hunting with lead bullets

[JEBar]

until I began researching the purchase of Henry centerfire rifles, I'd never considered hunting with lead bullets .... in fact, I honestly don't recall the thought of doing so ever crossing my mind .... we've hand loaded all of our practice and hunting ammo since the 60's and had never bought lead bullets until after buying our first Henry .... using lead bullets in our Henry 44 and 45-70 for practice ammo has become standard practice .... the more I read about folks using it for hunting big game, the more questions seem to surface .... comments from those who have positive and/or negative experiences with lead bullets would be appreciated

[Vaquero]

I have used lead bullets a few times in the past few seasons.
Took game with a 44 handgun 240gr fn. and a Marlin444 317gr.
Both were one shot kills.
Oh I almost forgot the first time, 158 gr swc 357
Rossi 24" octagon barrel, nice two yr old 8 point at around 80 yds,
Think he ran a few yds. and that was it.

Hey what do you think they were using a hundred years ago.

[JEBar]

Hey what do you think they were using a hundred years ago.

way further back they were taking game with lead balls fired from muzzle loaders .... as far back as 50+ years ago I've put some venison in the freezer with 50 caliber lead balls fired out of our TC Hawken .... as I have noted in other threads, I came up in a era (which I believe still dominates today) ruled by using high quality jacketed ammo, usually traveling at the highest possible velocity .... the penetration reports of heavy (400+ grain) lead bullets fired at relatively slower speeds are impressive indeed .... those reports also engender conversations as to having "too much gun" for deer and other such big game .... to me it promotes interesting conversation

[Vaquero]

Just pokin fun JEB
I kinda like the idea that I can cast my own bullets, load them, and then use 'em to take some tasty game.
I also forgot about my second handgun kill, that was with a 41 mag.
Hoping to do so with a 210gr fn 35 Rem., and a 210gr bullet and my new H012m41 BBS.

[RanchRoper]

As I posted somewhere else here, many hunters I know (for elk, deer, moose and even bear) tell me that lead will do the job. Southeast BC is the Elk Valley, so expect they would know.