Lee 457-340-F sized .452

[frontloader]

I know some of you guys are shooting this boolit in your Rugers,Ive also been playing around with it in my new Clements custom old Vaquero 5.5" .45 Colt Mr Clements done a first class job, He dove tailed his custom TALL front sight, reamed cylinder throats, opened rear sight, smoothed and corrected angles on trigger (2 lbs ). and Installed a Bisley hammer. I am lovin it !! ooh and he gave me an extra front sight,...........This .457 boolit sized to .452 weights about 330 grains.and 19 gr of Lil gun gets about 1140 fps out of the 5 1/2 in barrel. with a COL of 1.739 ..I also experimented with filling the meplat down to .340, for about 325 gr. wicked looking. ....soo what kind of results are you guys getin.....THANKS ....frontloader

[9.3X62AL]

Not the Lee castings, but the RCBS 45-300-GC designed for (but undersized) for the 45-70 has shot quite well in my BisHawk. The revolver could make use of a taller front sight with these slugs, but the groups are just fine--sub 2" at 25 yards, even if 4" high from point-of-aim. That's open irons with a forearms rest on bags. The boolit's actual weight runs about 325 grains with GC attached, in 92/6/2 alloy.

[frontloader]

yea ,I haven't filed on the Clements front sight yet, but the 340/452 shoots about 4" low at 25 yds. still haven't worked up a load yet that I want to keep. but that 340/452 sure looks promising. Do you use that RCBS 300/452 for hunting?............frontloader

[bigboredad]

I use the lee 340. I size mine to .454 and use either ww/ac or range scrap wc. I have tried unique, universal,h110/296, 2400, and lil gun. so far I haven't found a load that won't do less than two inches at 25 yards. I have a steel plate that 7 inches in diameter and at fifty yards is pretty hard to miss. I have shot it out of a 7.5 inch blackhawk and a 5.5 in blachhawk only the top end loads have been uncomfortable with 9 or ten grains of unique or universal I can shoot it all day and have fun. 16-17 grains of 2400 is also very easy shooting accurate load. Not sure what you are after but maybe that will help

[DragoonDrake]

I size mine down to .452. I found I had a little better accuracy if I took the sizing in steps. I size .457 (lubed the bullet here), .454 and then .452. Yes it is time consuming but I don't shoot that many and it was a fun experiment.
Adam

[wellfedirishman]

I use the same Lee 0.457 340gr unsized in my Blackhawk 45 LC and it shoots great, I load it wth 7 grains of Traiboss. It is cast from medium-soft lead and lubed with Alox. No leading or junk in the barrel, and 3 inch groups offhand at 25 yards.

I also shot the same boolit and load through a Buffalo Classic 45LC carbine and it works very well, 1 inch groups at 25 yards off sandbags with the stock sights.

[frontloader]

Yea, wellfedirishman.... I haven't tried TrailBoss yet, but my Vaquero/340 loves 6 grains of American Select. and strange to me it shoots to same POA as my full house load of w296/340? but that's a good thang......Has anybody had any success hunting with this bullet in their Ruger? ......frontloader

[Packy]

I haven't tried the lee, but have used the lyman 457122 and the noe version on the RD 460 350. I size and lube the lyman at 457 then resize to 454 or 452. The noe 350 I can size and lube at 454 then size to 452 with no problem. They both shoot good out of my tc 45 colt, RSBH hunter 45 colt and my RSRH 454. Tried the noe 350 in my marlin 45 colt but it tumbled. Might try a different powder in the marlin and see if it will do any better.

[Potsy]

I'd thought about the RD 460-350. I've got one and sized them down to .452 and tried them out of my Knight Muzzleloader (not much luck).
I thought about trying it in my Bisley but didn't. Thinkin' around 17-18 grn. 296.
Now if I can juuust find that Lee .452 sizer........

[Frank]

The lube grooves look too shallow on the Lee for sizing down.

[9.3X62AL]

The lube grooves look too shallow on the Lee for sizing down.

Very possible, Frank.

The RCBS 325 falls out @ .457", and its drive bands aren't severely "wiped" by running through the .454" sizer die. My BisHawk's throats are opened to .453" for its .452" grooves.

The original intent was to give the big boolit a try as a hunting slug. I haven't carried it afield for that use, yet--all range stuff to date. Given the coyote-sized blacktails and muleys out here on the West Coast, the usual range of 250 grain Keiths et al would suffice, I'm sure.

[bigboredad]

The lube grooves look too shallow on the Lee for sizing down.

well I sized it to a .454 and had lube grooves

[Frank]

9.3X62AL:
Very possible, Frank.

The RCBS 325 falls out @ .457", and its drive bands aren't severely "wiped" by running through the .454" sizer die. My BisHawk's throats are opened to .453" for its .452" grooves.

I was talking about the Lee having shallow grooves. I'm sure the RCBS are plenty deep.

But if it works for bigboredad, that's great.

But remember, when it hits the lands the metal's got to go somewhere. What happens to a boolit if it has no grooves?

[Potsy]

It (RD .460-350) has lube grooves left after being run through a .452 die, but not much. Was planning on lubing with 50/50 when I put the checks on and then wiping them down with LLA before loading.
It'll be a labor of love, I just wanna see if it'll work.

[Packy]

I use the lyman 457122 in my knight muzzle loaders made from stick on ww. 2 Pyrodex pellets and they shoot great. Killed 2 deer with them this year and they performed good.