The "454 Short"....

[Snyd]

....no, not the 45 Long :D

Here's my latest little project and I need to run it by any experienced reloaders.

So the goal is to be able to shoot these 355gr hammers I cast in the 454 Puma levergun.

http://web.mac.com/perryschneider/pics/45_350_lbt.jpg

Loaded in 454 brass they won't cycle with this big metplat. In 45 Colt brass no prob. But, I'd like to be able to push these at 454 levels in the Puma. My 45 Colt load is 21.5gr H110 and is a max load and is accurate and about 1200fps in my SBH. I could stuff more powder in the case but don't feel comfortable doing that and the SBH doesn't need it. I also don't want to take the chance of mixing up ammo and shooting an over max/high pressure load in my wheelguns. So, I decided I'd trim 454 brass down, seat and crimp some dummy rounds to where they'd cycle in the levergun and see if I could have more case capacity than the 45 Colt brass. I ended up at 1.330, thus, the 454 Short is born (at least in my world) :D. 45 Colt brass is 1.285, 454 is 1.385 so I ended up in the middle The 454 Short is about half way between the 45 Colt and 454. Plus, since it's headstamped 454 that should help keep from accidentally stuffing them into my 45 Colt Rugers.

Now for a question and other observations. First off. Will the .050 or so more case length/capacity translate to any real world advantage? Secondly, I have in the past loaded a 360gr Cast Performance boolit in 454 brass trimmed to 1.365. That bullet seats deeper in the case than the 355gr Hammer I cast. I don't have one to measure but I do have this old pic and you can see the difference.

http://web.mac.com/perryschneider/pics/45_bullets01.jpg

I bet it's close to .050 or more shorter. My observation/conclusion is that the 355gr Hammer in the 1.330 454 Short case has the same case capacity (or more) than the 360gr CP boolit seated in 1.365 454 brass. Therefore I should be able to use the 454 360gr load data as a guide for the 355gr 454 Short, and end up with a genuine 355gr Hammer 454 Casull load for the levergun.

Whew….. that was long. Any input?? Give me some feedback.

[mroliver77]

I dont know if there is any great advantage with .050 more boiler room. You are thinking straight on switching boolit and same load being close. I would back the powder off the preached 10% and work up from there. I really like the looks of that boolit for woods range work.
J

[runfiverun]

you will have more contact/friction with the hammer boolit,but slightly more case capacity.
i think your trade-offs will be close but not the same.
back it down some and go head.
i doubt you'll need nor want much over 1200 fps to be an effective hunting round.

[454PB]

I don't use those boolits, but my experience with both my Puma and three .454 handguns has shown me that there is a velocity gain of 200 to 300 fps. in the rifle barrel.

If you chronographed 1200 fps. in a revolver barrel, you can expect 1400 fps. or so in the Puma. Enough to make your shoulder blue after 50 rounds, and certainly enough to kill anything in the lower 48.

[RobS]

Snyd:

Your thoughts sound reasonable and as suggested simply start at the minimum charge, work up and you should be fine. I've actually taken older 454 brass and trimmed it down to take out the chances of neck splits as the brass is worked thin by the repeated crimping. These shortened brass (1.360) are then used for my light plinker loads and I've seen very little difference over the chronograph.

Keep us posted on that huge meplat bullet's performance and accuracy.