Puma 454 bore .452- can I shoot .454 boolits?

[Snyd]

The bore in my 454 Puma slugs at .452. I have a 275gr LFN mould that drops at .454 with ww, .455 with 5/1 ww/lino with 2 big lube grooves. Can I just load em and shoot em or should I size to .453? I'd like to push these hard in 454 brass and see what kind of range/trajectory/accuracy I can get out of them.

[Bret4207]

The BORE slugs .452 or the GROOVE slugs .452??? If the GROOVES slug .452 then yes, probably you can use a .454 boolit. Whether or not it will chamber will be a big part of the question.

[Snyd]

Ya, I slugged the bore and the groove diameter is .452. I am just wondering how far over groove diameter I can go. I always thought .001 over was it. Like with revolvers a 451 bore should shoot a .452 boolit and throats should be .4525. It seems .002 over groove diameter would be okay though in the levergun?

[Four Fingers of Death]

I usually load one, if it chambers I load a few to try and then I see how they go. If ok, I leave it at that.

[RobS]

I will shoot lead from .001 to .003 over groove diameter..............if it chambers, I shoot it. Most of the time a larger bullet has shot better for me anyway. FWIW I have a Puma 454 Casull as well and shoot .454-.4545 bullets through it all the time and it too has a .452 groove. diameter.

[Snyd]

Thanks guys.

[Ed Barrett]

I shoot cast .454 and .455 cast in mine all the time. No problems.

[Snyd]

I just loaded one up, as cast, .454-.455 over 12gr Unique and it chambers just fine. I"ll load some more and see how they shoot compared to some I have sized at .452. Problem is, this mould as a fairly small crimp groove and when I size the .454 down to .452 there's not a whole lot of crimp groove left. I hope to push these pretty hard so would like a nice firm crimp.

[RobS]

Snyd:
The larger bullet will also give you more case tension so that will help on those heavy loads as well. I actually had a bit of improvement on accuracy with the larger bullets out of my Puma.

[dubber123]

I have shot .006" oversized in a 50-70, (helped fill up the "generous" chamber). No problems, and shot very well. Let us know how it goes.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I just loaded one up, as cast, .454-.455 over 12gr Unique and it chambers just fine. I"ll load some more and see how they shoot compared to some I have sized at .452. Problem is, this mould as a fairly small crimp groove and when I size the .454 down to .452 there's not a whole lot of crimp groove left. I hope to push these pretty hard so would like a nice firm crimp.

Sounds like a job for the good ol' Lee Factory Crimp Die!

[Snyd]

Sounds like a job for the good ol' Lee Factory Crimp Die!

Yup.....