Originally Posted by
hardcastonly
just a tip or two,
(1) use gas check, cast bullet designs, they consistently provide less bore fouling
(2) use 215 fed primers as they seem to be the most consistent in my testing
(3) size the bullets you cast at .459, sized any smaller and accuracy seems to suffer
(4) if you graph out bullet weight vs velocity , and retained energy at 100 and 200 yards,
you get a curve indicating the 350 grain -420 grain weight is about ideal, in the 45/70 and 450 marlin rifles
When I return stateside next summer, I'm going to invest in reloading and casting equipment. I purchased QuickLoad and have been playing around with the program. I'm thinking of the Accurate Molds design #46-460CG. I want a 460 grain bullet with a wide meplat.
QuickLoad shows a lot of promising options for powders out of my 20" Browning BLR in .450 Marlin:
VihtaVuori N120
95% case fill, 37.54 grains, 1653fps, 2791ft.lbs energy, 38159psi, 100.0% propellant burnt
IMR 4198
96% case fill, 37.35 grains, 1659fps, 2810ft.lbs energy, 38700psi, 98.6% propellant burnt
Alliant Reloder 10x
96% case fill, 39.27 grains, 1647fps, 2772ft.lbs energy, 34587psi, 96.9% propellant burnt
VihtaVuori N130
101% case fill, 40.93 grains, 1658fps, 2808ft.lbs energy, 38508psi, 97.5% propellant burnt
Alliant AR-comp
101% case fill, 42.34 grains, 1650fps, 2780ft.lbs energy, 32631psi, 97.2% propellant burnt