extremely light 500 smith loads

[simplicity]

Does anyone have any load data for the 500 smith using trail boss? I am looking for a load that will push a 350 grain bullet at 800 fps I want to use it for shooting steel plates and they have a 500 ftlbs limit on the plates.  I know this sounds odd to do but hey it's for fun.

[Catfish]

The slowest load I have is 975 fps, but that`s for a 700 gr. bullet.  Don`t you know your not suposed to load those down that far, if you want a little poper get a .44 mag.  If you have a crono. you could use a powder with a slower burn rate and work up your own load.

[cwlongshot]

  I know I loaded up a lite load using this powder, but never chronographed it. Its mighty slow. Just how slow I don't know but was on par with my Model P 45 Colt loads.

IIRC its right off the bottle...

CW

[buck460XVR]

Here is info straight from IMR. I e-mailed them and asked them if this was applicable for my .460 S&W with lead and/or jacketed bullets. Their reply was that it would work and was safe. Since then I have tried it with jacketed bullets with moderate success. The loads were like shooting .45 LC cowboy loads, but since POI is so much different that with my regular loads, I don't know how much more of it I will use. I would assume if it was applicable for the .460, it should also work for the .500. If you have concerns, don't hesitate to e-mail them. They have always responded quickly and politely to any questions I have had.



http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Trail-Boss-data.pdf

[simplicity]

Thanks for the info everyone, Buck460 that is kinda what I was looking for something to get me started hence I couldn't find accual data for it. I'll give it a try and I'll post what I come up with.

[MePlat]

I was just on Hodgdons web site and they have data for it since they own IMR.  Data is out there.

[manatee1947]

I have seen a lot of people list 10 gr of unique as a good practice load. I wound up using 14gr as that was very accurate for me, but 10 was certainly mild.

[simplicity]

I have some 350's loaded up with 9.0gr. of trail boss. I'm gonna get to the range sunday to chrono them.  I'm trying to get as close to 800fps as I can because that is the 500ftlbs mark.  WWW.ballisticsupply.net has what they call defense loads (300gr@900fps)

[simplicity]

I finally got out to the range today. I had loaded up 20rds of 9.0 gr. of trail boss behind a 350gr. berrys plated bullet and was getting a very consistant 600fps. I'm gonna load up another twenty but 5 rd of 10.0 gr, 11.0 and so on to get 800 fps. The upside of it is at 25yrds it was shooting under 3/4".  I also had some other loads pushing a 300 evo bulllet at 1800fps and it shot a inch as well.  I'll chime in again when I get to 800fps with the 350's.

[simplicity]

Well got to the range yesterday and 12.0 grains gives a consistant  760 fps +/- 10 fps which is right where I need them to be and just loaded up 100 rounds for the next plate shoot.

[jaygibson]

I finally got out to the range today. I had loaded up 20rds of 9.0 gr. of trail boss behind a 350gr. berrys plated bullet and was getting a very consistant 600fps. I'm gonna load up another twenty but 5 rd of 10.0 gr, 11.0 and so on to get 800 fps. The upside of it is at 25yrds it was shooting under 3/4".  I also had some other loads pushing a 300 evo bulllet at 1800fps and it shot a inch as well.  I'll chime in again when I get to 800fps with the 350's.

Is that 300 evo an hornady ftx.  If so what kind of powder.  I'm going to try out mine with Friday with the 300 ftx and some H110 and I'm looking for 1800-1900 fps.

[simplicity]

Yes it is the 300 gr evo I pretty much have only used LIL'gun in my 500 and it really out performs H110 with the heavier bullets. I started out with 44.5 grains of lil'gun and got 1800 fps. I wanted to get up to 2000fps (hornady says they get 2075 out of there factory load) I then loaded up 20 rounds in lots of 5 lots of 4 moving up a grain with each set. the last set was loaded with 48 grains. I chrono'd each individually to check for pressure signs. Low and behold from 44.5 to 48 grains with lil'gun there was no change in velocity. So now I have to rethink things. My next move is to try h110 to see if I can get better results. I haven't yet loaded any up and probly won't have the time to til after CHRISTmas.

[jaygibson]

I need to get a chrony to check out my velocities.  The 300 gr hornady's with 48gr of h110 showed no sign s of overpressure in my 500.  Looking at the Hornady chart, that should be around 1850 fps, but like I said I need a chrony.  Recoil wasn't awful, but it is a handful and a lot of fun.

[simplicity]

Your going to find that your gonna be about 200fps below the hornady handbook (if you have the 8 3/8 barrel (I do)) every load I have used out of there book has come out that way. One other thing I have been thinking about is I was reading in the newest speer manual that they don't use large rifle primers but large rifle magnum primers in their data so I think I'm gonna load up another small batch with magnum large rifle primers to see what the results will be with the lil gun and h110. I don't know how soon I can do it but I will post my results here.

[cwlongshot]

I use the LRM primers in some of these loads with H110 and Lil Gun. Be sure to drop the charge and work up. Worked OK I can't honestly say I saw a difference. I find that almost all my loads with LPM primers show a flat primer much before real pressure signs. (I know one shouldn't use flat primers alone as a pressure test anyway)

CW