Intel6
01-22-2011, 11:43 AM
Ever since Brian posted pics of bullets made with his personally modified set of .458 dies I have been wanting to get a set for myself so I could make bullets specifically for my .458 SOCOM AR15. So after bugging Brian for a set of .458 dies for quite some time he finally caved and after proper compensation I am now the proud own of a set of BT .458 dies. They came packed nicely and were made with the same quality of my .40 and .44 dies.
So I had already had some annealed .45 ACP cases and dug around for some cores of the proper weight. I will end up casting what I need but I was dying to try out the dies and make a few bullets.
I have been shooting my .458 SOCOM with various weights of jacketed and lead gas checked bullets but now that I can make my own jacketed bullets I am trying to figure out what weight I want to standardize on for my normal shooting bullet. The available weights in factory bullets are 300/325/350/400/500 grains. It seems the 300-350 grain weights are the best compromise for weight and speed they can be pushed. The 400’s seem reasonably popular for hunting and the 500’s are more of a novelty than anything.
I decided that I wanted to focus on the 300-350 grain range so I weighed some cases and figured out what weight the core needed to be and knocked out some test bullets. After trying a few out I found that I could make a small cavity JHP with no exposed lead (not sure if that would have an effect on the feeding in the autoloader) that comes out at 325 grains. The same bullet with a larger HP cavity has just a bit of lead coming out the nose. I then found that the same thing with the HP cavity filled and made into a soft point was right at 350 grains.
Brian had been nice enough and sent along some of his different bullets he made from the dies so I went ahead and lined them all up because as Brian says, “pictures are always good.”
So in the first you will see L to R:
.45 ACP round for comparison
250 gr. JHP – made with a 40 S&W case
310 gr. JHP
325 gr. Small Cavity
325 gr. Large Cavity – tried cleaning up the lead squeezed out
350 gr. JSP
427 gr. JSP dual cannelure
400 gr. JSP Speer
500 gr. JSP Hornady
On the 325 and 350 grain bullets which I made I was able to place the cannelure exactly where needed to put the base of the bullet right at the bottom of the neck.
In the second pic you can see the bullets in .458 SOCOM cases and how much they protrude out of the case when seated to the cannelure. Being able to control the seating crimp depth on these is great due to them being fired in an autoloader where OAL can be important.
I already annealed some cases in preparation for getting these dies so now I need to get some cores made so I can make up enough bullets for some testing.
Neal in AZ
So I had already had some annealed .45 ACP cases and dug around for some cores of the proper weight. I will end up casting what I need but I was dying to try out the dies and make a few bullets.
I have been shooting my .458 SOCOM with various weights of jacketed and lead gas checked bullets but now that I can make my own jacketed bullets I am trying to figure out what weight I want to standardize on for my normal shooting bullet. The available weights in factory bullets are 300/325/350/400/500 grains. It seems the 300-350 grain weights are the best compromise for weight and speed they can be pushed. The 400’s seem reasonably popular for hunting and the 500’s are more of a novelty than anything.
I decided that I wanted to focus on the 300-350 grain range so I weighed some cases and figured out what weight the core needed to be and knocked out some test bullets. After trying a few out I found that I could make a small cavity JHP with no exposed lead (not sure if that would have an effect on the feeding in the autoloader) that comes out at 325 grains. The same bullet with a larger HP cavity has just a bit of lead coming out the nose. I then found that the same thing with the HP cavity filled and made into a soft point was right at 350 grains.
Brian had been nice enough and sent along some of his different bullets he made from the dies so I went ahead and lined them all up because as Brian says, “pictures are always good.”
So in the first you will see L to R:
.45 ACP round for comparison
250 gr. JHP – made with a 40 S&W case
310 gr. JHP
325 gr. Small Cavity
325 gr. Large Cavity – tried cleaning up the lead squeezed out
350 gr. JSP
427 gr. JSP dual cannelure
400 gr. JSP Speer
500 gr. JSP Hornady
On the 325 and 350 grain bullets which I made I was able to place the cannelure exactly where needed to put the base of the bullet right at the bottom of the neck.
In the second pic you can see the bullets in .458 SOCOM cases and how much they protrude out of the case when seated to the cannelure. Being able to control the seating crimp depth on these is great due to them being fired in an autoloader where OAL can be important.
I already annealed some cases in preparation for getting these dies so now I need to get some cores made so I can make up enough bullets for some testing.
Neal in AZ