Lee 500 gr .459 spire point

[big bore 99]

Did some searches on this but very little available. I recently got a Lee spire point .459 500 gr mold. Recently cast and pan lubed some up and they look real nice. I'm getting ready to load some up for my Buffalo Classic and Piedretti Sharps. Anyone have any luck or experiences with this boolit? I have some triple seven 2fg and H4198. Would appreciate any info.Thanks.

[CPL Lou]

I haven't used the powders you mention, but I have used IMR3031 with great results.
I too have a H&R Buffalo Classic and it shoots these fine as long as I size to .460".
The Buff has microgroove rifling, that's why I size that large.
Good luck !

CPL Lou

[big bore 99]

Can I ask what over all length you seat them to? I would like to keep them .010-.020 off the rifling.

[44man]

I have the mold but never had luck with BP. The BPCR shooters said the nose slumps off center. I used 20 to 1 and don't know what another alloy will do.

[tsubaki]

There is a good bit of IMR4198 data about but very little H4198, at least with the books I have.

Hogdon did list up to a 485gr cast LFP with 28.0 to 32.0gr of H4198 for Trapdoor pressures.

Lyman listed a 500gr #457125 using FFg.
At 45.7gr (926fps) they suggested using a polyester wad over the powder. 61.0gr (1125fps) would be a compressed load.
The velocities were from a 28" barrel.

[CPL Lou]

Can I ask what over all length you seat them to? I would like to keep them .010-.020 off the rifling.

I've used a throating reamer on all of my 45-70's, so my OAL wouldn't be much help to you.
If you're concerned about pressures getting to high in your Buff I would recommend doing what I did. Starting loads, then work up until you get accuracy or
the load pressures top out.
Using IMR 3031 and a Magnum primer I don't think you'll run into trouble before your shoulder does, but ALWAYS go slow and use extreme caution !

CPL Lou

[big bore 99]

Thanks for the info. I have used h4198 starting loads with 500 gr. in the Buf, but it sure packed a wallop and kicked up a mess of mud in the wet berm, with a loud splat.

[Blackwater]

It did pretty good in my BPCR, but not as good as my Saeco 530 gr., so I haven't shot a lot of them. One thing I found, was that WW's do NOT like those big molds. I don't understand quite why, but when I initially had problems with accuracy with my Saeco, I read around that any antimony sometimes causes voids or "shrinks" internally within the base of a bullet, and these voids create an imbalanced bullet, and won't shoot for spit. I didn't see how this could be, but the problem continued, and I took some I'd cast to my belt grinder and ground the bases slowly, and sure enough, there they were! Voids, as plain as you please. Apparently, lead doesn't care what we believe and does what it does in spite of whether we understand it or not.

Switched to a plain lead/tin binary alloy, and the problem went away totally. Just something to look for in your casting with it. If it doesn't appear to be working, and you're using metal with any amt. of WW's in it, you might check the bases like I did. At the speeds bullets rotate, it only takes the barest smidge of imbalance to make them not shoot, and the advances in jacketed bullet accuracy in the past couple of decades has been heavily attributed to improvements in controlling thickness, taper and concentricity of jackets and cores. It all matters when you're spinning at hundreds of thousands of RPM's!

[CPL Lou]

I also cast mine 50/50 pure/WW and I add 2% tin to that mix.
My favorite lube for all my 45-70's is BAC, available from LARS.
If you decide to use IMR 3031 be sure to use a magnum primer and a healthy crimp.
You'll still see some powder in the barrel after each shot, but it doesn't effect accuracy at all.

CPL Lou