Forums.NitroExpress.com

Huvius, kuduae and miroflex,
interesting to see this thread get a jolt from the old electrodes!

In 2008 I obtained Bertram cases, a little loading data and read up on loading NfB loads. I tried several loads, probably too light, and tried again a bit heavier and with neck crimping.

The load I settled on was for .458 300gn JHP from The Bullet Factory (thin jacket) which I believe suitable for lower velocities. The references state 110 gn black powder, and I received advice to use AR2206, 40% of the weight of the BP load, and fill the air gap with compressed Dacron.

The load was very satisfactory (Bang, whomp, no harm to gun) but the cloud of Dacron fibre unsightly and would potentially contaminate the wool (shooting on the sheep farm).

The rifle did not shoot together (WAAYY APART!) and I concluded the separated barrels needed re-soldering. That work is, after 6 years, being done now. The thread I started to discuss it is at http://forums.nitroexpress.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=243949&an=0&page=0#Post243949

In the course of that I have been reading Graeme Wright's book very carefully so as to be sure I understand loading for this cartridge. The book is short of info on it, but has a lot for two related cartridges, the 500/450 BP Express 3 1/4" and the 450 3 1/4" BP.

The 450 3 1/4" BP.is closest, it used the same lighter bullet range and 120gn BP (the No 1 2 3/4" used 110 gn BP) Original 270gn hollow nose or 300gn, later loaded to a maximum of 365gn in NfB loads.

On page 145 of the 3rd edition, are loads for this rifle. There is one load that uses a 300gn jacketed bullet and AR2213sc with no filler, giving 1450 fps.

The gunsmith doing the work for me has used a starting load of 80gns AR2213sc with no filler, and a 300gn cast bullet.

I will not retype the loads from Graeme Wright here in case someone misunderstands and puts the slightly larger 3 1/4"smokeless loads in the slightly smaller 2 3/4" case. I think they would not be dangerous, but in this game we protect our rifles by avoiding that risk. I will scan the page for emailing to you miroflex. It lists loads for ten different powders and since I believe it is difficult to get exactly what you want in India that range of choices may help.

Dies
Dies are listed from a couple of suppliers, CH4D but I was not feeling rich so to get started I bought a set of Lee 45/70 dies and cut them down to use as neck dies, then ground relief around the inside edges. I also bought a .458WIN Lee crimp die, relived the inside of the tube by grinding until it went over the case, and made a ring to fill the gap from the shellholder to the crimper slide.

For a shellholder I bought a Lee holder for the 7.62 Russian rimmed round, the nearest size in the shop, and used a micro cutting disk in the Dremel to open it out for the .500/450 base.

Post Extras