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View Full Version : Matt's Bullets 335 gran. 500 S&W Mag load?



D H
08-25-2022, 07:43 PM
Hi Everybody,
First post here but I've been reading and lurking for a while. I have 2 S&W 500 Magnums and after shooting a bunch of commercial loads, I am starting to reload for them. I have the 8.38" and the John Ross 5". I bought mat's bullets 335 grain TC and I'm having difficulty find load data for them. It says "This plain base bullet should probably be kept under 1300 feet per second." Okay well there is trailboss data out there. But that only gets you to <1000 fps and Ive been looking for trailboss online for years now and can't find any. I'm looking to get between 1200 and 1300 fps, and that seems difficult to find load data for.
I keep getting things like:
303534
Its either Trailboss or Ramshot Enforcer or something else with a starting load at 1500 fps or way higher.
I did find this for Accurate 5744 using 33grains giving 1249 fps for a 335gn plated HP which would be ideal.
303535
And well I don't have any of that powder. I do have Tightgroup, Ramshot Enforcer, CFE Black, H110, and 4046.
On paper, Tightgroup seems to be the best choice. But many people on this site and elswhere, including John Ross, have said that is a dangerous powder to load down and all of the blown up revolvers happened while using Tightgroup. From detonation or double charge I do not know. But I've been warned to steer clear of it.
Then I came across this little gem while reading "The Development of the John Ross/Performance Center 5” .500 S&W Magnum" by John Ross.
"In the .500, try a case full of much slower rifle powders like 4198, 3031, 4895, H322, H335, or BLC-2 These much slower powders fill the case entirely and the pressure builds more slowly."
So after this extremely long introduction I'll finally get to my question.
Would it be a good, bad, or terrible idea to use ACCURATE 4064 powder?
Its bulkier and slower burning than most others. Seems like a safe place to start?
Thanks,
Dan H

boatswainsmate
08-26-2022, 09:29 AM
I've never used Accurate 4064. I have used BLC2 with success for medium of the road loads. I've never ran them across my Labradar though. Good Luck on your journey. I have the John Ross edition also.

lar45
08-26-2022, 03:29 PM
Quickload says a full case of A4064 will only give around 820fps.

D H
08-26-2022, 09:52 PM
Really? I do appreciate that info. It does appear that it burns too slow. Any other suggestions? Other than buying more powder, which I may have to just go and do.
Dan H

frank505
08-27-2022, 09:18 AM
CFE black will fill the case and give decent velocity.

Gray Fox
08-27-2022, 09:59 AM
It would be fun to shoot just one cylinder loaded with fffg over a chronograph. GF

D H
08-27-2022, 10:27 AM
CFE black will fill the case and give decent velocity.

Thanks, I looked at CFE Black data but all of the starting loads give way too high velocity for plain base 335 boolits. I'm trying to hit 1200 fps. I'm not sure how low I can safely download cfe blk.
Anybody have that kind of load data?

D H
08-28-2022, 12:47 AM
Okay here's the range report. It seemed like a bad idea and well it was and it wasn't. I loaded up 23 and 25 grains of Accurate 4064 with CCI 34 primers (I don't have other large rifle primers) and got an average of 630 and 671 fps velocities out of the S&W 8.38 inch barrel(Really 7.5+ compensator). Real soft shooters and the soot wasn't all that bad, thought I did find some un-burnt grains of powder left over. I let several women shoot this load and all of them were pleased with how soft the recoil was. Since I cannot find TrailBoss, in the future, I am going to use max loads of 4064 to make my powder-puff loads that anyone can shoot. Nowhere close to 1200 that I'm looking for but I guess I have to buy some different powder for that.
I also loaded up some 700 grainers over 24 grains of H110 and got 1010 fps and some stout recoil. Grains per recoil this is some serious value.
This is the first time I've loaded for the 500 so if I'm doing anything dangerous or stupid, please, by all means, let me know.
Thanks,
Dan H

lar45
08-28-2022, 06:19 PM
I personally would not go with such a light load of a super slow powder.
Your 23gn load is probably around 57% load density. Even with H4895 they say to not go below a 65% load density for fear of detonation. If you were going to continue to load the A4064, me personally, I would fill the case to the base of the bullet.
I'm going to try and put a couple of links to 500 S&W load data. Let's see if they work.
This is Ranger Rick's load data. He was the original maker of the 700gn bullets. The load data is for his bullets. I think there's loaded length info at the bottom of the sheet.
Looks like BlueDot might give you the 1200fps you are looking for.
https://www.lsstuff.com/misc/500loaddata-02.xls

Here is a pdf of some notes from John Ross
https://www.lsstuff.com/misc/j-ross500data.pdf

D H
08-28-2022, 11:18 PM
Yeah you are right. I did a bit of research and it seems the detonation warning applies to all slow burning powders. Though they still say it is a mystery. The velocities I got are so low that i wouldn't do that again. I'll look into Blue dot.
Thanks