500S&W load needed

[ShrinkMD]

I see a variety of lead bullets available from casters, 330 and 350 gr without a gas check. I have Unique, Trail Boss, as well as Power Pistol, 2400, and 300MP. I see that Alliant lists data for a 350gr jacketed bullet.

Any thoughts on using those powders? Alliant said:

We have no data for this application but Unique should be a good choice.
With your 330 gr cast bullet, you should be able to start with 13.5 grs
of Unique and the max should be approx 17.5 grs. A firm crimp on the
bullet is recommended. Thanks for your interest in our powder and have
a nice day.

[ShrinkMD]

I loaded the 330 gr lead boolits up to 17.5 gr of Unique. They ran about 1350 from my 10.5" barrel. They shot well, felt like a 44 mag 240gr load.

Any ideas on using the same boolit with 2400 or 300MP?

[leftiye]

General rule - cast boolits usually produce less pressure providing that the seating depth of the bullet base remains the same, the boolit is small enough that the reload chambers with a thou or two room in the boolit area, and there is no interference in the chamber throat/mouth area with the boolit. In this case the data for the 350 grain bullet that Alliant offers should work for a 350 grain boolit.

[gofastman]

General rule - cast boolits usually produce less pressure providing that the seating depth of the bullet base remains the same, the boolit is small enough that the reload chambers with a thou or two room in the boolit area, and there is no interference in the chamber throat/mouth area with the boolit. In this case the data for the 350 grain bullet that Alliant offers should work for a 350 grain boolit.

I thought it was the other way around...

[Wayne Smith]

It is. Cast boolits create less pressure because there is less resistance in the barrel and they slip through easier. After all, they are riding on a film of lube, right? Anyway, the point is true, you can use standard loading data and use cast boolits of similar weight and size.

[41 mag fan]

If using a heavier cast you might look at Lil Gun. I've been using it on the 440's and have expanded into the 500gr weights with good groups.

[olafhardt]

I use 6.4 grains of Unique behind the 365 grain Lee modern minie either foward or reversed and seated flush in my handi rifle. It is a hoot. I have only used it for ballistic mischief.This rifle will shoot half inch one shot groups all day which you can't do with any tweaked up 308.

[Plinkster]

Ha! Priceless olafhardt! Had to read that twice before the wit hit.

[NLS1]

I use 6.4 grains of Unique behind the 365 grain Lee modern minie either foward or reversed and seated flush in my handi rifle. It is a hoot. I have only used it for ballistic mischief.This rifle will shoot half inch one shot groups all day which you can't do with any tweaked up 308.

That's good stuff right there!

Half inch one shot groups, too funny!

Dan

[ShrinkMD]

Somehow I skipped over the page in the Lyman 49th manual which lists a 375 gr lead bullet. So any of those loads would be safe with a 330 grain lead bullet, right?

They list the Unique load that Alliant sent (up to 17.5 gr) as well as Enforcer, AA#9, N110, AA4100, Lil Gun, H110, and IMR-4227.

Luckily I have some N110 in the house, so I will make up some test loads of that. They list a max load of 33gr, and for a jacketed 350gr bullet they list a max of 36.3 Looking at all the powders listed, it looks like about 3-5 grains lower for a jacketed 350 compared to a lead 375.

So my question is, if I've been using the Alliant data for 2400 and 300MP with the Berry's plated 350gr bullets, could I just drop 3 or 4 grains and work up some loads with these powders and the 330 gr lead bullet.

I've never worked up a load before without published data, just going by similar burn rate and checking velocity. It's just that I usually keep 2400 for my magnum loads, and it would make life simpler (and less expensive) to use 2400 for some lead loads which reach 1500 instead of 1350.