480 Ruger loads

[DLCTEX]

I have the Lee 400 gr. mould coming and have been looking my powder supply over. I have some Blue Dot and Herco that I'd like to try as I haven't used it in any other reloading and I haven't loaded shotshell in a while that called for slower powder. I need to shoot it up, so can someone suggest starting loads for these two? I will be getting some H110 for use for most shooting. I plan to cast ACWW and use LP Mag. primers unless the consensus is to go with LP.

[buck1]

I cant help with the powder, but ACWW even though tight gave me some leading. I recomend a harder alloy or water droping...FWIW....Buck

[Faret]

+1 on the water dropping

[sagacious]

I haven't seen any published loads using Herco or Blue Dot in 400gr cast bullet 480Ruger handloading recipes. Maybe someone can help with that.

I would also recommend water-quenching your ww bullets, or use an alloy with equivalent hardness. That gave me the best results with the LEE 476-400-RF.

Good luck, and stay safe!

[BABore]

I would personally avoid Blue Dot. There was a warning out a year or two ago on it and its use in certain pistol calibers and certain weight boolits. The 480 was not mentioned in this warning most likely because there's no data for it either. Better to error on the side of caution. Herco is just a tad slower than Unique of which there is data for. You could start with Unique data and work up. Since it's slower than Unique, it will hit the base of the boolit with lower initial pressure. That may well require a softer alloy for good accuracy. I've used both Tite Group and Unique for 400 grain plinking loads. Both work well in my Ruger SRH 490. You can use standard LP primers with these powders

I'm not a believer in just telling you to use a hard alloy cause it will work better. I don't know and neither do any of the above posters. They're just opinions, hopefully based on personal experience. You would be best served by casting part of your batch air cooled and part water dropped. Try them side by side with the same loads. Your gun will tell you what it prefers. You would do well to slug your bbl both full length and one just in/out the muzzle. You didn't mention what your gun was here. My SRH had a little bit of thread constriction that I ended up shooting out with both jacketed and cast. It initially leaded just ahead of the bbl threads. I would also slug each of the cylinders to see what size they are and if there are any issues. My Ruger has 0.4781 throats and a 0.4751 groove. I size to 0.477-0.478.

As I mentioned above, my gun leaded a little bit ahead of the threads. I was using WW alloy at the time. Both air cooled and WD'd boolits would lead some. When I switched to 50/50 WW-Pb alloy, most of this stopped completely. I've long since worn down that bit of constriction and it's never been a problem. My particular gun will shoot either AC'd (10 bhn) or WD'd (22 bhn) 50/50 alloy boolits to the same POI and accuracy when using the same load. It doesn't matter if they're plinking loads or full house 296/110 loads. Only wheeler I have that will do this though.

For full house loads I'm pretty much stuck on 296/110 with CCI 350 mag primers. Alliant 2400 is a good powder and accurate, but you give up a bit of velocity if that matters to you. It is a very good choice if you wish to keep your velocity down in the 1,100 fps range as the other mention here don't generally like down loading. I used standard LP primers with 2400. AA #9 has never given me the best accuracy. I have tried Lil Gun several times and hate it. While it can be very accurate, it can also be very spikey on pressure. Not worth the grief IMO

[DLCTEX]

BAbore: Thanks. My pistol is a Tarus Raging Bull with a muzzle brake and is much more pleasant to shoot than a 44 mag Ruger Blackhawk I had for a short period years ago. So far I have only fired it with Hornady ammo. I think H110 will be my powder of choice for this round. I guess I will have to find another use for the Blue Dot. It is old stock powder (Hercules) if that makes a difference. DALE

[doghawg]

DLCTEX

I use Blue Dot in my .475 Linebaugh and am convinced the "warnings" are an attempt by Alliant to distance themselves from some of the wacky loading data that's been published for this powder. I've used from 14 to 16 gr under a 400 RCBS in the .475 and would GUESS that backing off a grain or two would work equally well in the shorter .480 brass. Blue Dot will give you a fine 1100 fps load but if you want full throttle loads stick to H110. This is just my OPINION but I burn a lot of the stuff.

[DLCTEX]

doghawg: Thanks for the info. Impatiently waiting for the mould. I won't shoot a lot of full throttle, but will shoot enough to be thoroughly familiar with it before I use it on deer or hogs. We saw a really big hog track yesterday near a field that had peanuts last fall. It amazing how they smell the peanuts under ground.

[Ironworker]

Bullets have some kind of cooked on Plastics polymer,bought off a member of this forum