.414SM,…….load development

[bula]

Hoping for a successful hunt pic next.

[bigbrowndog]

I finally received an old order from Hawk bullets, some jacketed .410’s……235gr and 270gr SP bullets with .025 jackets. I’ll be trying some loads and seeing how these do over the next few months and report data here. It will be interesting to see how the heavier jacketed bullets do, since most everything that is heavier for .41’s is typically cast.

Trapr

[bigbrowndog]

Fired the Hawk bullets today,…..235gr and 270gr. Loaded aa1680 and H4227, aa1680 has consistently proven to not provide the velocities that have been attributed to it. Personally it provides 41magnum velocities with 414sm charges, accuracy is excellent but so is it from my 41mag and it does it with less powder. H4227 has provided velocities about 50fps slower than what is possible with comparable cast bullets, but I don’t need to clean my gun after every 10-15 rounds. Accuracy was better with the 270gr. bullets than the 235gr. on the order of 2” and sub 2” groups with 270’s and 3” to 3.5” groups with 235’s distance was 50 yards. Velocities are 235gr. 1450fps to 1500fps, 270gr. 1420fps to 1460fps with H4227, what aa1680 provided was 235gr. 1250fps to 1350fps, and the 270gr. went 1310fps to 1340fps, also all of the aa1680 groups were 2” or slightly less at 50 yards.
My 414 definitely seems to like the 270’s and 265’s better be they cast or jacketed, they just seem to provide an excellent combination of velocity and accuracy. My feeling is that for a single bullet to do everything the 265/270 weight is a great choice. As an aside I also tried using H110 with some 210/220gr bullets, 210 Swift AF, 210 Speer, and 220 Sierra FPJ. The FPJ I’ve used in my 44 levergun and it behaves much like a cast bullet and so works well on tougher game like feral hogs and such. I also took a 225 pound pig with one from my 414 last year and got almost complete penetration with a severe quartering on shot and recovered the bullet under the skin in the hindquarter.
The H110 loads were all 27.5gr. with all the bullets, velocities were 1595fps with the 220FPJ and 2” group at 50 yards, the Swift AF did 1680fps and a sub2” group at 50, the Speer 210 went 1601fps and gave a 3” group at 50. Many have reported H110 not being a favorable powder for the tall powder column in the Maximums and SuperMags, yet no seems to say that about the 460SW or 500SW. The performance of the Swift AF makes me want to run one into a whitetail or feral pig on my next hunting trip.
That’s it for now, time to select a couple of loads and load up and go hunt.

Trapr

[bigbrowndog]

The latest developments, please see this as a continuation of Lee’s work with his 414sm. He and Ross both determined that H110 does not work well as a tall powder column. I used H110 with some success but with intermittent anomalies. Those anomalies showed up as pressure spikes, visualized as flattened primers, when the others were rounded and normal. Those particular rounds also landed to a different impact than those with normal primers. I subsequently tried H4227, as AA1680 proved much slower in my gun compared to Lee’s. I had had good success with 4227 in my 500Max as well as my 357max. No pressure spikes have occurred thus far and velocities have been only 50fps slower than similar loads with H110.
Using a 300gr. Hornady bullet meant for the 405win. with the point ground off, has provided very acceptable accuracy 2.5” at 100 yards and velocity at 1300-1350fps, depending in the load used. I will investigate this new projectile for use on larger elk sized game, by testing it on big feral hogs, 250-300# pigs typically give a good comparison for penetration and expansion.

Trapr

[bigbore5]

4227 is the accuracy king in the long powder column handgun rounds I have tried it in from 357max to 500 Bushwhacker.

[45MAN]

DOES ANYONE KNOW A VENDOR WHO HAS 4227 AVAILABLE?

[bigbore5]

Mar 10, 2024 7:43:43 GMT -5 45MAN said:

DOES ANYONE KNOW A VENDOR WHO HAS 4227 AVAILABLE?

Natchez