[Varmint Hunter]

I am looking for a light load for my SRH 454 and a Hornady 300gr jacketed bullet. I will be using Hornady 454 brass and Fed 205 primers. I'm considering 19gr of W296 but am curious as to whether this will give consistent performance.
Anyone have any other recommendations? I also have H110, Blue Dot, Lil'Gun & many slower burning powders on hand.
VH

 

[PaulS]

Varmint Hunter,
H110 is the wrong powder for reduced loads. This powder doesn't ignite properly with reduced loads. You would be better off with a faster powder like HP-38 or Trap 100.

PaulS

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Paul,
I just bought a pound of Hodgdon's TiteGroup powder. Hodgdon claims that this powder was designed for light loads in large volume pistol cases. All I need now is some data. They provided data for the 45LC and a few other cartridges, but not for the 454.
I dropped Hodgdon an email.
VH

 

[J.Solo]

V.H:
I just received a Loading Data Sheet from Freedom Arms for the .454 Casull and they have some reduced loads for 300 grain jacketed bullets. I would think these loads are interchangeable with HARD, Cast bullets.

Let me know what velocity you would like to shoot the 300 grain Lead Bullets at and I will send the data. The loads listed range in starting velocities of 804-1026 fps for Bulleseye, 820-1076 fps for HP-38, 824-1062 fps for W-231, 1049-1275 fps for Unique, 1084-1450 fps for HS-6, 1100-1440 fps for W-540, 1107-1494 fps for W-571, 1111-1501 fps for HS-7, 1177-1625 fps for A.A. No. 9, 1240-1534 fps for Bluedot, 1290-1491 fps for N-120, 1346-1622 fps for A.A.-1680 ............................................. and many others, each with a higher starting point of fps. - J.Solo

 

[JohnK]

All I need now is some data. They provided data for the 45LC and a few other cartridges, but not for the 454.

So use the 45 Colt data you have. Or take the 45 Colt data and increase it by 1 gr, the same as people have done for decades when loading light 357 or 44 Mag loads using Special data.

Using the same bullet the OAL difference between the 454 and a 45 Colt is only .1", since we're talking about reduced loads and using data from a smaller case in a larger there is no reason you can't use the 45 Colt data. You'll see slightly lower velocities when loaded in 454 brass but not much.

 

[PaulS]

Varmint Hunter,
Hodgdon lists 11 grains as a maximum charge for a 260 grain bullet in the 454 but they don't list a load for bullets above or below that weight. I would try a 9grain starting point and not exceed the 10.5 mark if I had to use that powder. It is unlikely that you will get a chance to see any signs of excessive pressure in your weapon before the cases start getting sticky - you will want to drop 5% from any charge that causes cases to get sticky.

PaulS

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Thanks for all the input guys. :grin:
"J.Solo" put me on to the right track for a wealth of 454 reduced data. Freedom Arms has considerable data available for 240gr-260gr-300gr jacketed bullets and about 17 different powders. It can all be found right on their web site.
Only problem is that they don't list the new powder that I just bought, TiteGroup. Figures :roll:
VH