Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 500 Jeffery Load Help

I have some 500gr and some 535gr I am going to be loading for my Ruger No1 rebore to 500J. Looking to start on the very light side and work up. I have alot of a pull down powder that is similar to CFE223. This seems in the ballpark range of the faster 4895 and slower4350 loads I see published. I'm thinking of starting around 95-98gr and working up. Anyone have any thoughts on this or advice? Or anyone with quickload data?

I have some experience with Varget
in the .500 Jeffery.
CFE223 is #140 on my burn rate chart
and Varget is faster at #135.
Close enough, and I think Varget is ideal.

The 535-gr bullet starting load with Varget is 100 grains for about 2200 to 2250 fps in a 24" barrel.
Best load is 105 grains of Varget for about 2300 to 2350 fps, 24" barrel.

95 to 98 grains of CFE223 might be good for about 2100 to 2150 fps in a 24" barrel.
Use a foam wad or Dacron filler with
the ball powder CFE223.
No filler needed with the Varget.

I have never used a ball powder with a filler. Might put a card wad punched out of a playing card or waxed paper over the powder before the filler wad goes in.

But wait. You never said you had a ball powder, you said you had "pulldown" powder
that you are guessing is like CFE223 and is
of burn rate lying between H4895 (fastest on my chart at #119) and H4350 (slowest at #154).

With all the case capacity of the .500 Jeffery, I would use the extruded/stick powders and stay away from ball powders.

My .500 Jeffery is in the shop getting a recoil lug put on the barrel.
For reduced loads in it I am going to use .50-140 Sharps BPCR data, with cast bullets, PC-painted and paper-patched.

ahh shoot i didint even think about it being a ball powder. I probably will just stick to something around 4895 or varget.
THanks Riflecrank

Anyone have the woodleigh manual page they can send me for 500J? I have alot of 4350 I could try but cant find load data published for it. Thought maybe it might have it?

Here you go, from Woodleigh, note the specified single charges tested in 23" barrel and 24" barrel,
not the usual starting load and maximum load arrangement,
the lesser charge in shorter barrel sometimes showing higher velocity,
a fast barrel and a slow barrel,
note (*) denoting foam wad used with 100-gr Varget charge, etc.,
YMMV also:

From A-Square, for 26" long barrel of 1:10" twist !!! :







A-Square version was before CIP finally homologated the .500 Jeffery with the 12.63 degree (or 12*36'51") shoulder semi-angle of the original Kynoch spec.
CIP twist is 1:20", half the spin rate as the A-Square 1:10" twist.
Then there was the original Schuler, as well as a "Romey Hybrid" and the Harald Wolf and Tony Sanchez-Arino non-rebated version, and the AHR long-neck, etc.

If there ever was a 95-gr Cordite load with 535-gr bullet,
this suggests loading with 95 grains of IMR-3031 or 95 grains of Benchmark and a filler,
like with so many of the Cordite NE cartridges.

Here is the Barnes No. 4 data, for 26" barrel !!!





Please do tell about your Ruger No. 1,
how long is the barrel, what twist, what chamber reamer was used, and what kind of brass and reloading dies are you using ?
Pretty nifty to have a Ruger No. 1 in .500 Jeffery chambering.
Throat will limit COL, but no magazine box complicating things, eh ?

wow thank you sir. Sending you a PM.

Pictures of your rifle or it does not exist !
A Ruger No. 1 .500 Jeffery is "wow" for sure.
I went through my "Oxford" files and found some old QuickLOAD printouts previously forgotten.
For the no-throat version of the .500 Jeffery (CIP) QuickLOAD is very good.
(Alas, a long throat like on the .458 WinMag confuses QuickLOAD.)

I ran the powder selection chart for the .500 Jeffery using following parameters, mostly defaults from QL, some specified/verified:

Bullet: .510, 535-gr PP SN Woodleigh, BOL 1.158", seating depth 0.442"

Shot Start/Initial Pressure = 3625 psi (for standard cup&core soft)

Maximum Average Pressure (MAP) per CIP is 46,412 psi (3200 bar) but I allowed up to 50,000 psi to broaden the results.
Subsequent printouts for each powder are readable to lower pressures per CIP.

Normally we would not allow less than 85% LR, but I was planning to use a filler for low LR loads,
so the allowed LR (Loading Ratio/Net Fill %) was set for 80% to 110%, also to broaden the results.

Barrel Length: 24"

COL = 3.468", Max brass length = 2.752"

I ran the QL charge increment tables for these powders, extruded/stick powders only, in order from fastest to slowest burn rates:

BENCHMARK (#112)
AA-2495 (#125)
VARGET (#135)
H4350 (#154)
H4831 SC (169)

I lost my QL capability when a 'puter died and I never updated.
That is all I have on the .500 Jeffery QuickLOADS.
Will get them up later.

Thank you so much Riflecrank. I think this will all get me started.

For those curious this is a rebore/rechamber of a Ruger No 1 Tropical 458 win mag to 500 Jeffery. Done by Wayne York at Oregunsmithing. I added a 2" radial break under front barrel band and decelerator magnum recoil pad. Barrel remains 20" and I have Nosler brass and RCBS dies

OK, you are forgiven for re-boring a .458 WinMag because the .500 Jeffery on a Ruger No. 1 is so special.

lol thank you. I figured this would be a 1 of 1 and I like things that are different. And the 458 win mag are not extremely rare. I do have a no 1 in 458 win that I love and would not do this too. This one was from some of the early 2000 runs

OK then, you have a seat at the Square Table, Sir Ken.

Here are the QuickLOADs.
First the propellant table survey, then getting down to the individual powders that might be more legible:

Benchmark:

AA-2495:

Varget:

H4350:

H4831SC:

Gross H2O case capacity used above was a default from QuickLOAD: 165.26 grains water.
The one .500 Jeffery load I fired was done with a Horneber .500 Jeffery case.
An acquaintance in Oklahoma had the rifle out to the range to begin getting his iron sights zeroed.
Rifle was a Sterling Davenport masterpiece on a standard M98 action, with 24" barrel.
105 grains of Varget was used without filler under the 535-gr Woodleigh.
In the Horneber case (best quality stuff) the LR of that load was probably over 85%, and no filler needed.
The QuickLOAD above would suggest the LR was about 83% net fill, with the default case capacity.
MV would be about 2200 fps and chamber pressure about 37,000 psi.
Smaller case capacity with thicker Horneber brass might explain the +2300 fps of this load.
Varget is supposed to be very temperature stable, but it was also very hot in Oklahoma that day: 107*F



That might have raised pressure and velocity a bit too,
Benchmark might have better Thermo-Ballistic Independence.
AA-2495 not so good.
H4350 and H4831SC might be as good as Varget for TBI, also being "Hodgdon Extreme" powders
like Benchmark and Varget.

From the 1930 Jeffery catalog, fine print says barrel of 24" length and rifle weight of 10-1/4 lbs was usual:



One original 404 Jeffery at top and three .500 Jeffery rifles below that:



With modern monometal bullets, HP soft and FN solid, 535 grains is plenty, at +2300 fps MV.
The Woodleigh folks recommend impact velocity of 1800 to 2200 fps for their 535-gr WeldCore RNSP ( BC = 0.350 ).

Another thing about those QL default settings:
Groove diameter was .512" in my old version.
That might explain slower velocities predicted
than what was given by .510"-grooved barrels.