A "reloading" question, but it's about "big bores" and so posting here to keep the "varmints" out of the mix.

.458 Win. Mag. (Ruger No. 1) -- I have some Hornady and some Speer 500 gr. bullets. Shape-wise they're pretty identical.

Just yesterday I spent a lot of time getting 400 gr. bullets to seat deeply enough in the case so that they'd chamber in the action. 73 gr. of H 4895 and they're compressed loads.

The cannalure on the 500 gr. bullet sits about where the upper cannalure on the 400 gr. bullet sits. Load is 70 to 73 gr. -- so the charge is going to compress.

OK -- so the ogive above the cannalure extends considerably farther into the chamber than the 400 gr. bullet. I'm thinking they're not going to chamber.

What am I missing here?

The bullets may have their cannelures set for use in a .45-70, so unless you're getting bullets designed for the .458 Win Mag., Lott, etc., the cannelures may not match the case mouth.

When loading to above 85% case capacity, it is a good idea to either use a drop tube or tap the side of the case gently to help settle the kernels of powder.

That will give you a little more space for seating the bullets.

George

quote:

so unless you're getting bullets designed for the .458 Win Mag., Lott, etc., the cannelures may not match the case mouth.

Can you elaborate on this? How do cannelures "match" the case mouth?

Seems like the bullet is seating against the rifling. I'm not roll crimping this case, just taking the "bell" out of the mouth when seating the bullet.

The cannelure is a crimping groove. You would want the cannelure to line up with the case mouth so you can crimp the bullet. Some bullets have more than one cannelure, and they are designed for loading in more than one cartridge.

For example,

George

All of my 500 grain 458 Win Mag are compressed, heavily, and heavily crimped in the canalure on the Hornady 500's. I use RCBS reloading dies and a Lee crimp die. This has worked well for me.

Good luck.

.........I use the same setup kind of setup that JTEX does ..... ..........I have never been happy with 500 gr bullets in the 458 win ..Ihere in nothing on this Hemisphere that a 400 gr bullet won,t be big enough for .....And a 458 Win mag with a 300 gr bullet is just alot of fun ... I,ve shot crows with it and deer and every thing else .....The 300 gr Barnes original spitzers are fun and they don,t [ fall down ] like the 300 gr hollow points ....Hawk makes some nice little .458 bullets ......With your #1 you don,t need to worry about feeding , which is where the 300 gr spitzers come in in a bolt gun .........Shoot enough 500 gr bullets from a 9 lb rifle and you will get a serious hearache ..... A vibrator works well at setteling the powder ....Powder compression was always the problem with the 458 Win Mag ....AA2230 and IMR or H 4198 are my 3 favorite powders for the win mag .....I always had 75 fps plus velocity variation with 3031 .....sometimes over 100 fps ....And very heavy powder compression ...

I put the calipers to the bullets:

The base under the cannalure is 0.458" on the nose. Just forward of the cannalure runs 0.454".

I don't expect 0.004" is going to clear the rifling in the leade, but we'll have a look.

Oregon Trails Laser Cast makes a 350 gr. lead bullet in 0.459". I bought a box for this gun and the 45/70 -- snorts and giggles. I've run this brand in a 44 mag at circa 1800 fps and never have any "issues." And so I'm looking to run them at that speed in these calibers.

FWIW, on lead bullets, it is called a crimping groove. On jacketed bullets, it's called a cannelure.

George

What's it called if no-lead and no jacket?

A "Canne-Luoove"? or "Canne-Groove"?

If you can get the loaded round into the magazine of a .458 Win Mag then you will be able to chamber it with lots of throat room to spare, if it is a standard CIP or SAAMI throat and not a special "tight throat" custom chamber.

The standard .458 WinMag throat is a wide and sloppy cone affair. You can load your .458 Win Mag out to .458 Lott length with Lott powder charge and it will chamber fine and shoot like a .458 Lott.

Your Ruger No.1 .458 WinMag should have the standard .458 WinMag throat. Quit worrying about it and load it up and shoot it, however you like.

quote:

Originally posted by Macifej:
What's it called if no-lead and no jacket?

A "Canne-Luoove"? or "Canne-Groove"?

In the best of all possible worlds, it would be called a "SHark Gill Slit."

Interesting. My #1 .458 has such a long throat that I can't seat a 500 gr. Hornady out far enough to touch the rifling. This is also true for the 405 gr. Remingtons. I can duplicate Lott loads with .458 Win. brass; not suitable for hunting with only about 1/8" of seating depth but 'interesting' off the bench.
C.G.B.

BINGO!

These are new cases, dies, new caliber. So it's taking some sneak up and tweak.

Full-length re-size, I got the "bell" adjusted to the right dia.

Sneaked up on the roll crimp setting, and got the Hornady to seat at the cannalure (cannelure) with a 3.310" COL -- The Hodgdon manual says 3.310"

Chambers easily.

So now just add powder and go . . .

Thanks for the help!

Later . . .

73 gr. H 4895 and test fired a few rounds. Just like downtown!

I know this post will tick Gumboot off, and I respect his opinnions on most things, but the damn .458 Win was poorly designed and will remain so until hell freezes over, it simply does not have enough case capacity and should have been a 3" round from the get go...Can't some of you see that! It is as plain as the nose on your face, its problem is compaction and haveing to go to a lighter bullet is not a very good option IMO...

Now I will jump on my horse that I keep tied out back and make a get away before the forces of hell decend upon me!

My win mag works just fime. I can't see where a little extra fps makes a big difference.