I was breaking in a little Marlin .45 Colt carbine today, and had just five rounds loaded for the .416 Taylor (waiting for another box of Hornady 400s from Midway) as well as a "new" used Weaver K4 to try on the VZ-24. I had seen where Ken Waters said 60 grains of 3031 under the Hornady RN was pleasant and nicely accurate, and I must concur. After bore sighting, my first shot was a bit low and right, so I adjusted the scope a few clicks up and over and put the next four in a ragged hole at 50 yards. I know that four rounds at 50 yards isn't exactly proof of an accurate load, but I suspect Ken is right on this, as he is usually right on about everything. Anyone else shooting 3031 in their Taylor or is everyone burning Re 15?

I've tried RL-15, Varget and BL-C(2) with 350gr Speer M.T. I posted how I built the loads here somewhere. BL-C(2) gave the best fill-up rate. 85gr had 0.0003" belt expansion and 84gr had 0.0001" so 84gr gets the nod. 3031, 4064 and 4320 were the powders Ken Waters used in his Pet Loads. 3031 gave the best accuracy and 4320 the highest velocity but both were at or over 2400fps with 400gr bullets. RL-15 and Varget are within 1 grain of each other in my rifle, BL-C(2) is 7-8 gr more. You might try them...or not, depending on your level of experimentation needs. I would suspect they are all close in velocity plus or minus 50fps at 2400fps. I like my toy but it is a little big for most of the critters around Oregon, but it will do the job, EXTREMELY well.

I use IMR 3031 with 300 grain Barnes-X bullets in my .416 Taylor. With its 26" long Shilen 14" twist barrel, it gets about 2700 fps with max loads.

Max load with 400 grain Hornady RNSP was obtained with RL-15 and was over 2400 fps in the same gun.

The .416 Taylor is a sweet cartridge.