Issues relodaing the 450....

[sealteam10]

Okay I have a few questions her in regards to reloading for my 450. I have a custom rifle built off a Remington 700 action. After shooting a couple of deer with the factory Hornady 250 bullets this year I was not impressed with the performance of the factory ammo. I would like to reload since there is very little options in factory ammo and I am looking for something in the 275-290 grain range for bullet weight. Does anyone have any recommendations of bullets that are available and ones that they have had success with.

Thanks
Matt

[Hoot]

Welcome aboard Matt!

You didn't say what price range of bullets you were interested in. For a little more money, the 275gr Barnes XPB bullet is an excellent choice. I persoally have not had a lot of luck getting tight groups from 300 grainers, but they all shoot minute of deer at 100 yds. To the latter point, deer and we have our share of big ones up here, are not that hard to kill. I would recommend going lighter, faster as opposed to heavier slower, but that's just my view. Hogs are a different story, but you do see folks taking them with lesser calibers than the 450b as well. I'm fond of 200gr bullets going around 2450-2500fps. The shoot flatter, expand reliably further out and they have the same frontal area as their heavier brethren. I Originally loaded 225gr FTX, then switched to 200gr FTX and after getting tired of ingesting lead, I switched to 200gr Barnes XPB bullets.

Here's what they look like after penetrating multiple milk jugs full of water at different distances:

Water Shot Experiment

Hoot

[Al in Mi]

Welcome aboard.

what's the barrel details on your bolt gun?

As Hoot mentioned, those Barnes are a hard bullet to beat for expansion. I've had good accuracy with the 250gr TC Bonded Shockwaves, they are of same construction as the FTX, except bonded. I haven't had a hair test opportunity yet, maybe do some water jug testing this spring.

Couple of other bullets I want to test drive from my bolt gun, are the 250gr Barnes TEZ and Hornady GMX ML bullets.

[m113103]

Need the twist rate of the barrel. I seem to remember that Tony from Tromix did some target tests with different bullet weights and twist. Light bullets = slow twist. Heavy bullets = fast twist.

[pitted bore]

... After shooting a couple of deer with the factory Hornady 250 bullets this year I was not impressed with the performance of the factory ammo. ...

Matt-
This isn't a direct answer to your questions. However, it would be helpful to the forum if you could describe why you were not impressed with the performance of the factory ammo in your deer hunting.

• Were there problems with accuracy so that you didn't hit the deer where the gun was pointed?
  
• If your deer were hit where intended, did the factory bullet not do enough tissue damage so that you had to trail wounded deer?
  
• Did the bullet fail to put the deer down quickly, so that you had to make several followup shots?
  
• Did the factory ammo fail to penetrate sufficiently?
  
• Did the factory ammo spoil too much meat?

There have been reports in the forum of really good results with factory ammo, and some reports of questionable performance. A report of your experiences would add materially to the discussion here about actual bullet performance on game.

Thanks.
--Bob

[Cutright]

I just tried some 275 Barnes and I did not get the crimp correct. I loaded up a mag with a fouling shot, three shot test load, then another load to see if the length changed. Boy did it! I don't know if I've been having this problem all along because this is the first time I checked but I don't think so because my groups have been so good. This is the first I've tried the heavy weights. I do not have access or ability to make a side crimp and the brass had been loaded 6 or 7 times, so I imagine that had something to do with it. I also read that I should stay away from the roll crimp, so I did not do one into the groove

[Hoot]

I just tried some 275 Barnes and I did not get the crimp correct. I loaded up a mag with a fouling shot, three shot test load, then another load to see if the length changed. Boy did it! I don't know if I've been having this problem all along because this is the first time I checked but I don't think so because my groups have been so good. This is the first I've tried the heavy weights. I do not have access or ability to make a side crimp and the brass had been loaded 6 or 7 times, so I imagine that had something to do with it. I also read that I should stay away from the roll crimp, so I did not do one into the groove

While the side crimp can be an asset, especially with heavier bullets as they have more momentum to pull them, it is not a deal breaker. What matters is taper crimping that mouth down into the driving band groove. You can crimp a lot further than we usually do without running the risk of the cartridge traveling beyond the chamber. I'm rooting around for a graphic depiction of what I'm talking about, that I posted a long time ago. I'm pretty sure I saved it on a thumb drive. As soon as I find it, I will post it here, rather than search back through the annals of the forum to find the post containing it. If I can't find it, I'll re-draw it and post it tomorrow.

Hoot

[Cutright]

Thank you. I look foreword to it. You have saved me a lot of experimenting time and money with all the advise I have been given on this site. I have been loading for bolt guns for years, but this is a new and exciting animal!

[Cutright]

If I put a heavier taper crimp on my heavy bullets, should I use the same crimp for the lighter ones? Does a heavy crimp affect accuracy?

[Hoot]

If I put a heavier taper crimp on my heavy bullets, should I use the same crimp for the lighter ones? Does a heavy crimp affect accuracy?

I have yet to see the degree of taper crimp have a negative impact upon accuracy.

I found that drawing. It is exaggerated to serve as a conceptual example of how the taper crimp drives the mouth into the driving band groove on Barnes XPB bullets. The micrometer has the final say. I've never gone below .474, though you can. I can't emphasize this enough but inexpensive digital calipers, while worth their weight in gold for quick work, are not precise enough for this measurement. In a perfect world, a micrometer with .0001 resolution is best.

taper_driving_groove.png (3.31 KiB) Viewed 14702 times

Hoot