I loaded up some 240 grain sierra JHP with some Hodgdon Lil'gun powder. I was shooting my taurus raging bull and ran into two problems with this load.



First the starting load 35 grains was a little warm and any working up loads 36-38 were too hot. I only shot 1 at 38 grains and trashed the rest.



Second: sometimes parts of the bullet jackets would shear off in the forcing cone ! Not what I would call little pieces either. Some were a ring of jacket material about an eighth of an inch long. Lucky the revolver is very smooth so I could feel the resistance of metal in the cylinder gap when I would cock the gun for the next shot.



I bought Lil'gun powder because the load data showed Lil'gun shooting right with H110 for velocity but at about 20% less pressure with the 240 grain bullet.



I guess its back to the loading bench and maybe back to H110 . I'll put the sierra's in 45 colt cases and use starting loads for plinking ammo.

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The gun loves any factory ammo I have shot in it. But it is spendy and I like to reload. Thanks for reading I just had to vent. And inform the unknowing about loading 240 Sierras at high velocity.

I'd say dump the jacketed bullets and go with a heavy cast bullet. My raging bull shoots plain base bullets better than gaschecked. I use Surplus WC820 and the gun just loves it. I did a bullet nose design comparision for accuracy test in my 454 Raging Bull. The results are on my site
http://members.fortunecity.com/howda/mm454.html
Cast bullets and surplus powder will stretch your shooting budget along ways.
congrats on a nice gun.

I like 300 grain Hornadys on top of H110. 300 grain bullets seem to be more accurate in my gun than the lighter bullets. As far as cast bullets go, by the time I slow them down enough to minimize leading, accuracy suffers. I have found that a heavy bullet going at slow speeds in my 7.5" pistol causes the muzzle to rise before the bullet leaves the barrel. The result is a high point of impact. I suppose I could get a taller front blade but I just don't like the thought of doing that.

I think the Seirra 300 grain is the only one they recommend for the Casull. Hornady has 2 newer bullets, the XTP-MAGs that are made for the higher velocity/pressure. One of the XTP-MAG is 240 Gr, the other 300 Gr. I've shot some of the 240's with AA9 without the jacket problem. Just in the early stages of working on it though so can't say much more. Hornady factory loads the 240 XTP-MAG to 2000 fps according to the ammo box, their reloading book only goes up to 1850 fps.

RMiller,

I would strongly suggest you not use the XTP-MAG bullets either. There is no danger in doing so and if the only thing you hunt is deer size game they should work fine but I have tested these bullets and found them to be not much better then the standard XTP.

The only inprovement I have seen with these new XTP bullets over the standard is that they have a thicker jacket with fewer expansion flutes to control expansion better at higher velocities.

Problem is that when impacting a target that is mostly fluid(any live target) The XTP bullets as a family have a real problem keeping their jackets wrapped around the core. When I first got into big bore handgun hunting, my choice was the 44 Mag shooting the 300 gr XTP over I believe 21.0 gr H-110. This load was good for around 1250 fps and extremely accurate, sub 4" groups at 100 yards out of my Ruger SRH.

Problem was that when fired into solid media, they mushroomed like you see in the magazine ads. When shot into water, they had jacket/core seperation 40% of the time. From the game I have harvested with these bullets, actual on game seperations seem to be lower at around 20% which is still much to high for me.

I switched to the 270 gr Speer Gold Dot when it came out. I can load it much faster, shoots quite a bit flatter out to 125 yards and retains more weight and penetrates much better then the XTP's of any weight.

Accuracy is not quite as good but more then enough for hunting out to 125 yards, my limit with a revolver.

When I started loading custom ammunition for customers, I decided to test out the new line of bullets for the 454 since it was becoming so popular. The new XTP-MAG bullets seperated at almost exactly the same rate as the standard, even when tested at a full 100 yards.

If you want a jacketed bullet in the 454, use the 300 gr Speer Uni-Core SP but I would much prefer a good LBT of proper hardness for my big bores at any velocity.

No jacketed bullet will compare to the new cast bullets.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Good post Fiftydriver, lots of info.

I'll look for the speer gold dots.

I am looking for a low cost hunting bullet that I could afford to practice with.

The lighter bullets are for target practice mostly but I do want them to be full house loads for use on black bear. Our bears go 200-250 pounds mostly.

Also I didn't get a 454 casull to shoot 45 colts in.

I shot 293 grain hard cast in my 41 mag and practiced with 210 JHP bullets. I am looking to do the same thing with my 454.

I do have a box of 260 partitions and a box of 300 grain JFP both winchester ammo. I figured I could use either of these for anything bigger than the black bears.

I know a good hardcast would make life simple.

A wide flat nose 310-350 grains would make a good hole through anything I could hunt here. I'll have to see what I can find.

For jacketed bullets that can pulled right off the shelf, nothing beats the 300g Plated Speer.
It is the most accurate bullet I have shot out of my FA .454. I use FA cases and a max load of H110, with Rem 7 1/2 primers. The recoil is somewhat stiff (31.5 grains of H110 will do that ) but very shootable.


JFR

Well I went into town and did some shopping.

The only hardcast bullets I found for the 454 were 330 grain fp and they were $38.00 for 100 .

I picked up 2 boxes(50) of 300 grain speer gold dots $10.99 each at sportsmans warehouse.

Here is a nice 360 grain hardcast that I just got and haven't had the time to finish it up yet. 23 grains of H-110 gave me only 1100 fps.Looking for 1300+ fps.JB also is a great guy that follows up on all sales.Jayco.


http://competitor-pistol.com/images/452360WFNGC.jpg

That is a good looking bullet.

Thanks for the info.

RMiller,

How does that 293 gr stabalize at longer ranges(100 yards)? What kind of velocity is the 41 getting with that bullet.

Sounds like your a man of my own heart as far as using heavy bullets in big bore handguns.

I use only one brand of hard cast bullets and those are from Cast Performance. For the price they are as fine a big game bullet that has ever been made and on game they are amazing. I have developed loads for over 50 different handguns using these bullets in varying calibers and only two of those did not shoot the Cast Performance bullets as well or better then any load before.

One can cast their own but for the time saved and the health problems that can arrise by casting thousands of bullets, I will let someone else make them and ship them to me.

Also, I feel the 454 is a largely misunderstood big bore round, heres why I say that. Its claim to fame was the 250-260 gr class bullets at near 2000 fps and the 300 gr bullets at well over 1600 fps.

While it will do this, I feel it is a better hunting big bore if bullet weight is bumped up and velocity is slowed a bit.

In the 454, I recommend nothing lighter then 325 gr. Anything less then this is really just playing around and on big critters I feel 360 gr is a very good weight. Often velocities with these hard cast bullets will reach near 1500 fps with the 360 gr class but there is no need.

A 360 gr WFNGC loaded to 1300-1400 fps will punch a very deep hole through any critter in North America.

Better yet in my mind is the 395 gr from Cast Performance loaded to +1300 fps. This is a top performance load that will penetrate well, hit very hard and is generally much easier to shoot then even a 240 gr pill at a screaming 2000 fps.

Muzzle blast with the heavy bullets is much less then with the faster lighter bullets and on game performance is not even a comparision.

Also, they cost about the same as the Speer Uni-Core SP bullets but are even better.

Good Shooting!!!

50

Fifty-What kinda load do you use with the 360?The lot of H-110 That I have is a slow one.31.5 with the Unicore only gives me right at 1500 fps in a 6.5 inch Barrel and with 23 on the 360 right at 1100 fps.I am about out of it and am contimplateing starting off with the new H-110 for the 360.What should one expect velocity wise for the 360 grain Hardcast and H-110.

Jayco.

Just my 2 cents worth, but with a 360 with 27grns of ww-296, I was getting right at 1440fps out of my 7.5 srh. My gun liked the 325's at 1550 alot better. I did notice that h-110 was a little slower than 296, but they are supposedly the same powder just different name,either way, it will easily kill what is in front of it. But I agree cast is the way to go in the 454.

My 293 grain 41 mags were going 1275 f.p.s. out of a 4-5/8" blackhawk with 19 grains of h110. A max load from the hodgdon manual.

When I was practiced up I could hit a 10" steel plate at least 50% of the time at 200 yards. I just aimed spot on with those bullets. They hit about 6" high at 100 yards With about a 6 inch group. I shot one deer at 110 yards with the 293 grainers. Shot was too far back but made a nice hole the deer went down to stay.

I finished off a moose with one also. It was head shot and went under the brain through at least 8" of solid bone and out the other side.

I just got a lead on some 340 grain hardcast WFN bullets from a local caster . Looks like I'll be loading some lead after all.

I plan on carrying my pistol while bear hunting this spring and if I get close enough I'll use it instead of my rifle. This could get exciting cause I will be hunting brownies too.

"Better yet in my mind is the 395 gr from Cast Performance loaded to +1300 fps. This is a top performance load that will penetrate well, hit very hard and is generally much easier to shoot then even a 240 gr pill at a screaming 2000 fps.

Muzzle blast with the heavy bullets is much less then with the faster lighter bullets and on game performance is not even a comparision."

I see they have load data on their website. They don't list a load for the 395gr in a Casull however. Could you tell us what you are using, or at least a good starting load? What's the first signs of pressure I will see with a cast bullet? Any different then jacketed.

I used to load cast for my 44 mag but always had leading problems. Thanks

I have a couple of bullet molds that produce a similar bullet in the 320 to 350gn range. I shoot 26gns of WC820 for 1350fps from my 6.5" Taurus.

Is pressure one of the disadvantages of the .454 casull??



Thanks

Hodgdon annual manual has data for the

395 grain CPB LFN GC . Check one out at a magazine stand.

Cool Guy,

I would say maybe indirectly yes to your question. The only real disavantage of the .454 Casull as far as I am concerned is the noise. I have shot eveything from the heavy bullets as hard as they can be pushed out of a FA to the 255 SWC ahead of 9 grains of WW231. In all cases, the sound levels generated by firing the cartridges is unpleasant.

I loaded up some speer gold dot 300 grainers and some 340 grain WFNGC to shoot at the range tomorrow. The 340's have a .41 meplat