500 gr. 45-70 mould

[Ben]

I just ordered a 500 gr. Lee 2 cav. bullet mould from Titan.
I want the cast bullet to drop at .460 or .4605 ", may have to lap this one a bit to get that.
It is listed as a .459 bullet. Some say in the reviews they are getting .460 and .461 as they drop from the mould. With Lee, who knows ? ? ?
At $20 a pop, It won't be a real expensive gamble.

 

[Brad]

Plan on running those at 1500 fps? Is your berm thick enough to stop them?

They should be interesting to shoot. And the price is certainly right.

 

[Ben]

At $20 for the mould, that's the current price of 4 burgers.
Yes, the price is right.

Might want to take out a rogue elephant someday ? ?
That one should do it.

Ben

 

[Brad]

Elephants that trampling your garden? Call Ben for free elephant removal.

 

[S Mac]

An acquaintance of mine wanted some of those, bought the mould and I cast some for him. Talk about draining a pot in a hurry. I never heard how they worked for him, he moved and I lost contact.

 

[Ben]

Yes, I'm certain this one will drain my 20 lb. pot VERY QUICKLY.

 

[Ben]

Plan on running those at 1500 fps?

Now that has got to be a joke !!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Brad]

Should be easy to find an 1100 fps range load for them. I bet they aren't bad until you get into 1300+ fps then it beats real quite quickly.

I will await your results. Will be interesting to see how they do.

 

[Ben]

Might be a good place to start here :

500 gr. Cast FP Accurate AAC-5744 25.2 1265
Remarks: lead bullet; start load

500 gr. Cast FP Accurate AAC-5744 28.0 1400
Remarks: lead bullet; max load; 27,900 psi

 

[Ben]

I figure the 1,400 fps load will begin to get your attention !

 

[Rick]

One good thing about such bullets, it will be Ben shooting them. Guess I'm getting old alright and have shot plenty enough big boomers to satisfy me. Besides, I have done an extensive search and can say with complete confidence that there isn't a single Mastodon left anywhere, T-Rex also seems to be a rarity.

So Ben, what do you plan on shooting with a 1/4 pot of alloy?
.

 

[Rick]

Don't get me wrong, if such things make Ben happy he most certainly should shoot them and not a thing in world wrong with that. Just saying it's no longer my thing.

 

[Ian]

I'd rather shoot 500 grains at 1000 fps than 350 grains at 1500.

Mine come out around .458" with 50/50 and .459" with 20:1. Take your time and pour a GENEROUS sprue or you'll get wasp-waisted bullets. This is one mould that I found really, really works better with a ladle.

 

[waco]

I used to have the RCBS 45-500-FN
I really couldn't find a good use for it so I traded it off for 3lbs of IMR4064
Around 520gr checked and lubed it would do 1090fps out of my 1895 Marlin with 41.5gr of IMR4350
Recoil was just a big shove.

 

[KHornet]

I gave up shooting the 500-550 grainers in 45-70 at anything over about 1100. Recoil
is no longer my friend. Good luck Ben!!!!

 

[Ben]

According to the Beartooth
recoil measure, with 8.5 lb rifle.

300 gr @ 1400fps = 9 ft lb recoil
400 gr @ 1400fps = 15 ft lb
500 gr @ 1400fps = 22 ft lb

 

[freebullet]

Ben
That's is one heck of an anti aircraft load. I hope it works out for you.

 

[Ben]

I may not be shooting it much ( as can be seen from the table above ).

Thanks,
Ben

 

[RicinYakima]

Be Careful Ben! I shot 475 grain bullets in my Trapdoor with 24 grains of 2400 for about 8 years at benchrest matches (200 shots per weekend). After I won the Nationals with the TD, I was offered a 450 Watts (predecessor of the 458 Lott) in a 10 pound rifle, so quit shooting the TD. It shoots great with 550's and 32 grains of SR4759. However when I went to my eye doc the next time I had a small retina tear. That has taken almost 3 years to more or less heal up. Old eyes don't take recoil all that well. Stop when your vision gets blurry, or it may be permanent. Best wishes, Ric
p.s. Now I just shoot the 358 Norma Mag, you know small bore stuff.

 

[Chris]

I am going to make up a standing rest next spring when I can shoot again. It has to be better (and safer) than taking the heavy recoil off the bench.