a bad one, but it turned out he drilled one of the pigs perfectly. The bullet passed throught the heart/lung area, and still had enough force to break the leg of the other black pig standing a bit behind and off to the side. The first pig to be hit dropped after about a 30-40 yard run. Meat damage on both pigs was minimal, as were the entry and exit wounds. This is not the first time I’ve used, or seen other people use, non-lead ammo on pigs. I’ve always been pleased with the performance, but copper ammo certainly could be said to over penetrate.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:36 pm