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

how many guys use big bores with reduced loads..look Ill admit it Im a bit of a rifle nut, and really like a powerful rifle, recoil, not so much.., and I really hate paying top dollar for premium jacketed bullets, so I got into casting and producing hard cast bullets for most of my 458 caliber rifles.
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/18...9-diameter-540-grain-flat-nose-gas-check

so when I was working up a load for a 458 lott with the 540 grain hard cast bullets I was not looking for the maximum possible velocity, just accuracy, and while I quickly found that the slower velocity loads I tried would NOT fully stabilize a bullet past about 25 yards I eventually found that you can find a reasonable compromise.
obviously load data for reduced cast bullet loads in a 458 lott tends to be a bit scarce especially with the really heavy cast bullets, but if you experiment you can find a decent load, I had several 8 lb bottles of 5010 powder (surplus 50 browning powder) I got dirt cheap at a gun show and started out with 65 grains and worked up slowly until I was getting about 1800fps , accuracy was acceptable at about 1" at 50 yards,2.2" at 100 yards, recoil was getting noticeable.
your rifle may not like the load I found so work up carefully, but 5010 does seem to work, I stopped there and used that as a load for hunting the local hog population, and yes a hard cast .458 diam bullet of 540 grains pushed to 1800fps seems to be lethal on pigs.
(We don,t see many rhino or elephant or cape buff around here)

(yes IM aware SOME 5010 powder has problems degrading, so far mines in perfect shape)

BTW how many guys have CHRONOGRAPHS for working up loads?

http://www.oehler-research.com/model35.html

http://www.pact.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=67

Are you only trying to kill the paper target?????????

While my wife and I don't shoot as much as we used to, or nearly as much as we should - Yes! We use 225 gr. cast bullets in her .338 Win Mag. and I shoot 285gr. cast in my .375AI. Used mostly for plinking,a unsuccessful javelina hunt in Arizona, and I took a coyote with mine. memtb

Cast boolits are all I have shot out of my 458AccREl (a Lott size case) have used it to hunt whitetails! Clint

My general purpose 458WM load is a 405gr RNSP @ 2200fps as loaded by Wisconsin Cartridge Corp. Almost pleasant off the bench from my Whitworth.

I bought a .416 Rigby a couple of weeks ago, and plan to try some cast bullets in it.

I have a Custom 350gn-370gn ( depending on alloy) cast bullet mould for my 404 Jeffery and run a delightfull plinking load at 1400fps, a target load at 1900fps and a recoil practice load at 2365fps. I rarely shoot the jacketed 400gn Woodleigh soft or RWS solid any more. Have taken goat with the 1400fps load and to say it was effective is an understatement.

Von Gruff.

Reduced loads with ultra slow burning powders like 5010 can be dangerous and have been known to lead to detonation. A better choice might be AA 5744.

If you email Johan Loubser at johanramshot.com and ask him for a reduced load of AA 5744 in the .458 Lott for a given bullet weight, I am sure he will be glad to supply one. I have found him to be greatly helpful with reduced load data for my .404 and .500 Jeffery and my .505 Gibbs.

Not yet, but i will

Gunner

I have a new to me 458 win mag with a very short barrel. I shall probably never hunt with it as I am fairly well over hunting and up in years. I have always been sensitive to recoil and as a result rarely ever load to max on anything no matter what the use. I just load for a decent accuracy out of the gun and go hunting. The lower the recoil the more accurate I can shoot it. My plan for the 458 is to use 300 gr jacketed bullets and an IMR4198 load at the bottom of the scale and see if it's comfortable. Have never used cast bullets, just don't have the patience to cast,size and lube them. Might buy some ready mades and try them but really have no experience with cast bullets in rifles.

i buy ready made ones for my 45-70, pretty straight forward and alot of options on the market right now, not really any different than jacketed except yah gotta watch how fast yah push them to keep leading to a minimum but other than that no big deal.....

With a bit of work you can go as fast as you want. My hunting load is a 330Gr cast at 2100. Put a big hurt my buck this year. Clint

If I ever get a .458 win. mag. I'll probably load it to .45-70 power levels and just go kill stuff.

When I still had a 458 win mag I used Berry's plated bullets, 350gr intended for the 45/70 on top of a light load of 5744. I never bothered to chrono these loads but they were entirely pleasant to shoot and reasonably accurate at 50yds. Perfect for paper punching when there were no elephants invading the rifle range!

Have a 375 Ruger and have been loading the 255gr Lee 38-55 bullet over16gr of an obsolete shotgun powder. Velocity is about 1400FPS, shoots 3 shot groups under an inch. Looking for groundhogs in the neighborhood and will HP some of these this fall for whitetails. Really very pleasant to shoot and the cost is probably less than a dime. A lot less barrel wear than 82gr of of smoke going down the barrel. I get to shoot pretty much whenever I want to and the neighbors aren't subject to the muzzle blast of full power.

What brand rifle is your "short barrel" .458 and how short is the barrel?
I have not been able to find one...shorter than 22" (Remington, and do not want a new Remington).

I have run 220 gr Hornadys out of the .375 H&H, at .375 Winchester velocities. IIRC they were light loads of 3031. It shot very well, but I found I had to use a filler to keep the powder in the bottom of the case, otherwise hangfires were possible.

I'm not sure if the .45-70 counts but I use light loads of Unique and IMR-4198 all the time.

Been playing with 320gr and 400gr cast in my Ruger #1 in 450/400NE.
Got it working fairly well last fall, time to start on it again.
I plan to keep working on loads with AA5744 in it, had the 320gr running at 2048fps with 48gr, keep playing around in that area with it. Have some different sizing dies to try out and see how they work with it.Had some issues with material springback and chambering, may have the solution for that now. First task is to go cast some more 320's, ran out. That will be included in next weekend's projects weather permitting.

I'm loading my Marlin 45-70 with Trailboss & 300 gr Laser Cast boolits...makes that rifle a real pussycat.....