Hornady has bailed on 480 Ruger and 450 Marlin shooters

[Tracy]

Good luck making the 450 Marlin, its belt is ~twice as long and cannot be made from other belted magnum cases.
This was to "protect" people from using the 'wrong cartridge' - lucky them. :-/

If Marlin would have done the sensible thing by legitimizing the .458x2 wildcat instead, there wouldn't be that problem.

Learn something every day. I stand corrected on the .450 brass.

[fastdadio]

hey lets go buy ammo right now..

480 ruger on gunengine is 3.40 to 4.95 per round at the 5 places that claim to have it instock.

maxammodepot has cases of the 450 instock. 500$ for 200 rounds. wow, i thought 44 was bad.

Careful,
Maxammodepot is a known scam site;
https://stopgunscams.com/maxammodepot-com

https://www.scam-detector.com/valida...ot-com-review/

[BobT]

Regardless of the brass situation for some calibers, I have to give Hornady credit for one thing at least, when I go to the local shops looking for components Hornady is present on the shelf. Maybe not a big selection but I don't find anything else at all as far as brass or bullets for anything, let alone the cartridges that never sold in quantity. Try finding a box of .348 Winchester on the shelf anywhere, ditto .300 Savage, .307 Winchester, .30TC or even .35 Remington in this area.

[nicholst55]

Starline still makes it, although they are out of stock right now. But both of those are pretty good rounds to have because you can make .480 from .45/70 brass, and 450 Marlin from any number of belted magnum cases.

Starline hasn't made any .480 brass for a couple of years, and they MAY make a run this coming year sometime. I believe that most people who need .480 brass are buying .475 Linebaugh brass from Hornady and Starline (when available), and trimming it down. Starline knows that, and doesn't care. I look for Starline to either formally discontinue .480 brass, or else just continue to ignore us and make an occasional production run of .475 Linebaugh. Also note that all brands of .45-70 brass modified to .480 length except for Winchester WILL require internal reaming before reloading. Also, your revolver's cylinder may or may not require modification to allow it to chamber the formed brass unless you turn down the case rim in diameter.

And while we're talking about reloading, if you don't have everything that you need to reload for your boutique cartridge, you'd best buy it while it's available! Although you probably don't need to trim your .480 brass, try to buy a case trimmer pilot in that size. You can't, except for the Lee trimmer. Lyman doesn't support the cartridge at all except possibly for 1-2 bullet mold designs - if you can find them.

Same with some of the flash-in-the-pan AR cartridges. They seem to fail at a prodigious rate! Looked for brass for your 6mm ARC recently?

[Bmi48219]

…..Same with some of the flash-in-the-pan AR cartridges. They seem to fail at a prodigious rate! Looked for brass for your 6mm ARC recently?

Reloaders are the fair-haired stepchildren of ammo manufacturers. Good enough to buy up surplus components, but out of luck when ammo sales are good.

[elmacgyver0]

Reloaders are the fair-haired stepchildren of ammo manufacturers. Good enough to buy up surplus components, but out of luck when ammo sales are good.

I think you mean "Red-Headed stepchildren"; the "Fair-Haired children" get the goodies.
Small thing, but hey, we need to be accurate.

[LeonardC]

For my .480 Ruger "fun" loads I use a RCBS 400 grain mold; almost all of my .480 shooting. I have a couple of boxes of 410 grain hard cast bullets from Cast Performance for serious carry.

I avoid having a different caliber head stamp on my brass than what I'm shooting. One gentleman told me he was buying the .475L brass and cutting it down on a lathe to .480R length. Works for him.

[dtknowles]

For my .480 Ruger "fun" loads I use a RCBS 400 grain mold; almost all of my .480 shooting. I have a couple of boxes of 410 grain hard cast bullets from Cast Performance for serious carry.

I avoid having a different caliber head stamp on my brass than what I'm shooting. One gentleman told me he was buying the .475L brass and cutting it down on a lathe to .480R length. Works for him.

I prefer no headstamp to wrong headstamp. I obliterate the headstamp on a lot of my formed from other brass. I cut a groove thru the writing using my lathe or just spot grind critical number off leaving the manufacturer and random characters.

I have a box of Cabelas Obsolete ammo that is marked in small print the headstamp might not match the actual caliber. I got this box of .351 Win Auto from a seller who thought they were .357 Mag reloads because they are .357 Mag. headstamped but it does not take a close look to see they are modified.

Tim

[dtknowles]

How much is the most you would pay for hard-to-get brass? Would you use Berdan primer brass if that was all you could find? If $5 per was the cheapest you could find how many would you buy? I paid $100 for a box of 20 loaded rounds of Hornady 450 Nitro Express. I have paid as much as $5 a piece for loaded 50 bmg but it probably has a dollars worth of powder in each case and the cheapest bullets are a $1 each. Can't find primers for them but I have not looked hard. I got a bunch of mil surp that I got cheaper, looks really cool all linked in a belt.

Tim

[dverna]

How much is the most you would pay for hard-to-get brass? Would you use Berdan primer brass if that was all you could find? If $5 per was the cheapest you could find how many would you buy? I paid $100 for a box of 20 loaded rounds of Hornady 450 Nitro Express. I have paid as much as $5 a piece for loaded 50 bmg but it probably has a dollars worth of powder in each case and the cheapest bullets are a $1 each. Can't find primers for them but I have not looked hard. I got a bunch of mil surp that I got cheaper, looks really cool all linked in a belt.

Tim

Tim, I see no point in spending a lot of money on ammunition or brass. I live in Michigan and will never go to Alaska or Africa. Anything I need to kill can be handled with the two rifle calibers I have downsized to…. 5.56 and .308.

After owning over a dozen rifle calibers realized I did not need them. They were merely expensive toys.

I don’t kill a lot of critters anyway, and putting holes in paper or shooting steel does not require much.

People spending $2+ a case or $4+ per round have a lot more money to throw at the hobby than I. Doesn’t make much sense to me. There are more economical ways to get r’ done.

[dtknowles]

Don, you are certainly right. I think maybe you own an air rifle or two, like me. I can shoot for almost free if I recover my lead. I just spend time and electricity to cast new projectiles and run the compressor. My biggest air rifle is 9mm.

I have the money to shoot the BMG and the 450 BPE but I don't shoot them much. Having them without having ammo just did not seem right. These things are not losing value.

Tim

[dverna]

Tim, I have two air rifles and two air pistols. IIRC, it costs me about $15/1000 for pellets and air. Like you said, not quite free but darn close. And they are not toys. Well under an inch at 50 yards with the rifles and 1/4” at 10 yards with the pistols.

Besides the low cost, I will be able to shoot targets and small varmints/game without concerns about where to find primers or powder. Love trigger time!!

BTW, came close to getting a 9mm air gun for coyotes but I have so much 5.56 stuff hoarded it did not make much sense. If I got anything bigger than .22 cal, I would want to buy a compressor and the decent ones are not cheap. Would be interested in knowing how your 9mm is working out for you.

[dtknowles]

Tim, I have two air rifles and two air pistols. IIRC, it costs me about $15/1000 for pellets and air. Like you said, not quite free but darn close. And they are not toys. Well under an inch at 50 yards with the rifles and 1/4” at 10 yards with the pistols.

Besides the low cost, I will be able to shoot targets and small varmints/game without concerns about where to find primers or powder. Love trigger time!!

BTW, came close to getting a 9mm air gun for coyotes but I have so much 5.56 stuff hoarded it did not make much sense. If I got anything bigger than .22 cal, I would want to buy a compressor and the decent ones are not cheap. Would be interested in knowing how your 9mm is working out for you.

The 9mm is not great, very heavy, not well under an inch at 50 yards but around an inch. I keep thinking I would get a .22 PCP but I don't and just shoot my CO2 .22's instead. Still pretty cheap to shoot and you don't need to find powder and primers. I have a CO2 .30 I made out of a paint ball gun but the trigger is not nice, needs more work and does not shoot that much more power than a .22 PCP.

Tim

[Texas by God]

Here are two .450 Marlins with an 8mm Remington magnum in the center.
The belt height difference is easily seen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[elmacgyver0]

If I were in that situation, I would make cases out of a similar magnum case and solder a small ring of brass to lengthen the belt with low temp solder, then cleanup in a lathe.

[MUSTANG]

Years ago I put away and still have 250 new cases for my .350 Remington Magnum rifle. The .350 RemMag was introduced in 1964. In 1992 they ceased to produce the .350 RemMag for a decade. Ability to locate .350 RemMag is difficult and impossible at times. I make .350 RemMag from 7mm Mag brass as I do not have a Rifle for that caliber and collect them off and on as Range Pick Ups.

An old story repeating itself is my interpretation.

[dtknowles]

If I were in that situation, I would make cases out of a similar magnum case and solder a small ring of brass to lengthen the belt with low temp solder, then cleanup in a lathe.

I would be worried about that annealing the case head making it too soft. I think glue would be better. Clean it good, but a bead of JB Weld on it and then machine the JB Weld.
Tim

[Loudenboomer]

I may be missing something here. On the .450 Marlin long belt issue why couldn't the barrel be set back one thread.
Brass could be trimmed to fit the new chamber length or chamber could be lengthened slightly with a new short belt reamer.

[dverna]

I may be missing something here. On the .450 Marlin long belt issue why couldn't the barrel be set back one thread.
Brass could be trimmed to fit the new chamber length or chamber could be lengthened slightly with a new short belt reamer.

One thread may not be enough, but the idea would work. The bottom line is "the bottom line".

Is it worth the cost of having the work done and ending up with a bastard case?

I do not have the problem, but if I did, I would look at the cost to convert the gun to another caliber if I intended to shoot it a lot.

In my case, I have no need or desire to "plink" with something like that. I would buy 3 boxes of ammunition, or 50 cases and they would last my lifetime to hunt with. If you can get 6 reloads per case, that is a lot of game downed.

I like Tim's suggestion of trying JB weld on a case and seeing how it works out. If that failed, machining a small bushing to increase the length of the belt and attaching it with super glue might work.

[MT Gianni]

Years ago I put away and still have 250 new cases for my .350 Remington Magnum rifle. The .350 RemMag was introduced in 1964. In 1992 they ceased to produce the .350 RemMag for a decade. Ability to locate .350 RemMag is difficult and impossible at times. I make .350 RemMag from 7mm Mag brass as I do not have a Rifle for that caliber and collect them off and on as Range Pick Ups.

An old story repeating itself is my interpretation.

Yep, Graff and Sons used to run an annual brass sale on 307 and 356 Winchester cases. They contracted with a Yugoslavian company for an annual run. Those guns might shoot rimless brass but might not too.