Just bought a new Ruger .454 casull. I am familiar with and reload the .45 colt. Have many bullets, mostly 250gr. cast of various types and a few 250gr. XTP's.

My question: Are the typical hardcast lead .45 Colt 250gr. bullets O.K. to load in the .454? I ask because my search results tend to favor gas check type bullets in the .454 loads. I own several of the new reloading manuals and the .454 One Book, but they do not answer my question. I prefer H110 in my .45 Colt and intend on using it for my .454 loads. I imagine the gas check type bullets accomodate the higher pressures. Will the 250gr. non-gascheck bullets work?

I would recommend you use the gas checked bullets for the high performance loads. Plain based bullets are better suited for the reduced loads.

Even with loads that are light (for a .454) I still get some barrel leading. Also, my front sight is splattered with lead that has come out of the barrel ports at the end of a range session.

Use a gas check.

Those boolits are pretty light for a .454. You have to load light because driving them too fast will slam them into the forcing cone and rifling so fast that they skid, enlarging the grooves from the lands, making a path for gas and causing gas to cut the lead. You would be better off with 300 gr and heavier boolits. Gas checks work the best too. I would load them at .45 velocity's for plinking.

I use 250 gr commercially cast bullets for my .454 and at over 1100 fps they tend to lead, I also use 230 grain cast bullers that I cast myself hard and they will tend to lead at a little over 1250 fps. but then I got the idea of putting the gascheck upsid down, I tried it and it worked fine 1300, 1400 fps never tried to get more velocity from these although I think that it is very possible. I have3 also shot 310 gr GC caast hard bullets at 1550 fps they are the same alloy as the 230 gr cast. So try them with the GC upsid down and have fun. You may have to run the GC through a siger to get them to go in upside down.
Mike

I once bought magtech bullets for the 454 thinking that it was something else but these bullets were way to soft and one wack with a 3 pound hammer just proofed that to me.That justifies the above explanations of the other gentelmen in this forum.
Try to shoot ,gaschecked bullets in the 250 -300grn range,wheelweights would do fine if you cast your own bullets and stay away from the softer bullets intended for the 45 colt except if you really shoot reduced loads[45 colt velocity]
Regards
Johan

PS excuse the misspell I've got fat fingers.

I have fat brain and have to search for the letters!

LeeOtis, the 454 is a completely different critter than the 45 colt. pressures in the 454 can exceed 55000 cup with some of the top loads.several cast bullets that work well in the 454 for hunting loads can be found from both Beartooth Bullets and Cast Preformance. Loading data can be found from their websites as well. Their bullets will be tempered to a higher hardness rating, they come both with and without a gas check, I have never used a cast bullet without a gas check in the 454. As for the xtp bullets, be careful which ones you use, they used to make a thicker jacket in the 300g weight just for the 454. velocitys can exceed 1750 fps out of a 7 1/2 barrel in my FA gun. Note the xtp 300g bullets for the 45 and 44 have a disclaimer not to exceed 1600 fps. As to the lighter 240 to 260g bullet weights, Freedom Arms lists a 2000 fps load for their 260g jacketed bullet and that is at the 55000+ pressure range. They used to have some loadings for a 240g bullet but it was much slower using a faster buring rate powder. I would recommend using only gas checked bullets above 1000 or 1100 fps just to reduce leading from the softer bullets, and load the bullets you have down to 45 velocitys, using 45 cases and faster powders.My favorite hunting load from my 7 1/2 in barrelled FA gun is 30g H110, 300g XTP, FA case, CCI small rifle mag primer= 1700 fps and 3" 100 yd groups. for playing around loads try your 250g cast bullets over 9-10g of unique powder and use a 45 case, you should see somewhere in the 900-1000 fps range. Think of the 454 as a super mag 45 akin to the 357 max or the wesson 414 and 445 supermags. The advantage to all of these longer cases is that you can shoot longer heaver bullets at the same velocities as the mags shoot lighter bullets. I don't think there is anything walking around in the lower 48 that can't be taken with a 45 colt out of a ruger hundgun. But the practical upper limit bullet weight for a 45 colt is about 335g before you run out of case capicity, and or cylinder length. I can run 360g up to 405g from the 454 at the same speed or faster. anywhy hope all this helps some.