In the past, I have not offered any of my loadings to forum enquiries. IMO there are just too many variables in reloading scenarios to make loads from one rifle safe and meaningful to another’s situation and every reloader should have at least one good manual with the requisite information. However, when I wanted to begin loading for the .450/.400 – 3” N.E., I found there was a dearth of reliable information. I have decided to post my load development results in the hopes that it might help others in the same situation and for the interest of others who load for this caliber. With that in mind and with the usual caveat about using these loads without working up to them, I offer the following range report for your perusal and comments.




Day 1 – I loaded some Hornady 210 gr. HP/XTP’s with Trail Boss, some .411, 300 gr. Hornady Interlocks with Trail Boss and some 400 gr. Woodleigh RNSN’s with IMR 4831 and headed for the range with my new, unscoped Ruger No.1 . I was very pleased with the balance and handling of the gun and proceded to shoot off hand and from the bench at 50 yd. targets until I had used everything up. From this session I concluded:
· This was going to be a very fun gun to shoot – even the heavy loads off the bench were not unpleasant.
· This gun was going to be an accurate shooter.
· My 64 year old eyes were finding iron sights a major challenge and would need help from a scope for accurate load development work.

Day 2 – I set up my Chrony and started testing my Hornady 210 gr. and .411 Hornady 300 gr “plinker” loads using the suggested maximums for TrailBoss powder (the formula is on the Hodgdon website) at 50 yds.

The 210’s performance was excellent. Both five shot groups had all shots essentially cutting each other and the velocity was very consistent with a spread of 32 fps and an average velocity of 1734 fps. This will be just fine for a practice load.


My 300 grain loadings, however, were very disappointing. An extreme range of 142 fps. and a 4+ in. group left much to be desired. I concluded that this is probably not a good bullet to try as a “plinking” load anyway as I really want to use it for hunting our Coastal Blacktail deer and will need to step it up a fair bit to use for that.

I then proceeded to shoot a series of “Optimum Charge Weight” loads “ladder” style to see if I could find the sweet spots for the 400 gr. Woodleighs & IMR 4831. I started with 3 lower test loads (72.8, 74.3, 75.8) and then began my series of 3 shots beginning at 77.3 grains and working up in .5 grain increments. I found I had 3 different loadings (9 shots) bracketing 78 gr. that grouped together but the average velocities were much lower than I had hoped for. As there were no visible or measureable signs of high pressure, I decided I needed to go higher with my ladder.

Day 3 – I started shooting a five shot group of my 210gr. “plinker’ load again with consistent chronograph results and another group with all shots cutting each other.

I then continued on the next stage of my ladder loads once again getting a clump around 80 gr. (loads F,G,H). Interestingly, my last two loadings actually lost velocity and made me think my chronograph was acting up. A Chrony check using two other rifles found my readings well within the parameters for those guns and left me speculating why this had happened with the .450/.400 higher loads.


E1 to E3 79.3 gr. IMR 4831 Avg.Vel. = 1974 fps
F1 to F3 79.8 gr. IMR 4831 Avg.Vel. = 1997 fps
G1 to G3 80.3 gr. IMR 4831 Avg.Vel. = 2027 fps
H1 to H3 80.8 gr. IMR 4831 Avg.Vel. = 2013 fps
I1 to I3 81.3 gr. IMR 4831 Avg.Vel. = 2010 fps

Day 4 – I settled on using 80.3 gr. of IMR 4831 and decided to mount up my Leupold 1 X 4 hunting scope (I had been using a 3 X 9 Bushnell for more precise load development) and get the scope setup for an upcoming hunt. My “plinking” loads worked great as they hit to almost the same POI as the 400gr.Woodleighs and made setting the scope up very easy. A final 5 shot group @ 100 yds. with the 400 grainers and I feel I’m now set for further practice sessions and an upcoming bison hunt. I have drawn a very coveted wild bison tag for the Sikanni River area of BC and hope I’ll be able to post a field report as well.


Some other conclusions that I’ve drawn are:
· This gun can be pushed a lot more as a visual examination ( primers, extraction, neck blow by, etc.) and measurements ( case head expansion and stretching) could not even determine which cases were from the reduced loadings and which were from the heaviest loadings.
· A slightly faster slower burning powder (ie. IMR 4350 or ?) might be more useful in the Ruger’s short barrel.
· It might be worth playing around with a heavy crimp to give a powder a little more burning time.
· May have to use a filler with 300 gr. bullets as even with the 400gr. there is still a fair bit of empty space in the case probably contributing to the large velocity spread that I found.
Any comments, suggestions, additions are welcome.

Very informative post. Thanks for sharing. you might want to give 5744 a try with the 210 and 300 grainers. I've had good results with it in my Ruger and my Searcy 450/400. Also with the 300 grainers, try the same powder and charge as the 400 grain load. It works well for me, but kicks a lot more than the loads with 5744.

Harvey: Appreciate all the effort you put into this!

The Trail Boss load is spiffy. It let that huge cartridge be reduced to pistol cartridge performance. Such versatility -- elephants to small deer -- is remarkable. Kudos to the Aussies (ADI) for developing it.

Hodgdon 4895 -- I use it in a couple Ruger No. 1's 45/70 and .458 WM. Also, 30-06, .308 Win. and 30-30 Win.

I get good accuracy w/ all the loads. I think it's mostly about bullet choice and case prep. Hodgdon 4895 just seems to work for any center-fire rifle load you might consider.

Would the 450/400 be similar or slightly larger than the case capacity of the 416 Remington. Would the Hornady brass be made to take "full pressure" loads.

I know (based on my 450 Nitro and 9.3X74R loads) that Hornady Brass is top quality and is equal to any other in the world. No worries!

Thanks for the comments. Although IMR 4831 is giving me more than satisfactory results, I realize now that if I want to maximize the potential of this gun, I will need to try different powders. I choose IMR 4831 because it is the powder of choice for three other guns I reload for and therefore I can buy larger quantities cheaper and still have a powder reserve that keeps my home insurance people happy. Unfortunately, my hunt is less than three weeks away so I needed to finalize my loadings and get practicing but I'll have all winter to play around.

On that note, just for fun on my last outing, I painted up the 200 yd. gongs at my club and had at it. I shot 3 on paper first to get an idea of the drop (about 10") and then on to the gongs. As they were 8" in diameter, a little "Kentucky windage" was in order. Missed with the first 400 grainer and then placed 2 of the 400 grainers and 5 of the 210 plinking loads into a 5" group! I would never use them in the field at this range as the velocity will have dropped (according to my ballistic tables) to the 1650 range which is below the parameters suggested by Woodleigh (1800 to 2200 fps).

Just a comment on the Hornady brass. It is the nicest brass I have worked with. I started weighing it and it was so uniform that it seemed pointless. When I reamed the primer pockets, they were the easiest I've ever had to do. It also looks like they come with the case necks already annealed. As mentioned above, even with my heaviest loadings above, there has been no noticeable change in after firing dimensions leading me to believe that brass will not be a weak point in maximum loadings. Hoping for a couple of more practice sessions this week