Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only how many guys use big bores with reduced loads..

I'm loading my 444 with the Lee 310gr cast on top of Blackhorn 209 and it's fun,accurate and easy on the shoulder.

Why have a women and make her a school girl?

why have a 45-70 and always shoot full nuts loads in it ?

reduced loads help you get to know the rifle and better learn

to shoot it......

I shoot Cast Boolits using Trailboss Powder out of my 458 Win Mag all the time. Simple recipe is easy to follow. Here is the Link. http://www.imrpowder.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

I ran 350 grain flat base gas checked lead slugs cast with Lyman's #2 formula, dropped from a Saeco mould, for my 416 RM. Ran 'em right at 1800. Perfect blend of accuracy and recoil, which made it fun to shoot and keep the fillings in place.

Why reduced load with cast?? Jacketed $0.35EA.and up fast.Cast $0.09EA. less powder More shooting Clint

Except that for some of us the casting is as much a part of the fun as is the shooting.

As I make my own gas checks as well as the cast bullets, the bullet cost is reduced to zip after the initial cost has been handily converted to shooting pleasure. Primer and light powder charge cost is laughably light enough to almost disregard. 404 at US18c each and 7x57 for US12c. Both these reduced loads have acounted for a share of the meat in the freezer as well.

Being able to go to my range and shoot up as many 404 and 7x57 cast loads as I please, so they can be reloaded for next time, without regard for cost, is more than a bit satisfying and great fun.

Have set aside one box of 404 and a couple hundred 7x57 cases and they are reloaded on a regular basis and because they loaded to reduced velocity - pressure, in cases that are only neck sized minimally to hold the bullet (annealed every 5th loading), I expect them to last indefinately.

Von Gruff.

I hunt with my 375 Ruger reduced loads, venison is for dinner. Good practice until I take the job in west Africa.

With 405 grain hard home cast in the 45-70, I get good results with 15 grains of Blue Dot and 12 grains of Trail Boss, as well as 25 grains of AA5744. Mild recoil, and very accurate for sniping empty 12 gauge hulls at 50 yards. Someone has to do it.

Here is some reduced load data from Nyati:

http://www.chuckhawks.com/reduced_big_bore_loads.htm
http://www.chuckhawks.com/reduced_400_loads.htm

Only goes up to .416, although they may have more data, if I can find it.

Powder is Accurate 5744.

https://nyatiinc.com/index.php?route=common/home they sell practice loads for various calibers.

My 460 Bee is a kitty cat with 350 Laser cast Bullets and Unique!

I like 200 gr Sierra fn and 40 hrs of imr 4759 in the 375 Holland and Holland.

250g A-Frame and IMR4320 at 2700 fps (out of the Swift Reloading Manual) out of my 375 H&H for elk and black bear.

375 H&H - 260Gr FNGC originally for a 38-55, 30.0Gr IMR4198 = 1550Fps.

Kicks like a 9Lbs .243, groups into 1 1/2" at 100yds.

I've loaded 300 Hornady RN Interbonds to 2280 but have not shot anything with them. I suspect they'd work quite well at such a sedate velocity.

In fact, I'd issue a little bet: some of you guys who live in states where you can shoot multiple deer each season should throttle back your loads and shoot cup and core at low to moderate velocities on some of your deer and high velocity at the rest and tell us about it. The benafield boys are excepted, of course. Say anthing 33 bore and greater.

Curious minds want to know the results!

Because if you shoot your DGR enough to get really competent with it, you'll also teach yourself how to flinch like crazy. (Or at least you will if you're a mere mortal. I know the rifle gods here on the internet never flinch.)

I load my big guns with cast bullets and Trail Boss. My practice sessions generally include about 50 such rounds, capped off with one magazine-full of full power loads. I figure that much shooting, over the course of many months, is a bare minimum if I plan on putting my life on the line with that rifle - but that much shooting with full power loads would teach me (the lone mortal on the internet) a miserable flinch and a general terror of that rifle.

RW,

I rather disagree and look at it the other way; working up to full power big rifle loads will help work against a flinch not create one! Flinching is merely the mind's anticipation of reoil and the body's reponse to the mind. It can be trained away with appropriate practice and technique.

Unlike many of the internet heroes here and on other boards I can fully admit I don't like lots of recoil and am topped out these days with my 375 H&H. Nor am I a long distance shooter since I don't live in a place where it is common. I don't need to hotrod the H&H or any other round. I want MOA accuracy and out to 300 yards the 375 at 2400 vs 2550 or even up to 2600 does not provide enough of a measurable performance difference to convinve me to deal with the additional recoil. Have a look at the excellent work by SA hunter and writer Gregor Woods in his book, Rifles for Africa wherein he reports on these issues.

As they say, YMMV.

Jeff

If you spend alot of money on a nice rifle, why not shoot it alot? I'd say few and far between are those who can shoot significant rounds of full patch through a big bore.

350's @ 2400 fps out of my 458 lott is more than enough for all NA game, and it's a load I can fire from any field position and a going through a box or two of ammo at a range session is feasible. 500's @ 2250 are an entirely different ball game and 10 rounds was more than enough for me. Go to cast and drop the velocity to 1800 fps and you can shoot it all day.

Well, Bluefish, I'm not man enough to fire 50 full power rounds out of .40+ caliber rifle without developing a major flinch. So for me, at least, cast bullets and Trail Boss allow me a level of proficiency with heavy rifles that I could not otherwise attain.

I am more concerned with a detached retina and torn rotator cuff than flinching.