.500 JRH at 200 yards. Hey 5 hole group!

[44man]

I went down the other day and seen my 200 yard bench looked funny. I found a few dead trees hanging from huge grape vines over where I sit. I took the saw down and got a cart load of dry wood and cut the vines as high as I could reach, Tarzan can still swing!
Both revolver seats were rotted so I fixed one. I need more wood.
I went and shot today with my 440 gr WFN from my BFR to get a 200 yard drop with a 50 yard setting. I used a paper plate that my red dot covered all of. I don't know what I would get with a scope but darn sure better.
Anyway I got 5 in 6" and drop was 36". Could I get to 1" with a scope, maybe but 6" is nothing to sneer at. Remember you can't shoot a WFN past 50.
First time I have shot this gun that far and learned a lot. Darn, that thing comes back. 153488

[bremraf]

Wow, 36 inches of drop! I would have guessed more.

[44man]

I did too with that heavy a boolit. I made a mistake with weight in my post but corrected it, it is a 440 gr, not the 420 I use in the .475.
I like the .500 JRH and if sighted for 50. the boolit hits at the bottom of the dot at 100, about 2", nothing at all for deer hunting. never need 200 yards except for fun anyway.
Deer season is close for me so I will not change to a scope. Can't use them for deer here, too dark when they come and I see the shakes too much. I tried a few times and could see deer with my eyes but the scope was a black hole. You need daylight and a rest for them.

[kungfustyle]

That's great. I thought hitting an 8" gong at 100 yards with my 4" 357 was good, but you got me beat. Makes you want to scope it out, adjust the sights and see what it can really do.

[bremraf]

I agree, red dots are the way to go by far. I only wish I'd ponied up the money for an ultra dot, my millets dot gets a little washy.

[44man]

Red dots are not best for target but for deer they sure save us old goats. Nothing will beat a scope but I found too much wrong for hunting.

[Whiterabbit]

Great shooting.

Hey Jim, how much H110 do you pour under that boolit, if you don't mind my asking? I need a baseline for load dev, I'm gonna try to make bluedot work and need to baseline H110. My boolit weighs about the same.

[jmort]

That is no mean feat. Very impressed

[ole 5 hole group]

Great shooting.

Hey Jim, how much H110 do you pour under that boolit, if you don't mind my asking? I need a baseline for load dev, I'm gonna try to make bluedot work and need to baseline H110. My boolit weighs about the same.

No doubt Jim will get back to you but from a 6" barreled BFR 500JRH - for the very top end loads I've found 30 grains of H110 will get you 1,356fps and 32 grains will get you 1,462 and that's maybe more than you want in a 500JRH case with a 440 grain cast. You don't want to use CCI350's with those loads, as the peak pressure spike from that hot primer just might cause a problem that you won't experience with the WLP or the Federal 150 or 155. You'll like 28.0 grains of IMR-4227 with the 440 grain cast better at 1,253fps and even better 15 grains of HS-6 with the 440 grain cast for 1,033 fps. Never tried bluedot.

[44man]

Great shooting.

Hey Jim, how much H110 do you pour under that boolit, if you don't mind my asking? I need a baseline for load dev, I'm gonna try to make bluedot work and need to baseline H110. My boolit weighs about the same.
Not H110, 296, 29.5 gr so h110 might need a little more.

[44man]

No doubt Jim will get back to you but from a 6" barreled BFR 500JRH - for the very top end loads I've found 30 grains of H110 will get you 1,356fps and 32 grains will get you 1,462 and that's maybe more than you want in a 500JRH case with a 440 grain cast. You don't want to use CCI350's with those loads, as the peak pressure spike from that hot primer just might cause a problem that you won't experience with the WLP or the Federal 150 or 155. You'll like 28.0 grains of IMR-4227 with the 440 grain cast better at 1,253fps and even better 15 grains of HS-6 with the 440 grain cast for 1,033 fps. Never tried bluedot.
Doing good. Seems H110 needs about 1/2 gr more then 296. Still need a LP mag primer.
HS-6 might be the best for reduced loads and shoots great with my .475. I never tried Blue Dot. Just can't find powders to play with and if you buy a bunch and it does not work, what do you use the rest for? I have cans of powders that failed and have no use for.
Only need one for most revolvers, 296 from .357 to .500 S&W.

[Whiterabbit]

Perfect, thanks guys. I already do 440 grains in my other BFR at 1430 fps, so I'm not too worried about recoil. Of course, that's a 10" gun so I completely understand why 440 at 1400 in a 6" barrel might be too much of a good thing! Hopefully, 29-30 grains H110 will yield a little less, I don;t mind if it's 1300, (or 1200 or 1100 for that matter as long as there is initial accuracy for baseline).

Nice thing about these oversized cannons, pushing the limits need not be done for reasonable every-day kinda shooting.

Only thing I don't like about blue dot is it seems to muzzle flash even more than H110 if the load is stout enough or the barrel short enough. But I like the versatility and it seems to fill the gap nicely between 4198 and 4350 to cover all my bulk smokeless shooting. H110 is too popular for me to want to use for bulk loading since it won't be available for 2-3 years starting late 2016.

(and it's nice that bluedot data exists for 500L/500JRH)

[Mica_Hiebert]

Hogdon doesnt recomend ever using h110/296 without a mag primer.

[44MAG#1]

Hodgdon doesn't know it all. I have used probably an equal amount of standard and magnum with the H110/W296 with good results with both. I started out using standard primers (Remington 21/2) when I started reloading in 1969 with ALL powders and continue with CCI 300's today.

[Whiterabbit]

bingo. The trick is to check your velocities, your muzzle flash, and your perceived recoil. If any of these three get "non-uniform" on you, then you need the mag primer. Otherwise, GTG for your load and loading practices. In extreme cases of course, the non-uniformity becomes a squibb.

For the record, EXACTLY the same thing will happen if you start to download H110 , or even NOT download but seat the boolit out so there is more and more empty space in the case. Velocity will start to vary, the burn starts to get weird resulting in differing muzzle flash or heavy vs light recoil in the same load, and eventually squibb on you.

So, 100% load density (easy in a straightwall case, just push the bullet down on the powder) is insurance against squibb. In the same way, the mag primer is insurance against the same thing.

The same thing happens with AA#9 too by the way, but you have just a little more leeway. H110 can get sensitive fast. In my gun, the first thing to go is muzzle flash. If that gets wonky on me it's a sign to stop right away and check things, cause I'm not making the internal ballistics happy in some way.

(this only happens to me with H110 and AA#9 by the way)

------------------------

so, I've always considered the factory recommendation for mag primers only nothing more than an insurance recommendation against sqibb loads from variance induced somewhere else (loading density, load charge, bullet weight selected, case tension used, and crimp).

[DougGuy]

Jim take you some Hardee's sausage biscuits smeared heavily with Hardee's grape jelly and set them on something near your stand for half hour, then take them on up in your stand and eat them. There will be enough residual scent on whatever you laid them on to attract deer and you won't need a scope then neither cause they will be right where you laid them biscuits!

[tazman]

Jim take you some Hardee's sausage biscuits smeared heavily with Hardee's grape jelly and set them on something near your stand for half hour, then take them on up in your stand and eat them. There will be enough residual scent on whatever you laid them on to attract deer and you won't need a scope then neither cause they will be right where you laid them biscuits!

I have heard that recommended before. I never think to try it though.

[44man]

Deer like animal crackers too.
Now my load was clocked from a 6" BFR at 1350 fps and mine is a 7-1/2" so it could be a little more.
It shot so good from 6" that I never changed it for my gun.
I never buy H110 since the IHMSA testing that showed 296 was better for Ruger's, S&W's and BFR's.
Yes same powder but Hodgdon got a different burn rate for their canister powders while WW got another. I found it was about 1/2 gr slower then 296 but I was never able to work a load as good.
The only gun that preferred H110 was the RH. For some reason the RH did not like 296 and the SBH, SRH, 29's and BFR's did not like H110.
My guns all thrive on 296 to this day. I never buy H110.
No, I can't explain it but you know how fussy I am.
Larger cases will need a LP mag primer for accuracy even if a standard will light the load. But not the .44 mag that loves a Fed 150. I use a 155 in the .475 and up. You must test.