2400 in the .475lb

[5shotbfr]

anyone here load 2400 in the .475 linebaugh .

i hate to sound like a wimp but i need to practice my offhand shooting and my hands just cant take as many full loads of 296 as i want to shoot .
40-50 rounds and i am wore out and very mildly sore the next day .

i'd like to try some loads at roughly 1000fps to practice with and work on my form .

id like some suggestions on where to start to get me there using my 400 grn lee bullet and 2400 .
i was thinking somewhere around 14-15 grains

unless this is to slow to stabilise the boolits , i dont mind if its not the most acurate load , serviceable for practice is good enough

[subsonic]

Try about 15gr of HS6. The 2400 is going to want to run hard, just like the 296/h110.

[freedom475]

Try about 15gr of HS6. The 2400 is going to want to run hard, just like the 296/h110.


Exactly.... 2400 will recoil just as hard.


I use quite a bit of Unique for my reduced loads in the 475. But it is VERY sensitve when it reaches max. I chronoed a buch of Unique loads and was getting a 50fps increase per grain of powder..then with the next half a grain it jumped 250fps!!.

. Linbaugh's personal load for the 475 is Hs6. He was nice enough to let me shoot a whole bunch of his powder and lead when I shot with him and my WFN's were shooting TERRIBLE:groner:

[5shotbfr]

well thats not the best news .. but we cant always get what we want can we .

i was hopeing the 2400 would be a bit softer reduced down as i have a whole lot of it .
and i dont have any hs6

i dont have enough unique on hand to realy work with , and my shooting budget is in negative numbers at the moment .
guess ill just suck it up and keep shooting with 296 till iget back into posotive numbers and buy some hs6 to try

[Jared]

Not to disagree with the other posters , but I load some 1100 FPS loads using 2400 in my 500 linebaugh. They are not plinking loads, but are definantly a step down recoil wise from full power h110/296 loads. I used them as my standard hunting load for a while.

In the 500 Linebaugh I have tried a lot of different powders and narrowed them down based on velocity. All with a 450 gr bullet.

700-800 FPS Trail Boss
850-950 FPS, Unique, or TiteGroup
950-1050 FPS, HS6
1050-1200 FPS, 2400 or WC820
1200-1300 FPS, H110/296

Each step down is a noticeable decrease in recoil. With these big guns 100-150 FPS reduction doesn't sound like much but it can make all the difference .

[subsonic]

I have shot 23gr of H110 in mine and the recoil is less than a full charge of 26 gr behind a 400gr boolit. But the HS6 load was a lot softer recoiling - still in the "heavy recoil" category, but much less than full power loads.

You are not supposed to reduce H110/296 more than 10% or so. 26 x 10% = 2.6gr (I rounded to 3gr) which gets me my 23gr charge and drops the velocity about 150-200fps in my gun.

You can drop 2400 down a little further as it is a little more flexible than H110/296, but neither is really at home with less than full power loads - as far as accuracy and cleanliness goes.

A bulky, faster powder that works well at a lower pressure is what you are looking for. HS6 seems like what most people choose for this task in magnum handguns.

You can certainly shoot reduced loads of 2400, but they are not likely to be as accurate and clean as loads with a more appropriate powder.

Around here 1lb of HS6 is about $22.

[freedom475]

You will have more reduction room than the 10% with H110 and quite a bit of reduction with 2400 in the 475L.

Because these powders opperate well at pressure ranges from 21K-35K in the 44mag...the 475 has these same powders running at 48K...so you really do have a very large window to work these powders down with the 475L and 500 mag. I find that powder charges in the 475L w/420gr with almost always mirror the the 44 mag with 240gr boolits.

The worst thing that can happen if you load them down too far is that you will stick a boolit in your barrel...the internet myth of a catastrophic explosion from an under-charge is just myth.... (Unless you are asleep and stick a boolit in your barrel and follow it with another shot:shock:)

A chrono will tell you as the powder begins to give very large swings in velocity, but if you don't care about perfect accuracy and unburnt powder you can surely take your 2400 down quite a ways......but I have not been able to cut recoil to the same level as I can with Unique,Hs6, Titegroup, and TrailBoss,,,,FWIW, Titegroup will blow your gun up faster than anything, even with a flashlight it is very hard to identify a double charged case:holysheep

[44man]

Pushing a lot of lead means recoil. But I agree with Subsonic, try HS-6.
The gun you shoot means more. You need gun weight and the BFR can be shot a lot more then a Freedom.
I have a hard time seeing a difference in recoil enough to look for a few pounds less push in the hand by changing powder.
Grips mean a lot. My friend has the Freedom .475 and it hurt with the shiny grips. He bought the rubber grips and we can both shoot twice as much.
Now the .475 has more torque and wrist twist then the .500 JRH. I can shoot both with one hand but the difference is at the bench with sandbags. The .500 seems more pleasant. More of a straight push.
The question is always why you bought a certain gun??? If it is for hunting, just shoot it enough, work loads and hunt. Then shoot enough to keep up with recoil and be comfortable with it. There are smaller guns to bang away with.
Yet the crazy thing is that I grab the .475 and .500 more then the .44. :bigsmyl2:
Some of the stuff we shoot would make your shoulder black and blue from a rifle.
Tame down the shooting, no need to shoot 50 rounds at a time. 10 shots will keep you in tune better.

[subsonic]

You will have more reduction room than the 10% with H110 and quite a bit of reduction with 2400 in the 475L.

Because these powders opperate well at pressure ranges from 21K-35K in the 44mag...the 475 has these same powders running at 48K...so you really do have a very large window to work these powders down with the 475L and 500 mag.

I totally agree, but usually someone jumps in and freaks out when I say that. [smilie=w:

[5shotbfr]

i dont find recoil on the full loads to be unpleasant to shoot . its quite the opposite the .475 is a joy to shoot , i just cant show the restraint to go out and only shoot 12-15 rounds , the dang thing is just wayyyyy to much fun .

im not afraid to admit that i need the practice shooting the big heavy bfr , i can do ok shooting off the bench but offhand i just cant shoot it nearly as well as the now puny seeming .45's
i also have this urge to try my luck at handgun silohette and definatly need to improve my shooting first

freedom 475 brings up a very good point that i need to wrap my head around with the 296 , like a lot of guys i see the do not reduce warnings so often i never paid any attn to operating pressures .. i never took the time to actualy see what would actualy be safe .

subsonic
its not the price of the powder thats a problem as far as just buying a lb or two . my local powder selection sucks .. the only close (20 miles) option i have just carries a few of the most popular powders .. and they are mostly rifle propelants .. the cost runs into either driving 100 miles round trip to buy or sending an order in online .. both require waiting till i can buy enough of what i need to make it worthwile .. and ive done a great job of over spending the last few weeks on home improvement projects .. ie new tractor

[44man]

i dont find recoil on the full loads to be unpleasant to shoot . its quite the opposite the .475 is a joy to shoot , i just cant show the restraint to go out and only shoot 12-15 rounds , the dang thing is just wayyyyy to much fun .

im not afraid to admit that i need the practice shooting the big heavy bfr , i can do ok shooting off the bench but offhand i just cant shoot it nearly as well as the now puny seeming .45's
i also have this urge to try my luck at handgun silohette and definatly need to improve my shooting first

freedom 475 brings up a very good point that i need to wrap my head around with the 296 , like a lot of guys i see the do not reduce warnings so often i never paid any attn to operating pressures .. i never took the time to actualy see what would actualy be safe .

subsonic
its not the price of the powder thats a problem as far as just buying a lb or two . my local powder selection sucks .. the only close (20 miles) option i have just carries a few of the most popular powders .. and they are mostly rifle propelants .. the cost runs into either driving 100 miles round trip to buy or sending an order in online .. both require waiting till i can buy enough of what i need to make it worthwile .. and ive done a great job of over spending the last few weeks on home improvement projects .. ie new tractor
I understand. My limit is cost with primers and powder so I shoot less. I watch the box of ammo go down too fast.
The .475 is indeed fun. But cost from 10 cents a round with full loads is no reason to go to 6 cents a round. But I am on SS so when I run out of powder I am done. I need to get friends to go in and go to Powder Valley for jugs instead of a pound from the store.
Not a good idea to shoot the .475 for silhouette, too much. Go to the .44. Recoil will tire you. Don't go past the flinch point. You harm your shooting. Never shoot to pain.

[subsonic]

Other powders that would work well if they have them:
Blue Dot
Longshot
800x

HS6 is just the best of the bunch. 800x is like metering corn flakes, Blue Dot is dirty and Longshot doesn't have a whole lot of data out there for it yet like HS6 does.

Longshot is the replacement for HS7/win571

[paul h]

Don't have my load notes handy, but yes you can use 2400 to drop the velocity a tad. I've used both 2400 and H-110 in my 480, and found that 2400 has a noticeably different recoil pulse than H-110. I guess the best way to describe the recoil is snappier.

Now if you really want to take off the recoil, you need to drop both bullet weight and velocity. In my 480 I found a 310 gr cast over 10gr unique for ~1000 fps produced steller accuracy and greatly reduced recoil. You'll likely have to up the charge a bit to get a consistant burn in the larger 475 case, but you should be able to find a good practice load.

[Paul105]

If you have a lot of 2400, why not just try it. Here is some info from my notes:

The following shot from a 6" Freedom Arms .475 LB.

19.7gr A2400, 400gr Lee, Starline Cases, WLP, avg 1,097 fps (36 ES) for 5 shots, 5 paces fr muzzle, 65 deg F.

17.7gr A2400 410gr Cast Performance WFNGC, Starline cases, WLP, avg 1,053fps (26ES) for 5 shots, 5 paces fr muzzle, 86 deg F.

So, why not try 17.0gr with the 400gr Lee and see how it feels to you. If you have a tight cyl gun (like the FA) you may have to blow the unburned powder granules out of the charge holes to facilitate reloading, but shouldn't be a problem at the range.

The unburned powder granule problem led me to HS6 -- 14.0 to 15.0gr under the 400 gr bullet for 1,000 to 1,100 fps depending upon bullet and individual gun/barrel length.

Paul

[5shotbfr]

im going to try some 2400 tomarow .. heck ive got 16 lbs sitting here to use ( yes i like 2400 ) .

i did something today ive been putting off .. trimmed my cases i hate trimming cases but i had a few case mouths that wasnt square so i had to do it .
lee doesnt make a leght guage for the .475 so i had to space out a .480 guage and buy a large cutter ... cases are all 1.390 now at least

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab11/stephen4570/1345085651.jpg

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive shot alot of 475 with a 400 and 19 grains of 2400. Nice pleasant load.

[5shotbfr]

i tried 2 loads of 2400 today .
first was 17 grains second was 18
10 rounds of each at 25 yards shot to nearly the same point of aim as my full loads of 296
and as the load still shoots better than i can i didnt notice any acuracy loss but i also didnt shoot any off the bench .
recoil was definatly easier then full loads . but i also learned that its not the recoil making my hand sore .
my houge mono grip is broke , its not a good pic , but you can see how far out the grip frame is from the grip now .. recoil casualty number two

http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab11/stephen4570/1345261238.jpg

[44man]

WOW, a broken grip! No wonder you feel the gun.

[5shotbfr]

ive never seen A rubber mono grip break before.. maybe im a first :groner:

the only thing i found odd was , even with the grip moving around , my group sizes didnt get any noticably bigger ...

[44man]

ive never seen A rubber mono grip break before.. maybe im a first :groner:

the only thing i found odd was , even with the grip moving around , my group sizes didnt get any noticably bigger ...
True and is why I like the hog leg. I would shift my grip shooting IHMSA as range and target elevation changed without losing a target.
I wonder if they will give you a new grip?

[paul h]

Other powders that would work well if they have them:
Blue Dot
Longshot
800x

HS6 is just the best of the bunch. 800x is like metering corn flakes, Blue Dot is dirty and Longshot doesn't have a whole lot of data out there for it yet like HS6 does.

Longshot is the replacement for HS7/win571

I've found blue dot can give pressure spikes so would advise against using it in the 475.

[Ramjet-SS]

Unique is an excellent powder for lower velocity loads in a 475 Limebaugh.

Tite group is another great powder.

Here are couple of articles I did many years ago on loads bullets and 475 performance.

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/bullet_tests.htm

http://www.fiveshot.org/guests/475rifle.htm

I have taken many deer with reduced loads in both the rifle and handgun 355 WFN at 800-1100 FPS will run them stem to stern and the recoil is really easy on the shooter.

[ole 5 hole group]

You might try IMR-4227 for a reduced load. I've found 21 grains of 4227 gave me 920fps with a 400 grain bullet using the WLP primer and the accuracy was good enough.

[44man]

Everything I shoot is the same as I hunt with, all year. I did try HS-6 and it shot well. But nothing has been as accurate as my hunting loads.
Yeah, I have shot a lot of Unique can loads from my .44 for fun but my big bores are for serious work and are shot that way. It has made me very comfortable with full power. Not a single full power load has hurt me or made me wish for less recoil.
If you shoot a .475 or .500 for hunting, there is no need to look for wimp loads. Your mind will beat you to death if you shoot wimp loads all year and go to full power in season.
It is so interesting if you look at it. My friends boy was scared to death to shoot my .500 JRH. I showed how easy to shoot with one hand and after a long time of talking him into it he finally shot my gun. He went nuts and was hitting beer cans at 50 yards off hand every shot and just fell in love with it.
Why do some of you want a few pounds less recoil? Why did you buy a large bore?
A .44 will turn some white, then they buy a .475 and then want .38 recoil. Does not make sense.
You will get used to it and grow to love the gun, believe me. Don't back up.