Your blog was thought provoking, as usual. If you write it, I find it invariably interesting. I am itching to shoot cast bullets at 1300 fps, like Saint Bagwell did. If only I could shoot as well as he could, I could BAGWELL as he could.
Cast lead bullets: If you got 'em, smoke 'em, I mean shoot 'em. There may come a day when the new world order outlaws lead bullets. Then only outlaws will have lead bullets. Breaking Bad will mean cooking up a batch of lead bullets at home instead of meth. Casting lead bullets is addictive.
Sir Ron;
Today I went to the range - first time since late last Fall. I put together a few different loads but only shot the 465gr semi-hardcast. Thanks for the advise you gave to slow them to around 1400 using 5744. I didn't have any so went to William's Arms in Port Perry to pick up a can after having phoned to see if they had it. They did; ouch! For $74! Anyway, ya don't use much per load so it works out in cost about the same as "normal" loads.
I checked Lyman to see what they recommended, and it turned out that their 475gr cast over 34.5 grs 5744 was the most accurate at 1425 fps from a Ruger No.1. So I went with that load for the 465gr, new (unfired) Hornady brass, WLRM primers and COL @ 3.1" (crimped in the groove provided because I wanted a uniform start pressure). I only loaded five of those because I didn't want to waste a lot of powder and bullets if it didn't turn out well. Going from speeds of over 2000 fps down to about 1400 fps in a .458 or .45-70 is somewhat of a guessing game to get on target. No holes after four shots. I said "Lord, this is my last shot, so please, if you will, help me out here". I had been moving the crosshairs way down so then opened the action and sighted through the bore so that the hole in the muzzle was showing the top of the target covering the muzzle exit by exactly 1/2. I checked the crosshairs and they were dead center on the target. I squeezed it off and, voila, a .458" hole 3.375" over center! Of course, I can now adjust the load to about +1.5" at 50 and zero at 95 yards. So, I didn't get a group yet, but next time we'll see if a decent group shows up!
All went over the chronograph at 15'. The first was from a clean barrel and slightly slower than the others, but all-in-all they were very close to Lyman's results when corrected to MV. They were: 1391, 1403, 1405, 1419 and 1401. Corrected to MV = 1413 fps. Close enough. Very pleasant to shoot at about 14.5 ft-lbs free recoil and 10 fps recoil velocity. Rifle is 10.3 lbs with scope sans ammo.
There was a fun part over that last shot. I'd also taken my new-to-me 12ga and some of those Challenger slugs (492grs) In my old Mossberg with a 24" they registered 1610 fps. I figured from the 18" I might get 1550. Anyway, before shooting the last 465gr from the .458, I fired one of the slugs with the green dot front sight a few inches over center on the same target that yet hadn't any .458" holes. It registered 1484 fps (corrected to MV = 1503 fps) at +3.375" at 50 yds. Before pulling the trigger on the last 465gr, I wondered "Now that would be very ironic if my last 465gr went through the 12ga hole"! I'd still have no evidence that the .458 was on paper! Low and behold... it didn't go through the 3/4" hole of the slug, missing it by 3/4" from the left edge of the slug to the right edge of the .458", and at the exact same height over center! The 12ga slug was 3/4" right of center (measured to center of hole), and the .458" hole was 1/2" left of center.
Thought this might be of interest to you as it vindicates your suggestion, and may be of interest to some others.
