I got to agree with Beagle especially with his first post.
In my case when I got over the high velocity passion and jacketed bullets starting in the 70’s, and it was gradual change to cast bullets. But started with handguns which was limited to 38, 357, 44SPL and 44 mag at that time. First rifle I cast for was a Winchester BB 94 in 375 when they came out in the late 70’s. 250 grain was the high end but of course I wanted heavier. So the 375-449 was suggested. This was push to the top velocity between 1700 & 1800 fps, pushed by R7, checked and lubed weight was 286 grains. It was a win all the way around as the best groups with jacketed was about 3 inches at 70 yards, 200, 250, grain Winchester and 220 Hornady reloads. But the Lyman cut that group size in half. What’s not to like heavy and accurate. I owned a tire shop at the time so lead supply was pretty good.
Well success with the first cast in a rifle did spike my interest in cast for other rifles. That’s when I first bought molds that fit my needs better from Walt at NEI.
My reason for going heavy is where I live, the shots aren’t that long except for Caribou and on a rare occasion a longer shot on a moose. But if a jacketed bullet say a Hornady 190 BTSP cruise at 2700 from a 30-06 was a good combo, then a 220308 RN from NEI at 2100 to 2200 fps just made since. I still load the H 190 interlock as it is a fine bullet. But there’s a trade off there that made since. Bullet weight versus velocity.
I’m in big critter country so I work up a heavy bullet loading for all my rifles and handguns because the need might just my just show up at the door. Haven’t needed to pass judgment on any critters for a long time which suits me just fine. So I work up a heavy first and standard more pleasant loadings secondly.
There’s a crossroads of a person’s ability to accurately handle a heavy recoiling cartridge/gun and the need for a heavy bone crunching load. The third road that sometimes enters that intersection is what a person’s desires are. Can’t account for that one.
As Brad says:
100% true. The application determines the ”right” projectile.
