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big Weatherby
spinnakerun1
Member Posts: 22 ✭✭
I have a 460 and would love to be able to use it when Deer hunting. The 500 grain shells are a bit much for Deer. Has anyone ever handloaded the 460 brass with smaller bullits? Maybe using a sabot, like the ones used in black powder rifles. Pistol bullits, maybe? Would be great to use this rifle and not have to shoot a 500 grain a few miles, not to mention that less recoil would be very nice also.
Comments
Physics doesn't change,..so when considering the MASS of a projectile that size, the only way to reduce the KINETIC ENERGY of that projectile is to reduce the VELOCITY as well as the WEIGHT. The 460 is simply wayyyyyy too much gun but could be very useable is loaded way down.
I have seen more deer lost/wounded by guys who have "magnumitis" and beleive they need a heavy bullet pushed at fast speeds to kill a lowly whitetail deer. In fact, lighter bullets expand faster and expend more energy inside the organ cavity which actually takes the game down much quicker than a heavy bullet that plows through with little expansion. YMMV
You need to do some more work by talking to the folks at IMR powders to ask about SR-4759 powder. This is a bulky powder often used in magnums for reduced loads.
Talk to Alliant powder regarding the use of Red Dot in reduced loads.
Then check out Accurate Arms for their recommendations about using AA-8700 powder to curtail the velocities of the .460 Weatherby. It's in their reloading manual.
I would also check out the bullet manufacturers websites and find the lighter bullets such as the Speer 300 gr. FN.
Some of these combinations will get you down to 2,000 FPS with a couple going below that.
Best.