I got a Benjamin Bulldog about a month ago, with the idea of using it for deer hunting. The only mods I've done to it are adding a Pitbull mega-moderator and depinger to it. A guy I work with cast some 158 grain .358 semi wadcutters in pure lead from a Lyman mold, and the accuracy was abysmal - I hit the target twice, one slug looks like it keyholed, and the rest went high, low, left, and right. I want to cast my own slugs to hunt deer with - I have a melting pot and plenty of scrap lead, both pure and WW metal (old lead ones, not modern zinc). Can anyone here recommend a mold that would suit my purposes (deer out to 50-60 yards, from a stock Bulldog)? And should I use pure lead, or something harder like WW?
cast slugs for Benjamin Bulldog .357
- Thread starter RichK.
- Start date
I have the bulldog, sent it to veridium air and made a Taurus out of it. I shoot 185 grain HP from Mr. Hollowpoint
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Okay, I'm afraid that doesn't help me much. I plan to keep my Bulldog stock - I have no desire to send it out for modification.
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I think they come with a poly tipped bullet that I shot hunting, maybe 145 grain, cant remember, I think may have even shot an 85 grain hollow point out of it. Mr. Hollowpoint can help at least figure out what is recommended for the gun. At the speed it is there is not a lot of expanding going on, so pretty important to hear shoot any animal.
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Is Mr. Hollowpoint a member on this forum? Or does he have a web page? As for expansion, I've seen 2 schools of thought, one in favor of maximum expansion, and one in favor of maximum penetration, even a through-and- through. That argument says if you have an entry and an exit wound, you get a better blood trail.
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Mr. Hollowpoint sells slugs, he has his on web page. Because airguns have slow bullet speeds compared to a center fire. You are not going to get a whole lot of expansion out of even hollow points, some yes but not blowing up going in all different directions, so in my opinion use soft lead, and unless you want heart ache always shoot for the brains. Not saying heart and lung shots won't eventually kill the animal, just saying the trail job is much easier. Mr. Hollowpoint also has many videos on expansions speed of a lot of guns. Very educational stuff. I shoot archery and have only lost 1 deer in my 30 years of hunting with a bow. Have already surpassed that with an air rifle by shooting them in the heart lung area.
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I second Mr. Hollowpoint for well made bullets until you can start casting your own for a stock Bulldog I'd probably wouldn't use anything that's heavier than 130gr an that shoots accurate and go for higher up neck shots, that's the shot I take even with my Texan 457 shooting a 281gr NSA. Another good slug is the NSA slugs Nick makes. His 110gr slug shot well out of my stock Bulldog I've done a couple of mods myself on mine to get a little more power out of her.
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What mods did you make to your Bulldog to get more power out of it? Anything I can easily do without access to a machine shop?
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If you don’t want to pay an airgun smith maybe checkout www.pitbullairguns.com for consideration of purchasing upgraded Bulldog parts like power springs and a steel charging handle. That is if you can catch them with stocked inventory. Then watch a few YouTube videos on ways to tune a Bulldog. It can be a fun gun to tinker with. It’s pretty easy to disassemble, although I haven’t taken the receiver apart yet. If you do decide to pay someone to modify your Bulldog, talk to @bthurman at www.VeradiumAir.com
As for molds I’ve found that they’re hard to find at the moment.
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This is my second Bulldog to modify I disassemble drill out the transfer port and the the valve body to the same diameter, there's a great thread on GTA about how to mod your bulldog.
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GTA is another airgun site, a rival site to AGN.
I forgot to mention that PitbullAirguns has some data posted on their site on the power spring sales page about increased velocity after install on a stock Bulldog. Take a look at the chronograph numbers. https://www.pitbullairguns.com/product-page/pitbull-power-spring
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