One reason I haven't called is much of my load development was for 230 grain pistol bullets which they do not support with data. No, I have not called Hornady to see what they have to say, I will do that Monday. I have found other loads in Hornady data that were just plain unsuitable, H414 in 300 Win mag for example. I was so surprised I did the same type of comparison between several other very similar cartridges and got the same result, the correlation from one to the other very consistent with Speer, very erratic with Hornady. The Hornady data was all over the place, from -2% to +17%, something like that from my very faulty memory. I found the Speer data very consistently showed the Lott using 9% to 11% more powder than the Win. ![]() To estimate a load I studied the relationship between the Win and Lott cartridges, same powder, same bullet. Both Speer and Hornady list loads for Reloder 7 for 458 Win mag but not 458 Lott. Example, I wanted a load for 458 Lott with Reloder 7 as I had 20 pounds of the stuff deteriorating and I wanted to burn it in a hurry. I have found inconsistencies in their data that I have not found in Speer, Sierra, Nosler, etc. I have to say I am not that impressed with Hornady's ballistics department. I would have thought the problem as obvious to me, an amateur would have been obvious to the so-called experts at Hornady. Something astonishing to me is that this 450 BM made it to market with a SR primer. Too bad Federal doesn't make a SR version of the famed 215 magnum primer but I wonder if even that would solve the 450 BM problems. Given the magnitude of the problem I doubt any other primer would make much difference. I did not try anything but the two versions of the CCI primer. Given that experience I don't think I'm interested in Tula's SR so-called magnum primers. I see now that Tula makes a so-called SR magnum primer but I have 5,000 Tula LR magnum primers that behave like a US made LR standard primer, they damn sure don't act like a CCI 250 or a Federal 215 magnum primer. I used the CCI 400 small rifle standard primer to start and quickly abandoned it in favor of the 450 SR magnum which was a year ago the only SRM primer available. Last edited by Suwannee Tim 04-11-14 at 17:21. Every cartridge except 450 Bushmaster and 454 Casull. Every cartridge I have any experience with, there are several to many powders and many loads that produce good to excellent results. I am not accustomed to nor enthusiastic about a cartridge with such a narrow window of good performance. ![]() The Hornady factory 250 grain 450 Bushmaster ammo I shot worked fine. ![]() Anybody want to buy a good used 450 Bushmaster upper? Brass? Dies? Ammo? Any suckers out there? No? Oh well. Bottom line, if you want a big bore AR and plan to handload, save yourself a lot of grief, get a 458 SOCOM. This I attribute to the use of the large pistol primer in 458 SOCOM, a highly appropriate choice given the relatively large volume of powder to be ignited and the relatively low operating pressure of the cartridge. I shot loads with Reloder 7, H110 and IMR 4198, all worked perfectly, no unburned powder, no hangfires, no misfires, no giant fireballs, no drama, they just worked. Last week I got my long awaited 458 SOCOM kit from Wilson, put it together and loaded some ammo. At least you can crimp the crap out of 454 without a hand made crimp die as the 454 headspaces on the rim not on the case mouth like the 450. I have shot the very similar 454 Casull cartridge quite a lot, had the same problems with it and attribute the problems to the same cause, use of a small rifle primer. ![]() The small rifle primer even in magnum type is inadequate to ignite the 30 to 40 grains of powder used in this case. I attribute this string of failures to the use of a small rifle primer. With all that I have found one powder, IMR 4227 which works reasonably well if you don't mind a huge fireball, all the other powders work mediocre at best and very poorly at worst. a heavy crimp not on the case mouth but about 1/8 inch below the case mouth. I bought a Lee factory crimp die for 45-70 and cut it down to apply a so-called "Legendre crimp" i.e. I have been plagued by hangfires, misfires, unburned powder in the barrel and lower, and jams caused by unburned powder in the chamber which prevented a live cartridge being loaded. In that time I have used H110, W296, Lil Gun, IMR 4227 and AA 9 powders, every suitable powder for which data is available and I could obtain I have tried with 230 grain and 250 grain bullets. I have been shooting the 450 Bushmaster for over a year, 500 rounds of factory ammo and almost 1000 rounds of handloads.
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