Any suggested sources?

465H&H

Lead Bullets in a .470 Nitro





HAND LOADING An Adventure with Lead Bullets In The .470 Nitro Express
by Leo Grizzaffi

My first contact with the .470 Nitro cartridge was as an early teenager wishing my way
through a 1947 Stoeger Gun Catalogue. The very sight of the cartridge brought forth
dreams of adventure that even then had mostly been reduced to the recorded exploits of
men long gone from the hunting scene.




The .470 (left) and the .458 Win mag

For over four decades, I collected shot, and reloaded scores of other guns in many calibres, but still longed to someday have a double rifle for my very own. Like many, the dream was beyond the reality of my means. One day while fantasizing through the Safari Club Journal, I noticed an ad by Butch Searcy, of Searcy Enterprises, Boron, California offering double rifles at a price that was within the realm of reason. (See Searcy website)

A phone call to Butch started me on an adventure that I hope never sees completion. Within four months of my first call to Butch, I was at his shop picking up what was to turn out to be the most fascinating and satisfying gun I have ever owned. The first four 80 yard groups of two shots, one from each barrel, measured just one inch.

There are very few shooters who can afford to enjoy and become proficient with a .470 Nitro using factory ammunition. The logical course is to reload this behemoth of a cartridge with a less costly lead bullet. I soon learned that much of what I had read about double rifles was decades old, second hand information, and contained almost nothing on reloading this cartridge or techniques using cast lead bullets.

The first problem was finding a source of reloadable cases. Firing Federal factory ammunition for the cases was not within my budget. Butch provided me with a mixed lot of A-Square, Bertran, Bell, and Federal once-fired cases to get me started, and I was able to obtain a supply of Norma brass from an importer.

The quality of brass varied with the manufacturers. Norma brass is the best I have tried. It is my choice for heavy lead and jacketed bullet loads. All makes of brass required some deburring of the flash hole. The long .470 Nitro Express case is a challenging adventure in reloading. Many tools used to reload the general lines of sporting cartridges used today, are not designed to function with the .470's 3.25' length case. Deburring the flash hole required that an extension be made for a RCBS reamer. The loading tool manufacturers do not make a case trimmer long enough for the .470 case, nor do they make a trimmer plug guide. This is easily solved however, by making your own guide plug with a diameter of .470" and mounting a RCBS trimmer cutter with the new guide into the chuck of a drill press. The base of the case is aligned by mounting a decapping pin into a piece of aluminum and centering the pin with the guide plug. The drill press may then be set to the correct length to trim the case and this problem is then solved.

Each manufacturer's lot of brass varied so much in length that I found it necessary to trim cases, to one length; using the shortest case in the lot as the standard. This resulted in some lots being shorter than the recommended 3.240". Bertran brass seems to vary the most, with Norma cases not requiring any trimming at all.

The matter of reloading dies is, in theory, a simple one. Most loading die manufacturers list the .470 in their semi-custom die list at a premium price. These are usually two die sets, but should actually be made as three die sets. I used a 500 Nitro Express sizing die with a .476" expander button to create a neck expander die. Shell holders are easily obtained from RCBS at a slightly increased price than their standard line of shell holders.

The .470 Nitro Express has some individualistic reloading characteristics that become apparent after several cases are lost. At the price of the brass, each case lost is long remembered. The rim on the .470 case was designed in the black powder era, seemingly without any thought of the case being reloaded. Full length resizing of the case will eventually result in pulling the rim off more cases than you will want to lose. The secret is to remove the decapping stem from the sizing die. Make a washer, one inch in diameter and. 150" thick with a 570" hole and in the centre recessed to accept the rim of the .470 case. You can then decap the case by hand, lubricate the entire case, then place the lubed case with the washer over the rim into the sizing die. Place the die, case, and washer into a small arbor press, and press the combination fully into the die. After sizing, the case is removed from the sizing die with a 3/8" rod. Full length sizing should only be required when using cases previously fired in a different gun and always check any loaded ammunition in your gun before going into the field.

When you attempt to do normal neck sizing, you will find that the standard loading press is not long enough to handle the Express cases. The.470 case can be handled in an old RCBS Big Max press or one of the new long stroke presses that are now available. Cases to be used with lead bullets need only be sized to the seating depth of the bullet. To avoid shaving bullets, case mouths should be belled using an expander button of the Lyman "M" style. It should have a .476" body with a rounded step to.479". The body is to be long enough to reach to the bottom of the neck of the .470 case and the 479 section should be long enough to enter the case to depth of 1/16". This button is used in the neck expander die.

I soon found that the commercial mould makers, who list moulds for the 470, produce moulds that are undersized in deference to the old .470s that are around. A modern .470 barrel will measure about .475 groove diameter and needs a cast lead bullet of .477" or 4775" diameter. NEI located in Scappoose Oregon, makes several good moulds that could be used in the .470. I believe the key to using the 470 with lead bullets is to develop an inexpensive load with a lead bullet that could be used on any game from monkeys to buffalo. I therefore had them make me a mould incorporating a large meplat that would cast a 500+ grain bullet out of wheel weights with 2% tin added, having a diameter of .4775".

Needing a .4775 sizing die, I sent one of my extra Saeco dies to MKL Services of Troy, Michigan to be opened. A top punch for a .45 wadcutter can be enlarged to fit the meplat of the bullet, or NEI can supply a top punch cut with the same cherry as used in making their moulds.

Despite the concern that many may have about the use of over-powder wads, I find that 'get the best accuracy using a 3/8" foam wad pressed lightly on top of the powder. I make my wads by cutting four-inch thick refrigeration wall foam in 3/8" strips on a table saw. After the case is sized, primed, belled, and charged, I press the mouth of the case into the foam, and it cuts a foam disk that is then pressed further into the case with a wooden dowel. This is not a recommendation for over-powder wads, but is only my personal preference.

Lead bullets can be seated in a normal .470 seating die with a seating plug that has been altered to match the counter of the bullet nose. The alteration is simply done by applying some hot glue to the end of the seating plug and pushing an oiled bullet against the glue until it hardens. Lead bullets should not be roll crimped. Jacketed bullets may need a heavy roll crimp, but this is brutal on the brass case. The idea of lead bullets is to extend the life of the case as long as possible. I recommend seating the bullet to the depth of the crimping groove, and then I use the long tapered shoulder in the seating die as a taper crimper. This does a beautiful job without distorting the bullet.

I have worked up loads with several of the relatively fast rifle powders that are available. The best seems to be Accurate Arms 5744. Thirty rounds loaded with 30 grains of AA5744 went into a 2.5" group at 50 from a standing position. The following are some of my experiences using the 500 grain .470 bullet, AA5744 powder and Winchester standard large rifle primers.

30 grain AA5744, 1250 fps: Mild recoil, shoots approximately 2.5" lower at 50 yards than Federal factory ammunition.

35 grain AA5744, 1350 fps: Good light game load; will swing a thirty pound steel silhouette target at 50 yards.

45 grain AA5744, 1560 fps: Noticeable recoil. Serious hunting load.

50 grain AA5744. 1750 fps: Heavy recoil, very flat shooting from 50 to 100 yards. Enough pressure to iron out majority of dents in thin body of case.

55 grain AA5744, 1850 fps: Heavy recoil, moderate pressure. I believe this load would be usable on Cape buffalo.

I have fired over 100 rounds of the 30 grain load in an afternoon shooting session without any discomfort. The 35 grain load was used in Texas to take a javelina at 35 yards with one shot through the chest. The animal was running and went down before the gun came out of recoil. A 150 pound wild boar was shot while I was hunting in extremely heavy bush. This was the perfect place for a fast handling double rifle. A cow nilgai weighing over three hundred pounds was first hit low at 50 yards and required a second shot into the chest at 60 yards. All bullets passed through these animals and the exit holes showed no expansion from the lead bullet.

The 55 grain load was again used in Texas for a Javelina at 50 yards, a boar again in heavy brush at 30 yards. The lead bullets entered the chest and turned everything into mush. Actually overkill seemed present. This load was also used to take a large bull nilgai. This animal was the size of a large bull Elk or a kudu. The animal was first hit at 50 yards and immediately upon impact jumped four feet into the air. The animal took one step and as the gun came out of recoil he was hit with the second barrel and dropped straight to the ground. The large meplat of the lead bullet produced a loud whack upon hitting the animal. The nilgai has a thick layer of fat around its chest along with a tough hide. The entrance and exit holes looked as if they had been cut out of the hide with a half-inch cookie cutter. On opening the animal it was found that the first bullet had destroyed the heart and made a four-inch hole exit in the far side of the rib cage, the second bullet had passed above the heart and left a six-inch exit hole through the rib cage. This shows how much a layer of fat and a tough hide can do to stem the bleeding from a badly damaged animal.

Using lead bullets enabled me to fire over 1500 rounds through my .470 in the first ten months I had it, at a price comparable to reloading for a .44 Magnum. I believe that except for brain shots on elephant and rhino, a .470 with lead bullets could be used in the hunting of any game on the American or African continents. For those of you who may question this, I will state that I hunted last April in Zimbabwe with the .470 and cast lead bullets, but that's a story for another time.



About The Author

Leo Grizzaffi is an attorney residing in Torrance, California. He started reloading in 1952, and was national sales manager for Golden Arms State Corp. between 1956 and 1966. He is a life member NRA, member and contribution author to Cast Bullet Association, and has hunted in the USA, Russia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. His main shooting activities are devoted to testing loads in double rifles, especially in developing the use of lead bullets.

A coupel of us, New Guy, Boomie, 470 Mbogo, MJines and I just bought a mold from NEI and it will be at www.customcastbullets.com for a 500 gr, more or less woodleigh copied gaschecked .476 driving band, cast bullet. Wayne will be making these. If hard enough (tell him) you should be able to get 2100-2200 FPS without a leading PROBLEM.

jeffe

465:

Who made your .470? If it Searcy, I think you should give him a call.

I'm taking possession of my .577 in about a week's time and Butch mentioned to me in a phone conversation that he has lead bullets for the .577 that a friend of his makes.

I assume that this friend makes other calibers, but am not sure. Butch said his casts are very good prices.

Thanks for the help guys. I will try Butch first.

465H&H

P. M. sent

I just bought a Searcy and need practice ammo in 470. Does Butch work on Saturday?

Any update on the bullet aviability from www.customcastbullets.com?

I've been checking the site often but still don't see them listed.

Here is the load that has worked for me:

470 NE
500 grain cast least bullet, small flat nose
45.0 grains XMP5744
F215 primer

Please consult your rifle's manufacturer before trying this.