460 Dies for reloading, can they be used for any other cal?

[em9sredbeam]

My 460 S&W XVR will chamber 45 colt, 454 casull and 460 Magnum. My question is will the 460 Dies only work on 460 shells, or like most 357 dies being able to do 38 spc, will it handle the other calibers as well, or will I have to purchase 454 dies and 45 colt? Or does 454 casull do 45 colt?

[ruggyh]

460 Dies

the resizing die and decapper will work
Bullet seater and separate crimp dies will not (way to long)

I have Hornady dies and RBCS dies.

Personally I find little reason to shoot 454 Casuall if you reload -just load the same bullet in your 460 case- easier on the forcing cone.

[Cowboy T]

I use .45 Colt brass in my .454 Casull pretty much exclusively at this point. The reason is that I actually have .45 Colt brass. 454 brass is considerably more expensive, even if you buy it from Starline. So I can see the benefit.

Besides, the forcing cone's not going to care about what case it is. The concern--and it's nonexistent if you just clean your gun regularly--is a potential build-up of carbon in your cylinder's chambers at the end of the .45 Colt or .454 Casull case, assuming you're firing in a .460 S&W Magnum firearm. That typically only happens after hundreds of rounds without bothering to clean your gun. Again, a standard gun-cleaning regimen like we're supposed to be doing anyway will keep that from happening.

[ruggyh]

460

The forcing does care about how far away the bullet is before it enters.

[ruggyh]

460 Dies

The 460 is 1/2 longer than the 45 colt

Photo for your referance

[CGT80]

I have a set of redding dies setup for 460 to use in my dillon 550 and a set of 45lc dies to use in the same press. Like mentioned before, there is no need for 454 brass if you use 460 and 45lc. I have loaded up some very soft 460 loads with trail boss powder as well, but I already had the 45lc brass and dies so I use them. My light 45lc load is 8.0 grains of win 231 under a 200 grain fp jacketed bullet at 732 fps. My hot 460 load is 45 grains of win 296 under a 240 hornady xtp mag hp at 1932 fps. A5744 is a very nice mid range powder that can be loaded light to stout, but not quite to magnum levels. I have found the 45lc brass to be much faster to work with(in regards to reloading) compared to 460 brass. I have the same gun as the OP.

[Munk]

I don't have any .454 or .45LC brass to test on, but I don't see a reason it wouldn't be able to handle them.

Resizing them to the same diameter. Mouth flaring just needs a depth change, as do the seat/crimp. If the bullets you're using have the same profile, or length beyond the cannelure, then you won't even need to change the plug depth, just the die's actual depth.

I'm just not a fan of doing the multi-cal swapping because I like to leave my die rings locked in place, then just confirm measurements on my first case each time I swap them out.

I also see no point in loading .454 and .45LC if you already have the .460 brass. You can use trailboss or other light powders to drop speed and recoil down to the lesser cartridge's levels anyway. You're actually better off only running .460 through your gun, so that you don't get any carbon rings from shooting the shorter cases.

If I'm wrong in my assumptions, I hope someone will correct me.

[Cowboy T]

The forcing does care about how far away the bullet is before it enters.

No, it doesn't. And neither do the dies. Seriously, they don't.

OP, if you want the maximum versatility, and want to resize whatever ".45 cal" revolver cases you may come across, then I'd suggest one set of .45 Colt dies (which will do .454 Casull), and one set of .460 S&W Magnum dies. The .460 dies will do only .460, due to the physics of flaring, seating, and crimping. Due to the rather great length difference between .45LC and .460, the .460 resizing die is strongly recommended to go all the way down the case and fully (i. e. properly) resize it. But .45 Colt dies will work on all three if you're really in a pinch.

As for which brass you choose to use...your .460 XVR will happily take all three, so pick whichever one you want. :-)

[ruggyh]

The 460 dies will not crimp the 45 or Casuall cases- not even close- I think that might be important?