454 Casull - Reloading Question

[condor]

I don't reload 454, but have everything I need to start if I wanted to. I wonder if the load variation might be the difference between loading for handgun or loading for rifle. I own several Ruger SA's in 45LC and 44-40, a couple of Win 92's in 44-40, and one Rossi 92 in 454 Casull. I'm more of a collector than a loader shooter so can ask questions, and know when to keep my mouth shut... :-)

[Whiterabbit]

I'd like to do most of my shooting with 250 grain or so hard cast lead, maybe doing about 1,400 fps. Any suggestions on bullet and powder combination - you can skip the powder charge if you'd like, type will be sufficient guide.

I load and shoot alot of H110 for these kinds of cases and bullets, it's a good choice.

No surprise at the huge variance of charges. To be expected for apistol cartridge that has a pressure ceiling of 65ksi. Don;t worry about it.

Here's a rule of thumb that you can follow to help you keep your thumbs:

measure the bullet from the base to where you will seat it. It's easier if you have a crimp groove you plan to use. Ballparking is OK here. Fill the case with H110 up to where the base of the bullet would be if you had it seated. This is your 100% case-fill line. Measure that charge weight. Now you can cross reference that weight with all the data you find across your books, online resources, hodgedon website, etc. It's a sanity check. If it is in the population of data, and it probably will be, you can load it and try it. If it "seems wrong", it is, and re-evaluate.

You can download and work back up if you are comfy. Hodgdon says what, 3% is OK? you can try it. Stick with magnum primers to start as an insurance policy for ignition.

Piece of cake.

Remember, a 65ksi pressure ceiling in a revolver gives you ALOT of wiggle room you don't get with low pressure autoloaders.

[bergmen]

I load and shoot alot of H110 for these kinds of cases and bullets, it's a good choice.

No surprise at the huge variance of charges. To be expected for apistol cartridge that has a pressure ceiling of 65ksi. Don;t worry about it.

Here's a rule of thumb that you can follow to help you keep your thumbs:

measure the bullet from the base to where you will seat it. It's easier if you have a crimp groove you plan to use. Ballparking is OK here. Fill the case with H110 up to where the base of the bullet would be if you had it seated. This is your 100% case-fill line. Measure that charge weight. Now you can cross reference that weight with all the data you find across your books, online resources, hodgedon website, etc. It's a sanity check. If it is in the population of data, and it probably will be, you can load it and try it. If it "seems wrong", it is, and re-evaluate.

You can download and work back up if you are comfy. Hodgdon says what, 3% is OK? you can try it. Stick with magnum primers to start as an insurance policy for ignition.

Piece of cake.

Remember, a 65ksi pressure ceiling in a revolver gives you ALOT of wiggle room you don't get with low pressure autoloaders.

That seems like an excellent way to look at powder levels. I need to do exactly that and do a comparison to published load data (which is, as you state, all over the place).

As I have mentioned earlier, I have reloaded .45 Colt for the Rugers and .454 for the Rugers and Freedom Arms 83. I also have a Rossi 92 in .454 but find no rifle specific load data for it and have been using max revolver load data so far (which results in a miniature seismic event, shall we say).

This is fun. I need to get back to the press and start playing around. I have probably 10 pounds of W296, hundreds of bullets and magnum primers as wells as plenty of brass.

It's all good.

Dan

[destrudo]