Looking for advice

Talk about your 450b reloading experience, ask questions, etc...

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Looking for advice

Postby Th3DAN » Tue Jan 27, 2015 12:17 pm

Hey guys, brand new here. Really excited to read through all of the data and research posted here. My buddies and I are all building .450 Bushies for Hog Guns. Pretty excited to have a group of 5 or 6 of us all shooting the same round. Stuck here in Central California, we must have lead free for hunting. From my research online and on this site, it seems the only way we will be accomplishing this to load rounds ourselves, which will be a fun project in itself.

From reading great posts by members, it seems like the Barnes 460 SW bullet (275GR) is a great choice for us for a lead free round. Loaded in hornady brass and with IMR 4227 at 36.5 grains (all data I gleaned from searching and reading this site, THANKS!). I think my buddies in I will probably buy a separate reloader just for this round. I searched but failed to find any recommendations on what brand would be the best to buy based on available Dies for reloading. Ideally, since I know the round I want to build now, I'd like to save myself some time and headache and buy a loader and die that has some solid recommendations for these components.

Thanks for reading this and let me also thank you for the feedback ahead of time.

THANKS!!!!
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Hoot » Fri Jan 30, 2015 2:28 pm

Th3DAN wrote:Hey guys, brand new here. Really excited to read through all of the data and research posted here. My buddies and I are all building .450 Bushies for Hog Guns. Pretty excited to have a group of 5 or 6 of us all shooting the same round. Stuck here in Central California, we must have lead free for hunting. From my research online and on this site, it seems the only way we will be accomplishing this to load rounds ourselves, which will be a fun project in itself.

From reading great posts by members, it seems like the Barnes 460 SW bullet (275GR) is a great choice for us for a lead free round. Loaded in hornady brass and with IMR 4227 at 36.5 grains (all data I gleaned from searching and reading this site, THANKS!). I think my buddies in I will probably buy a separate reloader just for this round. I searched but failed to find any recommendations on what brand would be the best to buy based on available Dies for reloading. Ideally, since I know the round I want to build now, I'd like to save myself some time and headache and buy a loader and die that has some solid recommendations for these components.

Thanks for reading this and let me also thank you for the feedback ahead of time.

THANKS!!!!


Welcome aboard Dan. IMHO, IMR 4227 would not be my first choice for the 275 XPB. It may have gotten mentioned lately in a thread where that was all the OP could get. Especially if you're considering a 16" carbine length 450b, do consider using a powder powder faster than 4227. I have had good experience with Lil Gun and the 275 XPB. As many will attest, Lil Gun is hard to find these days. Again, IMHO, it is worth waiting and searching high and low for some.

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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Th3DAN » Fri Jan 30, 2015 2:33 pm

Thanks for the feedback. I'm considering the hornady die set and a hornady press. Any issues you foresee with that?
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Sat Jan 31, 2015 1:22 am

Hornady dies are by far, the best dies to go with. Check NatchezSS online as well as Cabelas and maybe even Buds Gun shop. Someone told me they saw some for sale at Gander Mountain, but I have yet to confirm. Going price is $64.00-$70.00 a set but you can sometimes find a sale. Be sure to take advantage of any Hornady Rebates when you get your set. As for unleaded boolits, Hoot has been working with some 200Grain Barnes and COP bullets and has posted his results here. I am also about to run some tests on the COP 200 grainers, but I am waiting for things to calm down around here. My mom has been very ill and broke her shoulder and I'm tryng to take care of her and her financal business as well as my own. It's been a wild 2015 so far. But it looks like I may get to begin my next AR build this weekend. It should be finished by 02/05/15. Stay tuned for pics. And No, it's not a 450B, but she's still gonna be a sexy beast.
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby pitted bore » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:07 pm

Th3DAN wrote:Thanks for the feedback. I'm considering the hornady die set and a hornady press. Any issues you foresee with that?

Dan-
The Hornady die set, as TSD mentioned, is a fine die set. CH4D is the only other maker of which I'm aware, but a 4-die set from them will run you $150. (If you have enough cash RCBS will build most anything.)

There are genuine issues with the instructions furnished with the Hornady set. Some experienced reloaders have encountered some real problems with using the dies as a result. Let us know when and if you obtain the Hornday dies, and we can walk you past some pitfalls.

The Hornady press is a good quality press. Whether it is the "best" or "proper" press for your circumstances depends on what those circumstances might be, of course. If you have minimal budget constraints, more expensive presses are available. It's also possible to spend rather less, if your budget is tight.

Judging from your question about presses, it appears that you are a novice reloader. Here's some further advice much like I wrote a couple of years ago to another novice posting inquiries. You'll find the internet and catalogs filled with tons of equipment. Realize at the outset that the MOST IMPORTANT part of your equipment lies between your ears, and it's necessary to have that equipment functioning properly before beginning to use any other equipment.

Begin with a manual that has a good instructional how-to-do-it section. Some that are preferred by experienced persons here are the Lyman Reloading Handbook (47th, 48th, or 49th edition), the Nosler manual (5th, 6th, or 7th edition), or the Hornady manual (7th, 8th, or 9th edition). You can usually find the older editions at considerable discounts.

The manual can be supplemented by a good DVD, like the RCBS DVD titled "Precisioneered Handloading". The DVDs are the product of several minds each dedicated to seeing that the viewer does things right. (The manufacturers really want you to survive and enjoy reloading, so that you might continue to buy reloading equipment and supplies.) This form of instruction in fact might be better than having local old-timers personally show how it's done; us geezers tend to pass along our errors. Some of the "instructional" reloading videos that have been posted on youtube and similar outlets contain grave technical errors.

A couple of additional points that others on the board may modify:

1) If you're like 95% of persons who start to reload, you'll find you won't save any money. You will get to shoot a bit more for the same or likely greater expenditure of funds. If you attach a dollar amount to your time spent, you will very quickly fall behind compared to buying factory ammo.

2) If you don't buy a start-up reloading kit, then you need to acquire two essential measuring devices: a good 6" caliper, and a reliable balance, preferably with some check weights. You cannot reload good 450B cartridges without them.

I'll try write a blurb on unleaded bullets soon, if somebody doesn't do so first.

--Bob
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Hoot » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:09 pm

Couldn't figure out why my post bounced back at me until I realized that I doubled with Bob.
Lets try again:

I did a quick recon and much to my surprise found them priced the lowest Here. I haven't done business with them since my days of cold war era military rifle restoration. Used to get some good deals on rebuild kits. I know they lost some followers due to their ammunition pricing over the past few years, but a good price on the die set is still a good price, no matter where it comes from.

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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Th3DAN » Sat Jan 31, 2015 6:14 pm

Thanks much for the research. I found a forum member selling a set on auction for $43. I put a bid in. We shall see! Now to source the press next. Also, gonna have some sweet pictures of this new build shortly. My good buddy and fellow 450B builder Jason is a custom duracoater/cerakoter on the side. he is almost done with the main body parts in Burnt bronze and silver. Here is a teaser pic. I'm stoked.

Image
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Al in Mi » Sun Feb 01, 2015 6:00 am

wow that's nice.
Last edited by Al in Mi on Mon Feb 02, 2015 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Looking for advice

Postby Jim in Houston » Sun Feb 01, 2015 9:13 pm

I started reloading with the Hornady dies and their start up press kit a couple of years ago. I had to supplement the kit with a caliper , a bullet puller , and vibration cleaning set up , which I got from Franklin arms. There is a lot of good information on the forum on reloading the bushmaster 450. And I believe Hornaday is offering their free bullet rebate with the purchase of major reloading equipment like dies and a press. The bushmaster bullet is not part of the offer, but if you call them up they will probably substitute them for you at a small additional cost.
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It's all ordered now

Postby Th3DAN » Tue Mar 31, 2015 3:24 pm

All of my previous reloading experience has been with 338 lapua on a Dillon press that we use to pump out those very large/expensive rounds. I've not reloaded a straight necked round before.

Here is the current load data and materials that I've culled from this site:

I'm using a:
- Hornady Press
- Hornady 450 die set
- (already have other reloading gear, micrometer, puller, tumbler, digital scale, etc)

Materials
Barnes XPB 275 GR bullets
Lil gun powder
Remington Small Rifle Bench Rest Primers #7-1/2
Hornady 450 brass (once fired)

this load is mostly for 16" carbine length barrels.

It seems like from reading the forum that the load data settled on as most appropriate for a starting point is this:

275gr Barnes Likely 2.20 OAL
34.5grs
no secondary crimp 2050fps
light crimp 2093fps
heavy crimp 2128 fps


I'm curious about a few things here. First, this is a hunting round for large wild pig. The goal for these rifles and rounds is effective killing power out to (hopefully) 300 Yards. I am NOT looking to push the limits of any barrel/case pressure safety. The entire goal is consistent, predictable killing power within this range. With that goal is mind, am I at the right starting point for the first load attempt?

Secondly, crimping may be the most confusing thing I've read on this site. I must have now read about 4 - 6 completely different opinions on crimping based on different projectiles, die sets, and presses. In an attempt to simplify this (since I haven't reloaded a round like this before) knowing that I am using the Hornady Die set on a Hornady press. Is there simple starting measurement that will help me understand the difference between, "no secondary," "light," and "heavy" crimping?

Lastly, I have the reloading manual for Hornady, a couple reloading Bibles, plenty of data from test loads on this site. Is there anything (data) that I'm missing before I start the first batch?

If possible I'm hoping to skip some of the usual test and try sessions that have already been done by the experienced posters here and therefore spend less time tinkering on builds that some have practically perfected.

Thanks in advance!
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