405 win, 300gr pb

[winchester85]

i have had a '95 repro in 405 for several years. in the past i loaded some hornady 210gr 41 mag pistol bullets. they were a real pleasure to shoot, and accurate too. but i bought some cast 300gr bullets a few years ago and now it is time to load some "real" ammo. maybe use it for a moose next fall.
i dont have any manuals with load data for a 405 win. i have the "cartridges of the world" book, it lists 56gr of 4895. i figured i would drop it to 50gr for a starting point. it is not my desire to get maximum performance from the cartridge. my desire is to have an accurate load, but one that has enough power to hunt big game with.
anyone here play with 4895 and a 300gr?

[Mooseman]

I load .405 Win for My 1895 but I used The Barnes TSX bullets 300Gr. because it was all I could get , and didnt have a Mold.
The IMR 4895 load for them was 49.0 gr. Minimum and 53.0 gr. Max.
I loaded 51.0 gr. for a close duplicate of Factory loads.
One of the Casters here has promised me some cast boolits to test and when I get them I will work up a load.
Rich

[winchester85]

just chrono'ed 5 rounds. load was 50gr imr 4895, wlr primer, 300gr bullet. average velocity is about 2050fps. accuracy was poor, only fired 3 shots with the same sight setting. two bullets were within 2 inches, the other was about a foot low and a little bit right.
looks like the barrel might be leading already, looks like it starts about 4" in front of the chamber and goes all the way to the muzzle. lube is a light green, seems quite sticky and soft. the bullets according to the bag are sized .412, but my cheapo caliper says .410 to .411. is the leading i am seeing a result of too small a bullet? wrong lube?
i dont cast these, i buy them.
in case i did not mention it earlier, the rifle is a modern production 1895 with case receiver and gold trigger, high grade?

i shot 41 mag pistol bullets at about 1200 fps and they were quite accurate.

[Andrew Mason]

dose any one have a load made up that drives a lighter .41mag pistol bullet to a higher velocity than that of the 300grain factory load?

[winchester85]

since no one has chimed in here, i will post what limited experience i have to this point.

i have tried imr3031 at 50gr and achieved 2240 fps out of the previously mentioned 300gr bullets. but i got leading in a couple of rounds, i think they are going too fast for the alloy and lube.

i then tried 45gr of 3031 and got 2080 fps but still had leading.

next up was 40gr of 3031, now i am getting somewhere. accuracy suddenly dropped to less than minute of "sheet of plywood" down to about 6" at 100 yards. no leading visible in 10 shots. velocities however were around 1500fps BUT i got 2 that read 1700 plus! the variation in accuracy (tried it with 2- 5 round lots), was quite variable. i am not ballistics expert, but getting a variation of 200 fps with a starting point of only 1500 makes me think that there is a problem. maybe inconsistent ignition? maybe i need a filler to keep powder at the primer?

that is where i am at for now, i will do some more testing soon.
the rifle has stock sights (semi-buckhorn) and could definitely benefit from an aperture sight.

[x101airborne]

I would use a dacron filler, definately. For that big ole case, I would use about 1 grain of pillow stuffing and try that. Did I see your boolits are plain base? Others have overcome this, but I find about 1700 - 1800 is the velocity threshold for plain bases. And.. since these boolits are commercial, I bet they are running a pretty high BHN. Wich, is hendering your boolits from slugging up to fill the bore. Are you seating to the crimp or are you seating to just touch the lands? Your throat is one of the biggest factors in getting good accuracy. I like my boolits to engrave .003 to .005. Now this will increase your case pressures, so use the same OAL as you work up on your charges. And, of course make sure when you unload a live round that the boolit doesn't stay in the chamber.

[winchester85]

my bullets are plain base, but NOT commercial. i can not measure hardness, but they seem fairly soft. i am loading them to the crimp groove. being for a 95 winchester, i dont want the bullets moving around in the magazine, and of course they have to fit in the mag.

now that i have them slowed down, the accuracy is acceptable. with the stock sights, shooting around 5 or 6 inches is not too bad. not great, but a place to start. a 300gr bullet at 1500fps will put the smackdown on just about anything i might shoot it at.