Post by GLSHOOTER on Jun 7, 2015 16:23:46 GMT -8
I finished up my 458 SOCOM test ammunition this AM. They are big puppies for sure. I anticipate loading about 500 of these in the near future so thought it was time to set up a press for the chore. I have a Dillon 300 set up for 45 ACP so all it took was a die swap and a powder adjustment.
I had been loading on the AA Turret so the dies needed adjusting. Of course I had no powder funnel for a 458 so stopped at Dillon’s the other day and picked one up. My first clue was when the fellow asked me if I had a powder die. I have several so that was negative. I noticed it was large but what the heck it’s a big boy’s cartridge. Got ready to set up yesterday and fond it was too big to drop in a standard powder die.. NOT GOOD! Oh well, to the press parts box!!!! Shuffle, shuffle, rattle rattle and I have funnels for 44 MAG, 45 ACP and one turned down from 45 ACP to about 44 .5 (used on thin walled 45 ACP in the old days). Hmm, the 45 will fit inside the neck and if I won’t flare the mouth with the right adjustment. I had some ruined cases from some SBR factory loads that had been given to me and set my dies up with those. Powder throw was GTG, seater GTG and dealing with one strange quirk I had to set up to resize the new SOCOM brass. 90% of the guys out there have to size it or it won’t go in the chamber. This brass is not small. I set up for a shoulder bump and tried it in the chamber. Score!!
One other thing that was done after sizing was I went ahead and chamfered the case mouths. These were pretty square and as I said BIG!! The deburring tool would just barely get around the mouth at the furthest point on the cutters. This is a picture of the tool setting in my custom made holder for my Makita. Fast and easy on the hands it is.
The 458 is a wildcat and no factory/manual data is out there that I can find. Looked over everything on the net I could find and it was mild to wild. I wanted a sub-sonic for the 405’s and a super for the 325’s. The super was easy as lots of guys had shot it with a chronograph so I was comfortable with that. Obviously no pressures but I wasn’t after gorilla stompers, just moose slammers. I found that IMR 4198 was GTG on the 325’s and RL 7 on the 405’s. I picked some loads that were a bit of the top that guys had shot quite a bit and started in.
Straight forward after setting the seating depth and doing the powder charge swap got me 20 rounds of heavy hitters. Total weight of the bullets in these 20 was a tad over one pound of projectiles ready to go.
I’ll shoot these Sunday morning over the chronograph and report back. I just have to pick a scope to go on the upper. It feels like a 20 gauge shotgun shooting slugs so is not that objectionable.
Greg
I had been loading on the AA Turret so the dies needed adjusting. Of course I had no powder funnel for a 458 so stopped at Dillon’s the other day and picked one up. My first clue was when the fellow asked me if I had a powder die. I have several so that was negative. I noticed it was large but what the heck it’s a big boy’s cartridge. Got ready to set up yesterday and fond it was too big to drop in a standard powder die.. NOT GOOD! Oh well, to the press parts box!!!! Shuffle, shuffle, rattle rattle and I have funnels for 44 MAG, 45 ACP and one turned down from 45 ACP to about 44 .5 (used on thin walled 45 ACP in the old days). Hmm, the 45 will fit inside the neck and if I won’t flare the mouth with the right adjustment. I had some ruined cases from some SBR factory loads that had been given to me and set my dies up with those. Powder throw was GTG, seater GTG and dealing with one strange quirk I had to set up to resize the new SOCOM brass. 90% of the guys out there have to size it or it won’t go in the chamber. This brass is not small. I set up for a shoulder bump and tried it in the chamber. Score!!
One other thing that was done after sizing was I went ahead and chamfered the case mouths. These were pretty square and as I said BIG!! The deburring tool would just barely get around the mouth at the furthest point on the cutters. This is a picture of the tool setting in my custom made holder for my Makita. Fast and easy on the hands it is.
The 458 is a wildcat and no factory/manual data is out there that I can find. Looked over everything on the net I could find and it was mild to wild. I wanted a sub-sonic for the 405’s and a super for the 325’s. The super was easy as lots of guys had shot it with a chronograph so I was comfortable with that. Obviously no pressures but I wasn’t after gorilla stompers, just moose slammers. I found that IMR 4198 was GTG on the 325’s and RL 7 on the 405’s. I picked some loads that were a bit of the top that guys had shot quite a bit and started in.
Straight forward after setting the seating depth and doing the powder charge swap got me 20 rounds of heavy hitters. Total weight of the bullets in these 20 was a tad over one pound of projectiles ready to go.
I’ll shoot these Sunday morning over the chronograph and report back. I just have to pick a scope to go on the upper. It feels like a 20 gauge shotgun shooting slugs so is not that objectionable.
Greg