The lead free experience thread

[Acm]

I wanted to start this thread for members of the sd to post real world experiences of any of the lead free offerings in deer legal calibres. There’s loads of threads asking for advice and a lot of theory. But I thought it would be useful for people to post what calibre they are using, what load, which species they are using them on and how they’re finding them. Hoping this can be a useful source for people to look at and help decide what they might eventually go for. If you have no plans to switch to lead free. I totally under stand and respect that.
If possible try and post pictures too. Thanks guys. I will get the ball rolling.
I’ve been shooting 165grn Barnes ttsx in my .30-06 for nearly a year now, I’ve taken red, fallow, quite a few roe and a couple of fox with them. The most impressive expansion was on a big red stag, but they are also expanding reliably on roe. They seemed to hit the fox very hard. The attached pictures have all been taken with the .30-06. I know they’re just a kid of pictures of dead deer but they do show a range of head and chest shots on different species. In the meantime I’ve also been using my 140grn sst load up, and I have to admit you do tend to get more bang flops with the sst.
Now my game dealer is mandating lead free I am also going to try to load the 6.5x55 with 123grn Fox hunter.
The .222 with the 45grn fox hunter ( more out of interest than anything else)
I’m going to try the 180grn nosler e tip in the .30-06.
Look forward to seeing some pictures and reading how you guys are finding things.
In all I’ve shot about 30 animals now using the Barnes, I find them totally satisfactory and don’t find they foul the rifle up. I’m just trying the other offerings out of curiosity really.

 

[User00030]

Never been a non lead fan so my experience is limited.

Rws 165 grain evolution hits in a 300 wm shot moose, several beciete ibex, a lot of reds and a few boar. More effective on larger animals in my view. Expanded well on larger stags but noticed on the ibex especially they pencilled through. However No lost animals with this bullet.

Berger tsx 120 grain 6.5 in a 6.5x47. Not great in this cartridge due to the lower muzzle velocities it generated. Performed ok, accuracy was good. only used on a few roe but was a noticeable difference in killing ability between that and the Amax I was using. Switched back to the amax.

cutting edge 130 grain mth, great bullet shot a lot of reds and they performed excellent. A bit of a hybrid in the fact they fracture a little like a Berger. Very high bc and enjoyed using this bullet after the tears dried from purchase. £90 odd for 50

rws evolution green 7x64 factory ammo. Bit more like a trad bullet but with a tin core. Performance was great good accuracy great killing ability in the limited experience I had with them (only round 40 animals red & fallow) I thought they where one of the better non lead bullets. You can order these in component form

compared to lead core bullets my experience is limited I’ve maybe taken 150-170 animals with non lead ammo. I’ve always returned to my staple loads due to availability, performance or cost

when the switch over comes I’ll be using peragrine or Bergers lrx and cutting edge for my long range

 

[Sakoodin1]

I’ve been using copper all year due to the contract stipulations,I have shot 200+ Roe since October and they have all been copper only. My findings are as follows,if you push them 2950 or faster with a 129grn Barnes lrx .277 cal you will have no issues at all out to300 yards and by my calculations they will still preform out to 500 yards. I also use the 139grn lrx bullet in my 7mm rem mag going 3150fps with the same findings, you will get no excessive bruising,no more runners than lead and they preform flawlessly with no ill effects. I have also tried the 50grn Barnes ttsx on roe through my .22.250 going 3560fps and it’s a belting little bullet out to 250yards and at most they go maybe 20 yards but mostly just wobble or jump then fall over. I would not go back to lead now as the Barnes copper far out preform my expectations and I would honestly say they are better than lead for shock power and them off messy exits arnt as bad as a lead bullet. The only negative I can find is that if you have a bad shot or it takes a step and you find yourself close to the liver it will suck the stomach through where as lead will tend to just do it’s job and expand in that area. But I woukd definitely not go back to lead for deer, i on the other hand will always use the lead bullet for my vermin work either the vmax or the eldx is my favourite for long range foxes

 

[Selous]

I will have taken between 2-300 deer (roe, red and one Sika) with lead free bullets with 308, 7mm RM, 6.5x47 and 22/250. Bullets were all Barnes manufacture with the commonest being TTSX, then TSX and a single deer taken with an XLC.
My experiences have been very positive indeed. Most deer drop on the spot, some run up to 50m. I have had five deer (4 red, one roe) need a coup de grace shot, all of those related to poor initial shot placement and showed good evidence of bullet expansion on the first shot. Of those misplaced shots none ran far and were visibly shocked by the initial impact. I have never failed to get a full pass through and generally find a decent blood trail. Head and neck shots have been effective and often dramatic. Ranges have been between 5m and 320m.
when loading the Barnes I choose a bullet weight that will give me a minimum of 3000fps but I have used velocities successfully up to 3450fps.
in the 7mm calibre I found the 120g TTSX to be more effective than the 140g TSX. Not that I lost an animal with the 140s but a greater proportion ran on whilst those shot with the 120s tended to drop on the spot. When I compare my experiences with lead bullets in the 308 (150g -180g soft points and ballistic tips) I get far fewer deer run on with the lighter, faster copper and I haven’t had any where the bullet has done really weird things internally. The only lead core bullet that I found that dropped red deer as well was the 162 SST which was a highly effective but massively destructive bullet when used at ranges under 150m.
The 100g TTSX seems to work well in the 6.5x47 but the number of deer I have shot with it is low.
I have loaded the Fox bullets in the 308 and found them more inclined to pressure spike than the equivalent Barnes but I haven’t tried them on game.

 

[pip308]

Not shot many deer with these yet (RWS Evo Green 106gr 6.5x55) but here are some results shot at 230y ran 20y.

 

[Acm]

Not shot many deer with these yet (RWS Evo Green 106gr 6.5x55) but here are some results shot at 230y ran 20y.

Looks very clean!