Hey fellas, time for some oddity!

Is any one of you familiar with NEI's 600gr spitzer-flatbase bullet in .458"? The reason I'm asking is I have a .460 Wby that I'm dying to load some cast bullets for. I want a bullet that will be long enough to over-come Weathrby's freebore and engage the rifling, hence the mentioned bullet, plus something with a spitzer-shape. My concern is that the bullet will not be stabilized..? If I'm not mistaken, the bullet design as is is a flatbased not designed for a gas check, restricting velocity, but perhaps that could be altered. The rifle in question has a 1-16" twist. I almost considered calling Sierra, but I'm not sure they'd be able to help much with this combo-question. If anyone has some input, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks much!

That you for the reply, Aladin.

Um, as for casting diameter, I'm thinking that I should be able to cast in the neighborhood of a straight .460", which hopefully will elminate both the throat alignment problem, and the rifling engagement. How "recently" did you hear the news concerning NEI, because I've heard similar news from someone else, and hell...it wasn't but a month ago that I recieved some moulds from them, and about two or three months prior to that, I called Walt and asked him for some info on a 6mm choice for a rifle I'm building... They say time flies when you're having fun, but right now I'm a ditch-bitch located in the hot and sunny state of Florida...I ain't have`n no fun!!

I think the nose diameter mikes out at about...451 or 452" far enough forward that I should be able to reach the rifling. The kick in the jewels comes in in the fact that I haveth not THAT particular rifle in my possession!--it's still back in my home state of MN! Ridiculous!! As for velocity...I doubt I'll push much beyond 1800fps. However, I suspect I may need to see about modifying the mould to accept a gas-check..

Walter passed away last week? Holy balls.... Man-oh-man am I glad I put the orders in that I did WHEN I did; of the orders that I placed [the mould we've been discussing was not amoung those], I think I had all of them modified with his DD feature, which agrees with my theology [BTW, that was one thing I had planned on having added to our bullet in question, which would solve the alignment problems, I feel, although I don't know if it'd allow much higher velocity..] I was not sure about adding the gas check, and have not asked anyone; thank you for informing me there! All of my work so far is speculation...I haven't had a chance to test a damned thing with regards to cast RIFLE bullets; did some work with my 686 Smith in .357 mag this past fall and was very pleased. Then I decided to try and build a 6 PPC in a Highpower match rifle format, and give cast bullets a try there. I need considerable practice shooting without the aid of a rest, and since I have an uncompromising love for hunting, the course of action seemed logical and economical. I'd love to give the big Weatherby a try, but now with this news about Walt, I sure am concerned. Judas Priest...I guess a fella never knows WHEN he's gonna bite the friends, after-all. Hell, I'm moving back to MN and hunting everyday while I still can!! [Or before they draft my ass to go join our boys in the east..] You think about 1800 fps is a reasonable top-load goal? Well, heck, with that bullet design, I ought to be able to maintain good, consistant accuracy out to...well, 200 perhaps, accounting for a little drop, of course. I had planned on using this combo for things 150 yards and under anyhow. My biggest concern before getting the mould was whether the rifling would stabilize the bullet, but after your comments, and running some gyro-numbers, I think I'll be just fine. Now my main concern is getting the mould, period! Thanks again for dropping me the note. Dave

Dave I did not run Wingryo on that slug, just made an offhand comparison eyeballing the lengths vs twists.

1800 'might' be doable-- a little fast actually but possible if your bore is high Q and the bullet is hard enough while protecting the base.

6MM seems to be one of those calibers with few success stories related to cast. It's be speculated due to bullet design but I dunno. As for using a 6ppc-- sounds interesting. Remember generally those are twisted fairly slow compared to the 243 Wins and 6 Rems manufactured, and a bullet's length is a definite consideration.

If it were me feeding that 460, I'd get a 500 gr cast mold using a check-- RCBS has a good one. Lee also makes one. Fit that bullet to match your throat dia and I think your accuracy would be acceptable. Ballistic coefficent of that Lee 500 is very respectable and I'd think the RCBS quite similar. Be a good idea to measure your throat first before purchasing a mold... Good Luck.

I have a Ruger #1H in .460 Weatherby and have been shooting gaschecked bullets in it. I have been using the Lee 500 gr and an old lyman RN mould that casts out at 395 grs. I have been shooting them as reduced loads using Unique and have has good success with them. Email me at wegner@theriver.com if you want to talk about it.