If so, I'd appreciate your thoughts on a few things. Gun is a like-new S&W 460 XVR, 5" barrel. I have a ton of reloading experience and all the gear, but this will be my first foray into handgun reloading.

I'd like to focus on the .300 grain Wide Flat-Nose bullet from Lehigh (or comparable) and keep the pressures down a bit to avoid any issues with flame cutting, erosion, etc. This gun will go to Alaska and Glacier NP for anti-bear duty, hence the heavy load.

- What are optimal powders in the .300 grain range?
- What die set do you recommend? Carbide or no?
- Any thoughts on case-mouth crimping (profile or Lee FCD)?

Thanks so much!

Congratulations on your 5”er.....wanting one to go with my 8. 3/8”. Can’t help you with the 300’s.....I’m using 300’s (cast) with a bit of Unique for a light-load” My go-to, hunting bullet is a 400 cast, pushed hard with WW 296. When summer gets here, will experiment with 4227!

Powder: WW 296/H110, 4227, Lil Gun
Dies: carbide....I’m using RCBS
Crimp: I use the standard crimp, many cast bullet shooters like the Lee Factor6 Crimp Die


Again......congrats on getting the 5” model! memtb

What sort of velocities do you get from the 400s? I'm not sure a 5" barrel would even stabilize that bullet, but I'm intrigued.

richardca99, I’m getting 1490 mv presently with WW296, and could push it a bit faster. Looking forward to trying 4227, as it should give around 50 to 100 more than WW296.

That said, after I got my 400 grain mold, I did some reading/research that indicated that a 360 grain bullet may be the best of the heavier bullets!

At 100 yards from the bench using a Burris Fastfire dot scope, it will give 3”+/- , 4 shot groups. I have one cylinder charge hole that consistently opens the group up by 2+” 🤬 I figure that from shooting sticks, I should be good out to 150 yards on big game!

Good Luck with your 460. I love mine, just need to do more shooting with it! memtb

Thank you memtb. I appreciate the info...really helpful.

Yes sir, good luck with your 460! A bit heavy, and a lot loud.....it may be the most versatile handguns made. From light loads for fun, practice and smaller big game, to heavy, tough bullets for some of the largest, most dangerous game on the planet, to shot shells equivalent to a 2 1/2” 410 ( small game, snakes, ect)....there’s not much it can’t do! Again congrats! memtb

I run the carbide dies, 4227, 296 and several bullets from 200 through 465. The 460 can be as tame or wild as you want. Full house loads in these are no joke and certainly unnecessary....but very fun.

Mine is 8 3/8"

After some drama with the post office, I did finally get the gun. Barrel is 5", and it looks to have hardly been shot by its original owner.



I did some initial load development with Lehigh Defense 300 grain copper WFN, H110, WLR primers, and Starline brass. I was really just horsing around; groups were shot at 10 yards off the bench (not a Ransom Rest, just resting the receiver on a padded front rest). Ignore the first group...it was offhand. I found a sweet spot at about 37.7 grains. SD = 3.86 and velocity was 1610 fps over 5 shots.





As many have said, when shooting offhand recoil is a non-issue given the weight of this gun. Off the bench and after about 50 rounds, the palm of my right hand let me know it was about done. Lehigh doesn't have load data for this bullet in the 460 S&W; however, they say that this bullet with H110 in the Casull gives 1430 max (same barrel length), and the 250 grain Extreme Penetrator gets about 1690 fps in the 460 S&W. I'm somewhere there in the middle, which seems about right? I know that 10 yards (as these were shot) isn't even close to real accuracy testing, but this is meant to be a defensive bear gun, so I really just want to find a reliable, consistent load and get to offhand shooting. Any feedback or thoughts would be appreciated!

might try a glove on your shooting hand so you can shoot more with out the pain .

Congratulations…….and I remain envious! Pretty decent groups!

Mine jumps a little with 400’s @ 1500+……never tried 50 at one sitting, so I can’t relate!


In rounded numbers, what was required to get your 5”er? memtb

I grossly overpaid at $1,775, but I knew I was overpaying. Conscious decision. It was listed "as new," and it certainly turned out to be that. After many months of looking, I realized that the 5" 460V was hard to find and impossible to get retail given S&W's supply issues. I bit the bullet and went with one that was as close to new as I thought I could get.

richardca99,


Thanks for responding! Yep a lot of money…..but, a lot of handgun! Having one now (8 3/8”), my wife can’t buy into getting another. If I were 10 or 15 years younger, I’d push a lot harder to get it. But, at this age, it’s really not justifiable……but, I damn sure want one! 😁 memtb