Wondering if anyone is loading the 400g Hydro in their .404J and what OAL they settled on to get these bullets feeding reliably?

That probably depends on the length of the throat and the magazine..Id seat them out as for as the magazine allows, the try that in the chamber, if they won't go then start setting the bullet back until the bolt closes snug, then set it back a little more, keeping in mind that "function" is first and foremost, a big bore need not be a bench rest rifle and a little bullet jump won't hurt a thing..

What Geoff got in his rifles doesn't have much to do with what your rifle requires..Also my personal experience tells me that the use of a solid is seldom long range. I say seldom because there are those who can muster up all manor of reasons to challenge that statement.

Thanks Ray, I appreciate somebody posting and bumping the thread

My questioning at this stage is really to try and determine if the normal OAL for a RNSN is likely to feed with a Hydro, or if people have found that they really need to seat these deeper in the case than conventional bullets in order to feed reliably in their rifles.

Once I've got some OALs to play with I can then run some loads through Quickload, all before the rifle is in the hands

And just to prove your point, the design brief of the Hydro AFAIK is to eliminate the need to take both softs and solids unless you are shooting within large herds, so I suppose part of my research interest is just how much I can stoke them to get a nice flat trajectory

GBE,
Do you actually need a nice flat trajectory or are you overthinking the scenario as I would think all your shots on Aussie Buffalo will be under 200 yards or 300 at the most on the flats, and under a 100 in the bush...

I would only be concerned on the feed and function issue and would concentrate on my softs and solids shooting to the same POI..Having to have specific seating depths is fine on a 300 Wby, but on a 404 it just isn't meaningful..

Just my two bits on an interesting conversation, but Im not the last word in how anyone choses to set his rifle up.

Ray,

The rifle will see use in Zambia and Benin before it goes anywhere near a water buffalo, and to add insult to injury I'm just the bloke asked to reload for it, not the one who'll carry it. The owner is hoping to avoid the range time of trying to develop two loads, and then hoping that softs and solids both shoot respectable groups and are close to the same POI, and just run the Hydros.

From discussions with Woodleigh getting a Hydro to create a wider wound profile than a traditional FMJ is a product of velocity - in the .404 this is a load in the 2300 range rather than the old Kynoch 2150fps range.

As for trajectory, what is the longest shot one expects to take on a western roan or hartebeast?

As I posted above, I'm currently just plugging random numbers in to QL waiting for the owner to take delivery of the rifle and take to it with a set of calipers.

I never shot my 404 over 300 yards, I loaded it at 2400 FPS with any solid including the early Hydros..For PG that pops up the 404 isn't a long range caliber, end of story, its a 300 yard gun absolute max and a better 200 yard caliber IMO.

I'm not clear exactly what that has to do with seating depth on a DG rifle, primarily it shouls match the magazine and be a bit short in the throat. The last thing one wants in a DG rifle is a bullet set to far out and recoil or being set out to far to start with sticks the bullet in the throat and if you work the action you pull out an empty and powder is everywhere, I have seen this so many times its unreal, thus my suggestions to you in prior posts.