458-416 Ruger.....Some rifle pics up now.

Kevan, RoA and I obviously have personality differences, he deems everything I do to be irrelavent, unimportant, out dated or dangerous. All of which may be true in the big scheme of things, but as I have said before, I do this for my own entertainment and I share with others on this forum who may be interested, just for the hell of it. If, in his estimation this means I have a "crippling narcissistic personality disorder", then all I can say is he's entitled to his opinion and the right to express it. I don't feel a need to validate or even consider his opinion at this point, I will continue my entertaining hobby and share some of what I do, here on this forum, for the perusal of any who may be interested or slightly entertained.
I'm quite comfortable with who I am and what I have done and achieved in my life so far, so other peoples opinions of my perceived personality disorders are of little consequence to me. I have never found cheap shots or insults or personal attacks to be a very effective or productive form of communication, so I try not to indulge in such behavior. My ego isn't nearly as fragile or as big as it was when I was a younger man, so I'll just muddle along with my irrelavent projects and be happy doing so. If any of you guys out there have any interest in sharing these with me then that's great. If not.................then just ignore me, like I do with Gatehouse now.

Douglas
 
Last edited:
Here's some filler before photos of the donor rifle I bought.













Not a bad start to a project, I doubt this rifle has seen 100 rounds down the tube. No bluing wear on bolt handle or muzzle, pristine condition overall.
 
I'm giggling over this thread....lot's of fun. Nothing wrong with hot rodding .45 & larger caliber
rifles. It's all in the name of ballistic experimentation and one's own tolerance level to recoil.
I'm happy with my own .458 Win. mag. BSA & tend to load it to the lighter end of the
spectrum, but that's just my preference.

If one wishes huge push,try a 2 bore......frickin' whack!:)
 
Thank you for the info c-fbmi. I found this and the postings in June this year regarding fireforming standard belted cases in the "375 Ruger platform" very interesting and will follow the results. My experience in the .458" calibre is limited to a 460 G&A built on a Ruger #1 Tropical, and a beautiful 458 Lott RSM. I shot the 458 Lott very little, and unfortunately both are in the past now. Thank you for sharing the info.

Regarding your belted-to-rimless (btr) case conversion, I think you did well to use the WW brass, as it seems to have more copper and less zinc than some other brands, and the internal profile of the case head section, especially the thick brass just ahead of the face of the belt, make it possible to do this belted-to-rimless conversion. I shall look into the aspect regarding internal shape of the case and reply. I own two 375 Ruger rifles at present, and have friends in South Africa who also own this calibre (both Ruger and Howa rifles), who may benefit from the info which you have shared with us.

Good luck with the 458-416 project and please keep us posted.
 
RSA1.......don't know about the specific metallurgical make up of different brass, I just know that W-W brass has always been the toughest brass I've tried and the lightest, in forty years of reloading. I feared I may get a fracture line at the body/belt junction, but no such line appeared, not even on the old multiple fired brass. I'm aware the quality control of W-W brass has been questionable lately but I'd still rather cull 3-5 brass from a bag and end up with cases that will then be good for 7-10 loads instead of using brass where it all fails in 3-5 loads. The economics is pretty glaring, and the cases sticking in the chamber of my son's rifle was downright scary for a DG rifle. Kevan also noted that his Hornady 375 Ruger brass was failing to hold primers after less than 3 loads. I also happen to know that Kevan doesn't share my penchant to squeek the absolute max from a cartridge, and loads what I would call quite conservatively.
All this points to very inconsistant metallurgy in Hornady's brass. Hence my experiment to find a solution for my son so he can continue to use his rifle with confidence. It would seem that Hornady differences vary considerably from lot to lot...........Gatehouse reports no failures with his Horn brass at all.......Kevan was losing primers after 2-3 loads......and my son's brass was sticking tight in the chamber but no problems with loose primers.......this tells me Hornady is having a lot of metallurgical consistency problems or possibly in their drawing and annealing processes. Regardless these types of case faiures in a medium bore DG rifle are unacceptable, in my opinion.
I can't take credit for this idea, another gentleman on this forum did this with the belted case several years before my experiment with the 375 Ruger. He also reported good success with blown out belted brass. I believe his motivation was cost and availability back then but regardless the outcome was the same.
 
Last edited:
Douglas, I should mention that the same problem with Hornady brass cropped up with some of their 404 brass I bought three years ago @ the Kamloops Gun Show and also with a few Hornady brand 303 Brit. cases, but no problems with their brand of 6.5X55 and 30-06 that I reloaded.
Remember the A -Square 404 brass you gave me.... well just for fun I took a couple cases, marked them and fired and reloaded them 10 times with full power " Atkinson " data loads which incidentally are nearly 90 gr. IMR 4831 under a 400 gr. bullet and believe me that load will get your attention.
Well, the primer pockets are still "as new tight " and also those cases needed trimming twice only with 10 denture-rattling firings..... hows that for case performance ?
 
My experidnce with Hornady brass in .375 Ruger has been, for the most part, satisfactory. My original 50 have been loaded 6-8 times each using a variety of bullets and amounts and types of powders. I haven't experienced any loose primers, split cases, separations, etc to date.

I did experience same collapsed shoulders when bullet seating. Turned out the RCBS die was faulty. But I still spend extra time on chamfering.

This year I moved onto a new batch of 50 just because.

The rifle is a semi custom built by Mr. Leeper using a fairly new reamer. Also, I mostly just partially resize my brass. I'm convinced this contributes significantly to case life.

Doug, I will probably be trying your .300 Win to .375 Ruger reforming process sometime down the road. After I refresh my so-called memory from your past posts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom