Just reporting in with some load data, which mostly just confirms other sources. 60 grains of IMR 3031 in WW .458 cases with WLRM primer and the Hornady 400-grain Interlock RN gave 2,094 and an SD of 8 out of my 25-inch Pac-Nor barrel. This load is pleasant shooting. 70 grains of Re 15 with the same components gave 2280 and an SD of 4. Now to start working up!

By the way, it occurred to me that it was odd to be compressing the 70-grain RE15 load, so I just double checked and discovered that Hornady has moved the cannelure toward the nose by about .009 on its new 400-grain RNs. Huh!

A good stiff load of 4895 or 4064 will perk things up a bit and give you an honest 2350 FPS/

Bill,

I noticed the same thing (about the cannelures)a few months back. Do you recall when one of the major reloading supply stores (MidSouth?) had the big sale on surplus bullets? Of course the bullets turned out to be Hornady products, and lot's of folks took advantage of the sale.

Anyhow, I ordered a bunch of their 'surplus' bullets in .416 weighing 400grs. When they arrived, in a bag like Nosler 'seconds', the bullets had the lower cannelure that works well in 416 Taylors.

Here's a picture showing two 416 Taylors loaded up with the two different bullet configurations, and the packaging the bullets came in. But, like an idiot, I reversed the cartridges, and the one on the right goes with the bag on the left, and the cartridge on the left goes with the hornady box...



If ya look closely at the target in the background, there's some very good data there.

Brian,

It is several years since I have seen 416 Wby facory ammo with 400 grain Hornadies so things might have changed, but those Hornadies had the cannelure further back so the bullet stuck further out of the case. Also the bullet shape was just like the 500 grain Hornady 458. The 400 Hornadies you bought at that time were much more tapered from the cannelure to the point than were those in the 416 Wby ammo.

Mike

Shot some 416 Taylor loads over a chrony this weekend myself. I was very surprised to see that my most accurate load so far, 400 grain Hornady over 69.5 grains of Re-15 all showed between 2,258 and 2,260 fps. Had one cartrige made up with my max load, 73 grains of Re-15. It showed 2,372 fps.

This is my first big bore and I havn't had it long enough to test other powders or bullets yet but I'm quickly becoming a big bore fanatic!

Brian
Does that say 2480fps?

What is your barrel length again and is that a fairly top-end load?

h4895 seems to like cases with a lot of bore and little shoulders. It works great in 358 and 375 hawks too.

[ 03-05-2003, 07:29: Message edited by: cgdavid ]

cgdavid,

No, it say 2430, in my not so great handwriting.

I'll be the first to admit, that may be a slightly fast average for this load, as my chrono is cheap, and often gives false readings. I need to run this combo over the chronograph a couple more times, to convince myself it's an honest 2400fps load.

My barrel is only 23 inches long (Dougles #5 contour) and mid-2300fps velocities are what RL-15 usually produces in this rifle. That accuracy though, (that's three bullet holes touching) has happened quite a few times with H4895 powder. It was a surprise to me, as this rifle has never been a 'tack-driver' in the past.

As you can imagine, the repeatable accuracy, and the promise of near-2400fps velocity, make H4895 the powder of choice for this rifle. It should be noted, that I've tried RL-15, IMR-4320, and IMR-3031 powders as well. Haven't tried the IMR-4064 mentioned above, or at least I don't recall using it.

Brian, I will definately give that load a try. I haven't played with H4895 yet.

Guess you don't even need to think about a Howell with that kind of velocity and accuracy!!

Cheers,
Canuck