Light Loads for the .460

EddieCoyle

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I love the balance of my 5" .460V. Full power loads are fun, but the bullets are expensive. I was looking for a cheap way to shoot this revolver with something that wouldn't give me carpal tunnel syndrome when I feel like shooting 500 rounds in a session.

Most people say, "It can shoot four calibers! Use .45 Colt!"

I tried that and it sucks. Here's why:

You know how .357s get hard to extract after you fire a bunch of .38s because the .38 case is .100" shorter than the .357, and that last .100" fills with crud and the .357 cases expand into it?

Well, a .45 Colt case is 1.275" long, a .460 case is 1.790' long. Imagine the extraction problems when an even larger diameter case that's over .500" longer expands into the crud. When compared to the .38/.357 Magnum, the .45 Colt/.460 Magnum has more than 6 times the surface area expanding into crud.

The end result is that if you fire full-house .460s after you fire .45 Colt, you need to knock the cases out with a dowel.

The answer is to use .460 cases, but load them light. This isn't as easy as it sounds. I wanted to load the 255gr LSWC bullets normally used in .45 Colt. Because of the enormous case capacity of the .460, loading these bullets to around 1000fps proved challenging. I tried a number of powders with very inconsistent results. The inconsistency was caused by the position of the powder in the case. If I raised the muzzle up before the shot, the velocity would be 10% higher than if I pointed the muzzle at the ground before the shot.

However, I finally found the right powder. I used IMR Trail Boss. This powder is light and "fluffy". It looks like little Cheerios. A one pound-sized can only holds 9 oz. of Trail Boss.

Here's how I developed the load:

I placed a bullet next to the case so that the crimp groove was next to the case mouth and marked where the bottom of the bullet was on the case.

I filled the case with Trail Boss to the line. This gave me a full case-capacity charge of powder without compressing the load. I weighed it out at 13.7 grains (for comparison purposes, a similar volume of H110 weighs over 50 grains).

I loaded up a bunch with this charge for testing. Here are the results for my first 10-shot string:

1057
1049
1061
1054
1054
1059
1044
1056
1060
1057

Extreme spread of 17 fps, SD of 5.21 (you're not going to do much better than that). This load was extremely acurate too. I had several groups under 2" at 50ft. I bought a machine rest and plan to further test this load's accuracy next week.
 
I don't know how it would work with a high velocity cartridge, but an old black powder revolver trick was to load the powder, then put a charge of cornmeal over the powder to take up the extra space in the cylinder before seating the ball.
 
I don't know how it would work with a high velocity cartridge, but an old black powder revolver trick was to load the powder, then put a charge of cornmeal over the powder to take up the extra space in the cylinder before seating the ball.

I'm not sure how that worked in old black powder revolvers, but in the .460, it makes a mess. Probably because the filler-to-powder ratio is about 4:1.
 
I love the balance of my 5" .460V. Full power loads are fun, but the bullets are expensive. I was looking for a cheap way to shoot this revolver with something that wouldn't give me carpal tunnel syndrome when I feel like shooting 500 rounds in a session.

Most people say, "It can shoot four calibers! Use .45 Colt!"

I tried that and it sucks. Here's why:

You know how .357s get hard to extract after you fire a bunch of .38s because the .38 case is .100" shorter than the .357, and that last .100" fills with crud and the .357 cases expand into it?

Well, a .45 Colt case is 1.275" long, a .460 case is 1.790' long. Imagine the extraction problems when an even larger diameter case that's over .500" longer expands into the crud. When compared to the .38/.357 Magnum, the .45 Colt/.460 Magnum has more than 6 times the surface area expanding into crud.

The end result is that if you fire full-house .460s after you fire .45 Colt, you need to knock the cases out with a dowel.

The answer is to use .460 cases, but load them light. This isn't as easy as it sounds. I wanted to load the 255gr LSWC bullets normally used in .45 Colt. Because of the enormous case capacity of the .460, loading these bullets to around 1000fps proved challenging. I tried a number of powders with very inconsistent results. The inconsistency was caused by the position of the powder in the case. If I raised the muzzle up before the shot, the velocity would be 10% higher than if I pointed the muzzle at the ground before the shot.

However, I finally found the right powder. I used IMR Trail Boss. This powder is light and "fluffy". It looks like little Cheerios. A one pound-sized can only holds 9 oz. of Trail Boss.

Here's how I developed the load:

I placed a bullet next to the case so that the crimp groove was next to the case mouth and marked where the bottom of the bullet was on the case.

I filled the case with Trail Boss to the line. This gave me a full case-capacity charge of powder without compressing the load. I weighed it out at 13.7 grains (for comparison purposes, a similar volume of H110 weighs over 50 grains).

I loaded up a bunch with this charge for testing. Here are the results for my first 10-shot string:

1057
1049
1061
1054
1054
1059
1044
1056
1060
1057

Extreme spread of 17 fps, SD of 5.21 (you're not going to do much better than that). This load was extremely acurate too. I had several groups under 2" at 50ft. I bought a machine rest and plan to further test this load's accuracy next week.
Something else you could consider would be to take a pistol cleaning rod & brush with you and simply make a couple passes through the chambers after every few rounds. Simple & it works. 6g of Tite Group works great in the 45 Colt case behind a 255g Keith style cast bullet.
 
light loads in .460

I use xmp5744 for reduced loads in .308 and .30/06. I also use it for duplicating black powder loads in .38/55 .45/60 wcf and .45/70 govt.
 
Nice post on how to work up a load Jim, FWIW, I have heard of putting wadding in to hold the powder near the primer with a light charge, but your solution is much better.
 
Something else you could consider would be to take a pistol cleaning rod & brush with you and simply make a couple passes through the chambers after every few rounds. Simple & it works.

That's what I'm trying to avoid. I want to shoot a lot and clean once. Besides, I don't load .45 Colt for anything else.

Nice post on how to work up a load Jim, FWIW, I have heard of putting wadding in to hold the powder near the primer with a light charge, but your solution is much better.


Yeah. I like to load these 500-1000 at a time on a progressive press; so anything like adding filler or wadding will really not work for me.
 
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