Yep,
That is how they get a 300 RUM to shoot like a .308 WCF.
Using the same technique, you too can get your .458 WinMag to shoot like the old 45-70 Govt. from 1873: AA 5744

I use 5744 in all my big bores for plinking.

RIP- You do realize that with 5744 you can get your 500a2 or 500MBOGO to shoot like a .50 Beowulf dont you? Bet you never thought of that! -Rob

I am going to look at some of this for some fun loads in my rifles too! Something I always seem to never get around too with all the other test work being done, just some fun shooting and playing around!

Michael

Wonderful stuff, 5744.

Not a big bore.....but I use 5744 and cast flat-noses in a .307 Model 94. It's heaps of fun and everybody in the family can rock-n-roll with it.

Just finished playing with it in the 500N with a 528gr cast bullet. If you want your "plinkers" to simulate the real thing and beat the crap out of you, it can match factory ballistics (2100+). It was a pleasant surprise what 5744 would do.

quote:

It was a pleasant surprise what 5744 would do.

what surprise?

That it can and did match factory velocities. Most just plink with it.

Mike,

Was it sooty at full power?

Where did you get the cast bullets?

For pure plinking pleasure, try Trail Boss. Hodgdon publishes the loads.

Hodgdon has and IMR trail boss loads for the 416 Rigby that make it shoot like a 40-65 or 40-82WCF.

Just about like any powder, the higher the pressure, the cleaner it burns. Past 30K it wasn't much worse than any other powder, a few grains but nothing like <20K. The bullet was CP that weighed ~528grs. Way too brittle for animal use at top speeds but good for getting used to a new rifle and practice on the cheap. Nice that the same powder can go from 1400fps to 2100+ to ease into recoil one step at a time.

I have zero use for Trail Boss.

quote:

I have zero use for Trail Boss.

Roger that. TB is weird stuff. Although it's touted as "THE" cast bullet powder, it's never given me even decent accuracy with nekked slugs. It's like it wacks the bullet so fast initially that it strips in the leade. Dunno...


It's recommended to NOT use fillers with 5744 but I've found it to burn much more consistently with enough poly fluff to bring it up to 100% capacity. This is in .45-70, .458Lott, and .600OK, especially the OK.

Thanks for the reminder. I use 5744 for cast bullets in my .45-90 and other powders for jacketed and solid loads.

My son will soon take delivery of a .458 Socom upper for his DPMS Panther and will be trying some of my stash of 5744 for practice loads.

Trail Boss, Accurate 5744, SR 4759, 60% of maximum H-4895 load, IMR 4198. All are very useful in the correct application; all have no use in the wrong applications.

I guess the trick is deciding which horse, for which course.

Mike is of course, exactly correct that in capacious cartridge cases, Accurate 5744 is extremely handy in that it provides a nearly linear increase in velocity when plotted against pressure up to 2,100 fps.

FWIW Mike, if you wish I will send you some heat treated Brinell 18-22 gas checked lead bullets that will flatten anything from a deer, elk, moose on up to a well head from your 500 NE.

Heat treated was what was wrong with these. They were so hard at top speed, they shattered like glass. Fine for paper but that's it.

They screwed up the heat treat, that is for sure.

I will send you some to try. I am no expert on Pb, but I gather the idea for the heat treat is to go up slowly to just below metal slump, and then let it cool slowly. I will look that up because I need to know. Hard on the outside, ductile on the inside.

I had a bag of .417" sized GC bullets that I used to use in the old Rigby for culling bison that had eloped. Those would just zip through the brain housing unit at about 2,000 fps.

I have been loading some 500 NE, 3 1/4" lately with Woodleighs. Not cheap at all; you hit that nail on the head.

I will let you know what I find out.

LD

BTW A friend had some Westley Richards 500 NE cartridge five-packs. The price sticker only said $85.95. $17.00 per cartridge.