Has anybody loaded the new 480 grns falt nosed solid? Any results during hunts? Would be interested to hear your opinion on this bullet.

Sorry, my fingers were to quick. What I wanted to say is "flat" nosed bullet - not falt nose. By the way: Hornadys
product number is 45033

that is teh 480 DGS -- I've loaded, and did load test, but not hunted with it, as yet

Killed and elephant with a frontal heart shot in May, but with the 375/300/DGS. Not recovered. It is a accurate bullet in my rifle.

The postal service just delivered my first box of Hornadys .458
480 gns DGS bullets. I like the flat nose design. A flat nose seems to improve penetration. This is probably due to the superpenetrator effect, discussed in one of the AR forums a few years back. And your Elmer Keith already found this out back in the thirties of the last century. So far so good...

And now comes an aspect of Hornadys new bullet that I consider a lost opportunity. Consider Woodleighs .458 500 gns FMJ bullet, which sets a kind of performance standard against dangerous game: overall length = 1.395 inches. Length between the bullets base and the crimp groove = 0.498 inches.

Now everybody knows how small the powder volume of the .458 Lott cases is - and the volume of the .458 Magnum cases is even smaller. So, with Hornadys DGS bullet being shorter (1.331 inches overall length) than the Woodleigh one would assume that Hornady designs its bullet so that the length below the crimp
groove is also 0.06 inches shorter. This way the there would be more room for the powder in the cartridge case.

But instead Hornady does it just the other way around!! The base part of the DGS measures 0.585 against 0.498 inches of
the Woodleigh. So I have to set Hornadys DGS farther in than the Woodleigh allowing even less room for the powder than the bigger/heavier Woodleigh FMJ.

I really wonder what went through the brain of Hornadys engineers when they designed this bullet. I am disappointed!

HJ - excellent point.
Possibly someone from Hornady will chime in and answer your question. Or, maybe not, if they realize their error.

Maybe the Hornadys are made for the .450 NE just like the Woodleighs. I even attempted to order some of the 480 gr. Woodleighs with the more rearward cannelure, no luck. I guess these bullet manufacturers don't seem to realize that there is a market share out there just waiting to to be capitalized upon!!

Geronimo

Geronimo, the same happened to me a few years back.

I contacted Woodleigh via e-mail asking them for 480 gns bullets with a more rearward crimp groove. They told me that perhaps they would have a production run with this type of bullets. But regrettably I never heard from them again...

Can't you make your own crimp groove? There is a tool you can purchase to do this.

quote:

Originally posted by Woodrow S:
Can't you make your own crimp groove? There is a tool you can purchase to do this.

Thank you for this suggestion. Yes, there is cannelure tool on offer. It is supplied by Buffalo Arms Co for 64,79. I just ordered one and let you know how it works.

I have had several of these tools -- the corbin tool works best.

If you can't get 2250 or better on a lott, or 2100 or better with a winmag, you need to change powders.

the 480 was INTENTIONALLY designed to work in the NE rounds, sir .. to allow NEs to be set at proper length. With the 20gr heaver bullet set for the cartridge guns, and that equates to about 20-25 FPS difference, .. well, just buy the 500 gr if you need the length

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
I have had several of these tools -- the corbin tool works best.

If you can't get 2250 or better on a lott, or 2100 or better with a winmag, you need to change powders.

the 480 was INTENTIONALLY designed to work in the NE rounds, sir .. to allow NEs to be set at proper length. With the 20gr heaver bullet set for the cartridge guns, and that equates to about 20-25 FPS difference, .. well, just buy the 500 gr if you need the length

Many thanks for your advice. I usually load 500 gns Woodleigh FMJ for dangerous game. From my 23 inches Lott barrel 88 gns Kemira N540 result in 2290 FPS.

I have used this load several times on big game (hippo, buff and elephant) with good results. So far so good.

But I want a a FLATNOSED FMJ bullet. Now you could argue that if the Hornady DGS doesn't do it - why not use one of the flat nosed monometal
that are on the market? The problem with these bullets is that they are usually very long due to the specific weight of the material used. So we have the problem of reduced case volume... etc. as explained above.

The 480 gns Hornady DGS just seemed the answer to my wishes. OK, I have to wait and see what the cannelure tool will do for me.

Hans

Hans,
they had you in mind, and I wasn't clear

If the 480 DGS/X, due to cannelure, actually takes up more space, then the 500 gr DGX/DGS may be the answer

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewp...productnumber=150792