First go round with the 454 puma

[saz]

Mods,
I posted this in the "cast boolits" section by accident, I meant to put it here last night. I was pretty tired- Sorry!

Here we go- FINALLY got a chance to get out to the range and shoot my new 16.5" puma 454 casull. The first load was a berry's plated 200gr and 9.5gr of trail boss. I loaded up about 30 of these just to play around with. They recoil a little more than a 22 and accuracy at 50 yards was good. Shooting standing kept all 30within a 10" circle. What a gas!

The next load I tried was a 400gr TL plain base design another member on here sent to me to try (thanks Ed!)- Using new WW cases, remington 7 1/2BR primers, Lil' Gun and an OAL of 1.753, they were worked up in half grain incriments from 18-20.5grs. The Crono numbers are as follows:

18gr Lil' Gun
AVG-1370fps

18.5gr Lil' Gun
AVG- 1400fps

19gr Lil'Gun
AVG- 1412fps

19.5gr Lil' Gun
AVG- 1452fps

20gr Lil' Gun
AVG- 1483fps

20.5gr Lil'Gun
AVG- 1501fps

The chrono numbers were looking promising but the accuracy was horrible at best- it was more of a pattern than a grouping. At 50yds I was lucky to keep them on the paper. There was a little bit of leading, but my guess is that my lee FCD is the culprit of the lack of accuracy. I need to check, but I think it was sizing the boolits down a bit. I am going to try it again using the seating die to crimp. Any other ideas out there? I really want to get these boolits to work out as they will make for a really good bear protection round.

Also, I am thinking about a set of XS sights for this gun- the factory hi-vis sights on here just are not my cup of tea- not very fine and the dots are way too big...... But, a less than productive day at the range is WAY better than a day at work, right?

[saz]

Forgot to add, there are virtually no pressure signs at all and they cycle like butter.....

[DanWalker]

You need to try some HAMMER boolits over a stout charge of 2400.
PM me your addy again and I'll send you some to try.

[saz]

pm sent dan

[Snyd]

What 400gr boolits are you guys getting to feed in 454 brass in your pumas?

[Ed Barrett]

I ran a group buy a couple of years ago on a 400 grain at .454 as cast that could be paper patched for a rifle or used as is for .45 LC and .454 casull. I use it in a Puma over 17 grains of lilgun. Very accurate and plenty of juice. I have heard of taking 400 grain 45-70 bullets and running them through a .454 sizer and then a .452 sizer and making that work.
P.S. That load was with Winchester small rifle primers and Starline cases

[saz]

Snyd,
What Ed said. It is a RNFP with a small meplat, plain base and tumble lube grooves. It is a heck of a boolit. I just loaded another batch of them and this time I just crimped with the sizing die thinking that maybe the lee FCD was swaging the boolits down while crimping.

On another note I really like the Lil Gun. It burns really clean in both my 454 and .44mag (WAY cleaner than 296 or H-110) and more velocity. It is like having a really stout AA#9; clean accurate and meters easy through my powder measure.