Hornady Brass exhibiting difficult extraction in .480 SRH?

[mikewriter]

I got 3 boxes of Hornady ammo loaded with 400gr XTP's with my used .480 SRH. Shot a few Tuesday, and they were very difficult to extract, had to tap the extractor rod with a rubbed mallet to get them out. In the same session I shot Hornady ammo with 325 gr XTP's, as well as some hand loads in Starline brass and all of these simply fell out of the chambers after firing. I had read somewhere - need to go back and look for it - that there were extraction problems with some of the early SRH .480's, but assumed that would have been a gun problem and apply to all brass? A fellow at Lee Precision who is helping me get all my "stuff" together for the .480, recommends not shooting this ammo, as he thinks the cause is too much pressure. I have a query in to Hornady, but will probably not hear from them until after SHOT is over.

Any opinions from the good and knowledgeable folks here? I have at least one offer to sell some of the 400gr ammo, but would not do that if I suspected it wasn't safe.

 

[Tom W]

My son had sticky extraction also, even after Ruger rebuilt his revolver. I used starline from the start,only borrowing a few hornady cases from him. It just seemed "softer" to me.

 

[6gun]

I have the same problem with 357 rounds extracting any time I use Starline brass even with light loads, sent a bunch off brass and some test rounds back to Starline once for them to test they sent me new replacement brass and it did the same thing.

 

[mikewriter]

Interesting, Starline brass has given me no problems. Tom, since your son's gun was reworked by Ruger, I'd think this points to the ammo/brass as more likely to be the problem? Good to know, this is the sort of info I'm looking for. I didn't chrono anything I shot the other day, need to try one of the "sticky" Hornadys for fps, see if its unusually high?

Next trip. Also have some stronger loads made up with Titegroup in th Starline brass to give a try.

 

[6gun]

Interesting, Starline brass has given me no problems. Tom, since your son's gun was reworked by Ruger, I'd think this points to the ammo/brass as more likely to be the problem? Good to know, this is the sort of info I'm looking for. I didn't chrono anything I shot the other day, need to try one of the "sticky" Hornadys for fps, see if its unusually high?

Next trip. Also have some stronger loads made up with Titegroup in th Starline brass to give a try.

The odd thing is only Starline 357 brass gives me problems, Starline 44mag. brass has given me zero problems.

 

[Tom W]

My son's revolver came from the factory with out of round chambers. Ruger replaced the cylinder and barrel, as the bullets were entering the forcing cone off center. When returned, the thing shot fine, and it's scary accurate with iron sights. All of my sons shoot that revolver well. Mine was using fairly heavy loads of H 110 or 2400, and a cast plain based RCBS 400 gr. SWC. Loads were hard to find back then... I wish I still had that gun...