Author Topic: .454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loads  (Read 681 times)

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Offline Selmer

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.454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loads
« on: March 10, 2003, 04:31:20 AM »
I'm working up loads for my .454 and I'd like to work up some light target loads, some medium target loads, and some heavy hunting loads.  I plan to work up to the heavier loads from the lighter loads so I am used to the recoil. From what I have read, Unique should be good for light loads, Lil'Gun for medium loads and low pressure, and H110 for the heavy loads.  Does this sound about right, and should I be using any filler on the light loads, if so, what filler should I use.  Fill me in, it's my first pistol loading experience.  The gun is a 12" TC Encore
Yardbird
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Offline MS Hitman

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.454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loa
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2003, 04:55:30 PM »
Well Selmer,

You left out a couple of real important items such as what weight bullet you are planning on using and what your intended targets are going to be.

Now, if we are talking 250-260 grain weights, you can load up 9 grains of WW231 for somewhere in the neighborhood of 900 fps give or take.  This is very easy to shoot and I've got .357s that may recoil more heavily than this load does.  If you want medium loads, I'd recommend you go with 2400 or Blue Dot over Lil Gun.  25.0 grains of 2400 should give you a velocity around 1600 fps.  Again, this is with a 250-260 grain bullet and an educated guess on my part.  I shoot Freedom Arms revolvers chambered for thi sround, not Encores.

At this point, you are going to have to be careful on bullet selection.  Most bullets are not designed for these velocities and I have heard of some blowing up in flight.  Soft bullets is more of a consideration in revolvers due to the chance of damaging the forcing cone, but poor performance on game animals is another consideration.  No use in over-driving a bullet only to have it blow-up and cause a nasty flesh wound.

Having said all this, my best recommendation to you is to get the Speer and Hornady manuals and use their starting loads with whichever of their bullets you choose and use a chronograph to keep velocities in check.  If you choose to use a hard cast bullet, Cast Performance provides loading data for their bullets as well.

BTW, I do not use fillers.

Offline Selmer

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.454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loa
« Reply #2 on: March 11, 2003, 02:14:25 AM »
MS, good point, I shouldn't assume you're all omniscient.  My main bullet I will use for target shooting will be a 250 gr. PB, and probably a 300 gr. GC for hunting.  I have a wide variety of weights from 250 gr. up to 370 gr. and from what I have been reading and looking at, I thought that these powders would serve my purposes quite well.  I would like to limit my powder selection to three at the most, otherwise the wife won't think I'm saving money by reloading, I'm on a somewhat limited budget with a new baby coming in a few weeks.  I haven't purchased the powders yet, do you think I should switch my Lil'Gun choice to 2400 or Blue Dot, or will I be alright with Lil'Gun?  This is my only handgun case, so I wouldn't need the powders for anything else.
Selmer
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Offline spinafish

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.454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loa
« Reply #3 on: March 11, 2003, 11:35:50 AM »
Selmer,I have had good results from LIl'Gun in my .45 Colt.  Hodgdon's data shows good speeds at lower pressures in both the .45 Colt and the .454 Cas.  Lower pressures are always a good thing.  Seems felt recoil is lighter also.
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Offline BeverlyHillbilly

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Re: .454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loads
« Reply #4 on: March 11, 2003, 01:49:48 PM »
Selmer

I had good luck last fall with Hodgdon Titegroup for my light loads and H110 for the heavy/fast loads.  Titegroup is big and flaky, and doesn't require any fillers to be used.  Plus, you will get to load a lot of shots out of a 1lb can with it.  Both had good accuracy with jacketed bullets (I use Hornady 300 XTP bullets designed for magnum) in my Encore and Ruger SRH revolver.  If I need to get real light with recoil, I have been using 45 LC because the brass is cheap and it works well in both guns.  I have been using LilGun for my 22 Hornet where it works great, but in the Casull, you will use up a lot of grains of powder for light/medium loads.  Due to that, I didn't see any reason to use up my LilGun when Titegroup used less powder to get the same result.  I am going to try out W296 (for heavy loads) this spring since I have good luck with it in the 44 magnum and about 4 pounds left on the shelf.  A guy that I chatted with a while back uses H4227 from mild to full power loads, but haven't tried it myself.  If it works good, that would allow you to use one powder for most applications.  Good luck on the new addition to the family.

Offline Selmer

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.454 light loads, med. loads, and heavy loa
« Reply #5 on: March 11, 2003, 04:14:39 PM »
FYI, WW296 and H110 are the same powder and same burn rate according to the responses to my inquiries into Hodgdon, they come from the same building.
Selmer
"Next to the glory of God, music deserves the highest praise"-Martin Luther
Any homo sapien with the proper chromosomes can be labeled a father, but it takes a man to be called "Daddy"-unknown