Reloading and setting up a 15'' 460 S4W Magnum

[lastchanc54]

I bought a 460 barrel with iron sights. The ammo is hard to find where I live and very expensive. I decided to reload right away. I bought some 200 grain bullets and used a full load of H110 powder. I used both rifle and pistol primers. Not all of the rifle primers ignited the powder. I pulled the bullets and switched to a Hornaday 250 Gr FTX bullet. After a blog and more information, I loaded up 10 rounds of these with H110 and 40 with a milder charge of H4227. Due to the extreme recoil of the weapon, I installed a set of heavy scope bases. The three ring ones that Weaver makes and a 2X weaver scope. I hoped the xtra weight would help hold the gun down. I had been shooting off of a Bower style shooting rest and leaned that I needed to try sandbags instead.
Today I finally got to go to my gun club (about a 1 hour drive) and sight in my set up. I started by bore sighting so I could save some ammo. I was on at 25 yards in 4 shots and fine tuned in a few more. I shot the center out of the target then moved to 50 yards. I was using a shoot n see three inch sticky dot. At 50 yds, I made some elevation adjstments and shot the center out of that target. Since I was on a roll, I went to a full 100 yards, again, a small change of elevation was required. I could barely see the dot on my combat sill but managed to put three bullets in it, side by side. Now I was getting the accuracy that I had heard about! I noticed that the loads with H110 were beefey and shot a little different in elevation and the loads with the H4227 were milder and very accurate. I was having fun and found a way to shoot this thing without much pain.
I was very happy and should have stopped there. I was sure this was a 200 + yard gun so I put up a target at 200 yards. I had seen a post that showed only 7.5 inces of drop at 200 with a 100 yard sight in. Mine droped an average of 22 inches! Ok, I put in the hotter loads and shot the same elevation with the same resluts. Not good. Is anyone else having the same experiance as me?
I had one hot 300 grain load with me so I shot it. Even with the extra weight of the gun and scope, this thing kicked very hard and the bullet dropped a lot also.
This cannot be a 100 yard gun canit? Let me know how you are doing with yours. Thands, Lastchanc54

[Grumulkin]

The 7.5 inch drop story at 200 yards would have come from me.

My load gets about 2,350 fps at the muzzle; i.e., it isn't a mild load at all and probably approaches the 65,000 psi SAMI maximum much more than yours does.

That said, it sounds like you've gotten some great results.  Twenty-two inches is quite a bit of holdover for 200 yards but on deer sized targets is very doable and you have a good 100 yard gun in any case.

[lastchanc54]

Grumulkin, you are right about one thing for sure, I can get a lot of lead in a small space at 100yds!
I finally found a pound of 2400 but very little loading data for it when it comes to the 460. I am starting at 31 grains with a 250 JHP. I hope to get to try them soon.
The data chart didn't really give me any PSI rating. I am learning that you can tell a lot of differance in the recoil with just a few grains of powder.
For hunting big game in the timber, this is an awsome set up. For open country, I prefer my 15 inch 308 with a 2.5X6 scope. I shoot it off cross sticks and 200 yards is a chip shot for it 
Love to hear from all the 460 blasters out there.....
Lastchanc54

[Grumulkin]

I'll give you a couple of hints about 2400:

1.  I load Hornady 250 gr. SST/ML bullets about halfway to the ogive to get them close to the lands and don't crimp them.

2.  Thirty-one grains of 2400 as I load the 250 gr. SST/ML bullets is a VERY light load compared to what I'm using.

The 460 S&W Magnum is rated by SAMI for 65,000 psi.  The loads in most manuals are very conservative for at least two reasons.  One is that they don't consider their bullets up to 460 S&W Magnum velocities and another is that when loaded in a revolver where you're ejecting 5 spent cases at once, if you load to top velocities, ejection can be quite difficult.

[Gdbyrd]

Exceptionally bad news!  I've been working on piecing together my 460 project and was planning on using it this deer season.  I'm going to see how it does at the range, but if it drops that much from 100-200, eesh.  I'm not so sure I feel comfortable using that on the fly.  I wonder if what you're experiencing is the normal though.  I've read nothing but story after story of how great it does as a long range pistol caliber.

[lastchanc54]

Gdbyrd, imagine my suprise when even my hotter loads shot like rainbows. That is why I started this thread, to try and get someone else to share their experiances. I want to know if I am getting typical results. So far, I have only shot the 250 grain bullets at the longer distances. There seems to be a better variety of bullets that will hold up on big game, at least in the 250 + range. I do have three more loads to try (soon) and I will confirm the point of aim at 100 yards, then measure the drop at 200 for each load. I have a medium heavy load of 4227 and a stout load of 2400 to try. I already had 10 rounds of 2400 made up but it was a starting load so I am not expecting much from them.
I had read a lot about the 460 and thought it might be a 250 yard hunting weapon, now I an sure it is not. I will post my results after the next trip to the range.