.454 brass

[cleardatum]

speer's reloading manual #14 says to use new brass for full house loads, one use only, and then for reduced loads thereafter. whelp, i have come up with a load i really like, and all my new brass (150 pieces) have been used once in the process. does anyone use their .454 brass more than once for full power loads?

 

[Tom W]

When I had my Encore I did. 300 gr cast and a stout load of Lil' Gun.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

If you are loading to maximum, one shot per new case is a way to CYA as a load developer/ manual writer considering you have no control over the quality or dimentions of a gun these loads will be fired in. That said, most .454 chambers are made to very tight tolorances and the brass does not get worked like firing a .45 Colt round in the average sloppy chamber. If they eject without trouble and new primers seat snug you should have no worry in reloading them with the same load two or three times before using them with reduced loads. Just don't reload them on a set of dies made to load all .45 rounds made. Dies made spacificly for the .454 don't reduce the case below what is nessesary for easy chambering in a .454 chamber.
I don't shoot many top end loads in my .454's. There is just no need to, Ruger only .45 Colt loads will kill anything that walks or crawls. If I were heading off to Africa the price of some new brass would be the cheapest part of the trip.

 

[cleardatum]

thanks for the input, gentlemen. i'm using rcbs .454 dies. the brass looks like it gets worked pretty hard. tough to extract some. no absolute maximum loads ( i never, ever go maximum), but close. i got 1625 fps with 296 behind hornady 300 grain xtp mag. it's just so much fun shooting this stuff. amazing power. that load was a full grain below maximum, btw. while on the topic, i was going to reload these with a ruger-only .45 colt recipe, just to be safe. i've read that some slow burning powders don't work well with reduced loads (which is exactly what a .45 colt load would be in a .454 case). my in-stock powders are 296, h110, n110, imr4227. i get concerned putting a .45 load in the larger .454 case.

 

[Chuck 100 yd]

The Speer #14 load manual has a good selection of " Ruger only " level loads that
are just the ticket and listed for use in the .454. I use them a lot. I find IMR 4227 one of the best powders for that use.
PM me and I will share a couple of those loads.

 

[SweetWilliam]

When I got my 454 I bought new Starline brass.
My main load is 31grs. of H110 using Hornady 300gr. XTPmags. I know some of those cases are on they're 4th reload and no problems so far.