Help needed with 450 BPE 3 1/4 Bullets

Hello! I am a brand spankin/ new member here and this is my very first post. I'll try to be concise, because I need some help and I've heard you're the guys to get it from. OK here goes. I recently picked up my first British doublerifle, an Alex Henry 450 BPE 3 1/4 over a century old (still waiting for the exact date, but I suspect 1890's). I've got all the great loading books: 2nd and 3rd editions of Graeme Wright's British Double book, all the Double Gun Journals (with all the relevant Sherman Bell articles) and I'm waiting on delivery of a British book which I can't recall the title of at the moment.

I've got: 20 loaded rounds from last owner.

Load: 48 grs IMR 4198 w/dacron filler 300 gr Hornady soft point (he said, but the bullets are jacketed with lead hollow point on the 20 he gave me)

In my possesion now: 4 lbs 4198, 1,000 cci large rifle primers, Old unused RCBS Rockchucker press, Lyman scale.

I've got brass and dies on order from Buffalo Arms, but the dies are back-ordered.

I've also got a lot of casting components I started getting at the beginning of the summer primarily for my blackpowder flinters and caplocks.

So I've not yet casted anything and I've got to get a proper mould for this 450 BPE.

I've already gone on too long, so let me ask, bvasically, what do I do now to feed this double? Can I measure the bores groove to groove, do I have to slug the bore and chambers and follow the Veral Smith LBT methods, do I try to get a variety of bullets, as someone on another board suggested, and try a whole bunch before committingto a mould, do I (same guy's suggestion) get a Lee .45-70 mould? Or do any of you gentlemen have a different path to offer?

I should have capitalized all the letters in Help in the subject line, because I need HELP!

Many Many Thanks - Marc

Welcome to The Guide Marc.

Wow, everything but a photo....Please post one of rifle and cartridge. You will need some way to lube your cases for FL sizing (I recommend Imperial Sizing Die Wax) and something better for priming than what comes with the press (try a Lee AutoPrime2 - it's a press mounted ram prime that holds 100 primers and works well with CCI and Winchester primers). A decent dial caliper helps a lot, too.

I sure had to dig into the books for this one and didn't find a lot of info.

I am assuming that it was regulated for 300gr bullets at a specific velocity and probably sighted in at 50 or 100yds. COTW lists two similar cartridges, one has a shoulder, the other does not. Both were originally black powder cartridges, and I have absolutely no loading data (not surprising as I know very little about English doubles and their cartridges except to be extremely careful not to get any drool on them when I see them at shows - the owners can get a bit testy). Hopefully there was no confusion as to the exact dies needed and you get the right ones. You can also order them direct from RCBS, too, or have them custom made by Lee from a fired case. (You will likely want a custom Lee collet neck sizer and a custom Lee Factory Crimp die if you are going to shoot cast, too. Neither is expensive and they will pay for themselves many times over with increased brass life.)

4198 is one of the usual powders used with cases of that capacity, if you're not happy with accuracy you might look into 3031 and RL7, too. Finding a load that shoots well in both barrels won't be too hard, the difficulty will be finding one that matches what the rifle was regulated for. Common sense says that while anyone who owned a rifle that expensive ought to know enough to load for it safely, the fact that there is a different bullet bothers me. It may well be possible that he found more than one different bullet that shot to pretty much the same POI. If so, that's fantastic, but only by doing the actual tests can you confirm it. I would begin load development by taking the rifle with his loads and shooting them over a chronograph to check MV and make sure of the regulation range. Then I would get several boxes of different makes of 300gr jacketed bullets and see if the rifle shows a preference. Your chrono will give you a rough idea of where the correct MV is that you want to try for, but work each load up from minimum. That's the only safe way. Brass won't be cheap, but I'm pretty sure you can form cases from BELL .450 basic brass, depending on which one it is.

It might take several powders for you to find one that has its best accuracy at the correct mv with each bullet. Some rifles are more forgiving than others, and as it's a dangerous game rifle, you're looking at a hunting load that will pieplate at 50 or 100yds, not a 400yd varmint load. You might be able to find a light bullet/light charge load so you can have fun with it, too. Your shoulder will appreciate it. A Lead Sled will save you a LOT of abuse testing loads from the bench. ;)

First learn your way around jacketed bullets before switching to cast, and make sure you have ALL the copper fouling cleaned out of the barrels before you start. It should take you at least a year of playing with jacketed and learning how to match both barrels to your loads before you even think about cast.

Yes, the first thing you need to do if you want to shoot cast is to slug both bores (and don't be surprised if they are different by a few thousandths). Measure the slugs with a mic, not a caliper. When you know your bore size(s), then go to BULLSHOP (you can find a link on Cast Boolits, and you get there by clicking on it above). He has a great selection of different .45 bullets so you have a bunch of different ones to try. When you find the right one(s), then you can think about ordering a mould. Cast bullets are a whole different universe. If you think shooting is addicting, loading is even more so, and casting tops them all.

express means light bullets at high velocity.
you got the black powder loading down with the other stuff thats exactly what i'd do with this one the gun is regulated for the load.
regulating a double rifle is a marriage of load, wedges, soldering and trial and error.
plus sight regulation.
often many of the express loadings used paper patched light weight rounds, instead of the plain cast rounds.
i'd do the learn how to measure what you have and research what was in regular use at the time the gun was made to determine the closest load for starting out.