454 Casull/Lil'Gun Cast Info Request

[marsofold]

I have been shooting cast bullets for my 454 SRH. Currently loading a Keith-style 255 grain SWC over 9.3 grains of Trail Boss at an estimated velocity of around 1000fps for plinking. It pretty much comes close to filling the cases after the bullet is seated, so I don't think I can go much faster with this powder (chosen to make double-charging impossible). But I'd like to try Lil'Gun powder with the same bullet at 1400fps for deer hunting. All of the manufacturer loads listed are for either jacketed bullets or for much heavier cast bullets. Anyone have a reliable load for Lil'Gun: 255SWC/1400fps?

[44man]

I don't know about the larger calibers but that powder scares me. We shot it out of a Freedom .357 and after 5 shots we could not touch the barrel. That stuff burns HOT! :-?

[454PB]

I've used it with heavier boolits (320 to 330 gr.), but not with the 255's. I use Bluedot for the lighter boolits, I've had some bad experiences with slow burning powders and light boolits in the .454 Casull.

[leftiye]

Ifn you only want 1400 fps in a 454 (nuthin wrong with that, I make a 300 gr. 1300 fps load with 19 grs of AA #9 for mine), - try some powders a little faster like 2400, blue dot. AA #9 might be good too, but I don't know if it will light reliably behint that light of a boolit. If it won't then try AA #7, or HS7. That 300 gr. AA #9 load is only 19000 psi., I use it because I'm trying to make expanding soft lead HPs. that are accurate too.

[Lloyd Smale]

i too was a big fan of lilgun when it first hit the market. I thought it was the majic powder for mags. But found it wasnt a real stable powder and also looking at loading data found that it was rarely the most accurate powder in any of my guns. If i had to pick one powder for mag pistol rounds id choose aa9 and never look back. Its not as user friendly as 2400 for reduced loads but Its cheap (especially if you pick up wc820) and its produced some of the best accuracy and velocitys in alot of my sixguns. I use alot of it for cast rifle loads too and it works great for them. I still have one keg of lilgun but when its done I will be done with it. Same goes for bluedot. I cant see myself every buying another bottle of it. Only exception to the lilgun use is the 32 mags. Somehow it just seems to work in them!! I figure this last keg will keep me shooting 32mags for a long time.

[454PB]

You can go here and look up a recipe:

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

They don't list one for Lil'Gun and a cast 255 gr., but several for jacketed bullets. There's no problem substituting a cast for jacketed in low pressure loads like you want to use.

[GSPKurt]

What about Unique?

[marsofold]

What I really want is a powder that is of a low enough density to fill the case, yet still get me 1400fps. I want zero chance of double-charging the case and blowing the gun up. After looking around online, I found that Accurate 5744 seems to meet my specs. Anyone have any experience using it with handgun loads?