Has anyone attempted to duplicate or determine the factory Hornady .450 NE load and if so what have you come up? Thanks.

With 2 450's I've used 96 grns of IMR 4831 and a 215 primer sending a 500 grn bullet downrange.
Use a 350 grn with Tony's 75% Rule.

Wright's data gave 2060 ft/s with 84 gr. RL-15 and Woodleigh 480 gr. softs, but that was in 28" barrels, I presume.

I tried to get Hornady to tell me what their pressures were but they only said they were within the limit of 44 kpsi.

By the time one uses the Sabatti 24" barrels, and gets the velocity up to 2125 ft/s with a 480 gr. soft, who knows how much RL-15 will be required. The velocity with 84 gr. will probably be less than 2000 ft/s.

Assuming one is trying to goose those softs from 2000 to 2125 ft/s, then the pressure will increase about 16% so Wright's pressure would be about 13.2 long tons/in^2, or about 35.5 kpsi. And who knows about solids.

Hmmmm......

For the .450 NE, Hornady uses a commercial powder that is not available to us; but the burning rate is similar to H4831. For working up a load with H4831, my understanding is that 78.3 grains at 1800 fps is the starting load and 94.1 grains at 2100 fps is the maximun load. Velocities were from a 24-inch barrel. These loads are lighter than the loads listed by Graeme Wright in his book "Shooting the British Double Rifle." It should be noted that different cases were used; hornady versus BELL.

quote:

Originally posted by Tumbleweed Tony:
For the .450 NE, Hornady uses a commercial powder that is not available to us; but the burning rate is similar to H4831. For working up a load with H4831, my understanding is that 78.3 grains at 1800 fps is the starting load and 94.1 grains at 2100 fps is the maximun load. Velocities were from a 24-inch barrel. These loads are lighter than the loads listed by Graeme Wright in his book "Shooting the British Double Rifle." It should be noted that different cases were used; hornady versus BELL.

That is what I have heard, non canister H 4831.

Also one thing to take in consideration is that each double rifle, especially the older British guns can be very different. Chamber size, bore diameter and bore wear can make a big difference in pressures.

Different lots of powder can make a difference as well.

It is always best to start low and work up.

Using a cronograph is a good idea as well.