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Terry J
04-18-2007, 01:47 PM
I have a new taurus 454 with the 8 3/4" barrell. I have 200 rounds of new brass that im itching to reload. but I have a couple questions if anyone can help. Some of the books i have say I can use ,451 and .452 bullets and some just say .452. Has anyone used .451? I have .451 in 230 grn and .452 in 250 grn. I mostly just plink tarkets so i didnt want to go to big for that. My next question is I have alot of unique powder and some bullseye that i would like to use if possible but i have only found one publication that even lists either of these for reloading. Can anyone advise on a load with these powders? Thanks, Terry J.

kg42
04-18-2007, 10:25 PM
www.freedomarms.com has loads for Bullseye and Unique.
You can start Unique at 10 grs or less, but I'm not sure the gun can be sighted for slow loads. I wouldn't load it much higher , after working up cautiously, as medium powders don't seem to work well at high speeds with cast bullets.
I also don't see the point in pushing Bullseye around 1300fps.

Look for "Ruger and Contender" 45 Colt loads with Alliant and other sources for more inspiration.

It would be interesting to know the throats and barrel diameters on that gun. Try pushing .452 bullets through the cylinder with a wood dowel and measure them (remove the cylinder from the gun and gently tap the dowel with a hammer if necessary).
The idea is to shoot bullets of at least throat diameter and hope to have a barrel a bit tighter.
Depending on bullet hardness and load pressure, 451 bullets might still obturate a .452 barrel and/or shoot well. At worst you will get leading if they are undersized. What brand and designs did you get?

Let us know how it works

kg

Terry J
04-19-2007, 04:12 PM
I found on steves reloading pages the data i was looking for. I loaded 5 rounds at a time starting with w-540 at 17.5 grains and 230 grn .451 winchester FMJ bullets and that worked well but there seemed to be alot of residue on the cases so i tried another 5 crimping them a little harder and that helped the residue but didnt seem to be enough kick behind it plus it wouldnt go through what i was shooting so i stepped it up to 18.1 and that worked well. So I switched to unique at 13.5 then to 14.5 then to 15.0 and that really workes well. Good power and good penetration plus it fills the case more. Im gonna pick up some 2400 this weekend and see how that works. I havent tried the 250grn .452 hornady XTP yet but the .451 seems to do fine. I just got my dies so that took awhile to setup also. I got the new hornady nitride ones and they seem to really work well. All I shoot are jacketed rounds cause i dont like to clean all that lead out of my barrels. Thanks for the info.

kg42
04-19-2007, 08:53 PM
It sounds like lucky you doesn't spend two hours going from his loading bench to the shooting range :mrgreen:.
I assumed that your bullets were cast when answering above. Jacketed ones are less troublesome if undersized.

It's common to have a bad impression from commercial cast bullets, that's too bad because lead is easier on the barrel; which ones did you try?
I think you would like 300 grainers at about 1000fps. If their diameter matched the cylinder's throats you wouldn't get much leading.

Terry J
04-24-2007, 09:00 PM
I have used both 230 and 250 now and they both shoot great. I nonly use jacketed bullets cause i hate cleaning a bunch of leftover lead out of a barrel. Im going for the 300's next. Fortunatley where i live out of the city in the county and i have a ravine that i can walk into with about a 18 ft back drop of dirt that goes on for miles so i shoot all kinds of stuff in it.