450Bushmaster.net

Hello Everyone,

I bought a box of these 275 grain Barnes bullets made for the 460 S&W, after testing various loads, IMR 4227 at 36.5 grains has the best grouping, 3 holes touching at 50 yards. Overall length was 2.165, no problems feeding or ejecting. 1/24 twist Bushmaster 16 inch barrel. The cartridge casings all looked good, no sooty or unburned powder, and the primers looked the same as the Hornady factory loads, I'm very happy so far. This is my new Whitetail load for this season. Will let you all know how it goes.

oilcan72

I do not have the 16" carbine upper but if I did, I would not use such a slow powder, even with the 275gr Barnes. That having been said, sounds like you found a funtional load nevertheless. Good Luck with whitetail season and let us know how you do with it. FWIW, the 200gr Barnes XPB is plenty of bullet for whitetails, but it would suffer using 4227 more than the 275.

Hoot

oilcan72 wrote:Hello Everyone,

I bought a box of these 275 grain Barnes bullets made for the 460 S&W, after testing various loads, IMR 4227 at 36.5 grains has the best grouping, 3 holes touching at 50 yards. Overall length was 2.165, no problems feeding or ejecting. 1/24 twist Bushmaster 16 inch barrel. The cartridge casings all looked good, no sooty or unburned powder, and the primers looked the same as the Hornady factory loads, I'm very happy so far. This is my new Whitetail load for this season. Will let you all know how it goes.

oilcan72

Oh-Yeah! Looks like you bumped into a great load and you'll be able to use it for ELK/MOOSE too..

..t

Were you able to get a velocity average for that load? The Barnes XPB 275s and 200s should be "THE" loads for the 450b, IMHO...

Reminds me: Has anyone with the 450b "Corvette" barrel mod tested for what the 275s could do with that change to the status quo?

The only other powder I have available is Accurate 5744, the best grouping I could get was 1.35 inches at 50 yards. I simply ran out of practice time before the season was upon me, not to mention the arctic blast that swooped into town.

I was not able to get any velocity readings, no chrony yet, hopefully in the spring I will have my ducks in a row, and be able to find some different/ better powders to try out.

oilcan72

I experimented early on with these. Probably back in '09. I predominantly use Lil'gun and if I recall had velocity in the realm of 2000 fps. The accuracy was so-so compared to factory, so I abandoned the experiment because of the price of the bullets.

I have used 5744 before in the 450, mostly with 400 grain resized bullets. It does not completely burn and leaves a lot of unburned kernels. My carbine jammed because of the debris in the chamber. I use that powder a lot in the 45-70 lever tho. Great stuff -- just not for an auto.

Thank you Siringo,

Believe me if I could find lil gun I'd be using it, I just had to work with what I have available. The IMR has been working good so if I get a hold of different powders I can do more experimenting. I tried the 5744 and it definitely was very sooty it had decent groups but not as good as the IMR 4227. I'll keep looking for other powders and different bullet combos but for now I'm happy with the 4227 so far.

oilcan72