| Postman |
| (.375 member) |
| 04/07/18 03:42 AM |
Good luck with cast bullets in a .450 NE!!!
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I had a very productive and watershed moment with my Heym .450NE over the last few days, culminating with tremendous success yesterday with cast bullets that regulate beautifully and shoot very accurately!!!!!
My baseline was 480 grain hydros and 450 grain TSX, both of which shoot to P.O.A. at 50 yards, shoot a composite group of around 1” and barrels do not cross. I use 90.75 grains of H4350 for both bullets. The Hydros clock @ 2175 FPS and the TSX clock at 2205 FPS average.
Now the challenge: “find a cast bullet that will shoot to P.O.A. regulate well, not cross or shoot apart and produce tight groups and not shotgun patterns.”.
After much screwing around, I ended up using wheel weights, an 18” strand of silver solder and 18” of leadless solder (95% tin) mixed into a full Lee pot of melted wheel weights. I cast using a 405 grain gas check RCBS mold, and dropping the cast bullets from the mold directly from the mold into a pail of cold water. My brinnel hardness indicator showed the cast bullets to be of 30 hardness. I then crimped on the copper gas checks and used the very messy but effective Lee liquid Alox as lube.
My first loads usd the same powder charge of 90.75 grains with the cast bullets and the result was excellent per barrel accuracy but the barrels crossed by a good 6”. Velocity was around 2325 FPS.
My next attempt dropped the powder charge to 88.0 grains and eureka!!!! Both barrels on the money at 50 yards and velocity was 2214 FPS!!!!
I’m pretty happy with the results to say the least!!! I’ve played with cast bullets before and have had some reasonable successes, but nothing like what I’ve just experienced..... I’m thinking that the key was to use gas checks, and to harden the lead to 30 Brinnel, both of which I’ve never done before. The barrels do not show any signs of leading.
I tried the same bullets in a .458 Lott and got 1 inch to 1.5 inch goups at 100 yards at 2550 FPS velocity, nearly identical to what I’m gettng with the Woodleigh 400 grain PPSP bullets...... Same powder charge as with the Woodies, and again no signs of leading.
These cast will make great practice rounds, with all the noise, fire and pounding of a DG load but without the expense of good DG bullets!!!!! Absolutely perfect medicine for slaying paper elephants, buffalo, lions and tigers and bears oh my!!!!!!!! I can now save the good bullets for the real deal!!!!!!!
| tinker |
| (.416 member) |
| 04/07/18 05:32 AM |
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Re: Good luck with cast bullets in a .450 NE!!!
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That would be a great load for deer, boar, and black bear.
| Waidmannsheil |
| (.400 member) |
| 04/07/18 05:39 AM |
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Re: Good luck with cast bullets in a .450 NE!!!
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Well done, good to hear that you had reasonably rapid success.
Waidmannsheil.
| 93x64mm |
| (.416 member) |
| 04/07/18 05:57 AM |
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Re: Good luck with cast bullets in a .450 NE!!!
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Top stuff Postman, you certainly have a very well behaved double!
Some try for years without success & just give up, or accept mediocre performance.
Certainly on a winner cast projectile there, what was it's final cast weight after all the added tin etc?
| Postman |
| (.375 member) |
| 04/07/18 06:53 AM |
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Re: Good luck with cast bullets in a .450 NE!!!
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Quote:
Top stuff Postman, you certainly have a very well behaved double!
Some try for years without success & just give up, or accept mediocre performance.
Certainly on a winner cast projectile there, what was it's final cast weight after all the added tin etc?
The “as cast” weight shows 427 grains. When the gas check is installed and the bullets are all slathered up with the Lee Alox, they weigh 442 grains.
Odd. I wouldn't have expected that. I’d have expected them to weigh LESS than 405 grains as cast given that lead is supposed to weigh more than tin and silver solder. I don’t know for certain but I think silver solder doesn't contain much silver and is mostly tin?
Maybe the mold just throws bullets heavier than the name would indicate..... It is an RCBS model 45-405-FN mold #82053. I started to wonder about the scale so I have checked the fancy electronic scale and it is dead on using a reference weight kit... Thank heveans because it is my QC for powder charges and it just wouldn't do to have it read inaccurately.
An additional mention of the loaded cartridges: I seated the first bullet in the case and then dropped the round into the barrel set (removed from the action) to see if it would chamber. The first time it stuck out about an 8th of an inch so I pulled the cartridge out of the chamber and seated the bullet deeper after an eyeball estimated number of turns down on the seating stem. Tried again and there was barely a rim width away from seating, so a 1/2 turn more on the seating stem and the round chambered beautifullly. As a result, these bullets seat quite deep in the .450NE 3 1/4 case and rest just off the lands. The die set is Hornady.
In the past I’ve learned the hard way about seating depth and the camming capabilities or rather lack thereof in double rifles so for any new load, I check the seating depth and verify that the rounds will chamber simply using gravity.