Been doing some homework for a new to me rifle and caliber. I have decided that my first efforts with this will be with 350 Gr bullets. I will work on heavier stuff later after I sort out the 350 gr.

I am planning on starting with Hornady 350 gr, and I know I am going to eat crow on this one ( I am not a stubborn as everyone believes ) but Barnes 350 Gr "X" bullets. I figure this will give me my best intial hunting loads. I have checked both Steves pages and the Reloaders Nest, with some but not conclusive data.

I was thinking of trying these two bulets with starting loads of 68 grs of RL-7 and figure I can work this up to 72 grs.

Anybody with any experience with this combo?

I regularly shoot the 350 X behind Reloader 7. This load will kill anything in north america out to 250 yards. It is accurate in my rifle. I think you are making a good choice.

buckeye,

Have you shot any game with this combo? Are my powder charges in the correct range?

I've had experience with the Hornady in other cases and I think you can drive it too fast for serious game in a 458 Win if you're not careful. It's a great bullet at 2000-2200. On lesser game (under 200 lbs) I guess it wouldn't matter.

I don't load that caliber but all my 458 Lott friends shoot the 405 Remington bulk bullets at 2000-2100 and love them. Cheaper than the Hornadys and accurate.

quote:

405 Remington bulk bullets at 2000-2100

Are they holding the velocites down because its a 45-70 bullet?

There are two Hornady 350 gr bullets, the FN I figured was a 45-70 bullet are the the RN versions the ones your talking about?

I am new into the 45 cal so I am sorting this out.

schromf
As far as I know the RN and the FN 350 gr. are very similar. I have used the 350 RN in my 45/70, 458 and my 450 No2 from 1890 fps to 2330 fps with excellent results on deer and pigs.
It is my favorite bullet in .458 for deer, pig, and I would use it also for black bear.
If i was to hunt brown bear with a 458 Win Mag I would use a premium 400 or 450 grain bullet.
Or maybe a 500 Trophy Bonded Bearclaw since I have a bunch of factory loads on hand.
I think the 458 is a good calibre for a persons first big bore, or their only big bore for that matter.

tiggergate is correct, you can drive some 458 bullets faster than they were designed for, with bad results.
That is the nice thing about the 458, bullets are available for a wide range of velocities.
Compare a 458 Win Mag with 400 and 450 grain bullets for big bear to any of the 416 Mags, you might be suprised. PS for buff and elephants I would use 450 to 500 grain bullets, solids where proper.

My specific loading is 56 grains of reloader 7 for 2150fps. I use winchester cases and cci primers. My rifle is a ruger 77 with 24" barrel.
The Barnes manual lists charges from 63 (2306fps) to 68 (2489fps). I have used this load on whitetail, black bear and moose.

quote:

Reply

FWIW... I've never had very good results with 350's accuracy-wise. 400 seems to be as low as I can go and keep groups from turning into patterns.

quote:

FWIW... I've never had very good results with 350's accuracy-wise. 400 seems to be as low as I can go and keep groups from turning into patterns.

That I will just need to work with the rifle on, there seems to be quite a variation of twists rates of the barrels between the manufacturers.