Greetings to all. Need a little experienced based advice on die, brass and powder selection for reloading the 450 Bushmaster for either a single shot or bolt gun strictly for whitetail deer hunting.
Although I shoot all my rifles with regularity from my T3/LT 300wsm to my 336c in 35 Remington I will likely not shoot the 450 BM’s that much for fun due to having so many other rifles my boys and I enjoy shooting so much now.
Been reloading handgun and bottle necked cartridges for over 30 years for essentially all types of HG’s and rifles and have dies from Redding, Forester, RCBS, Hornady, and Lee.
Unless I am wrong based on my research, the maximum effective hunting range of the 450 Bushmaster for deer is somewhere under 300 yards. As such I would like to know if dies from RCBS will give me as good of reloads as say Redding dies at ranges under 300 yards.
I ask because I am buying two rifles in 450 BM for my sons and besides the rifles will need to buy scopes and mounting systems, brass, powder and bullets and am looking to see if I can save a little on the total cost and a RCBS three die sets are less than half the cost of a set of Reddings.
Secondly from my research it seams the most popular powder for 450 BM reloads using 225-250 grain bullets is Hodgdon Lil’Gun and would like to know if Lil’gun is temp stable especially in very cold temps as temps during deer season where I hunt in the low double to single digits are to be expected. So unless someone suggests otherwise I will go with Lil’Gun especially because it’s available OTC right now near me.
Lastly The only new 450BM brass I can find for reloading is Starline and unless someone can suggest a superior brand that is also currently available for purchase I will go with new Starline brass.