Encore 460

Ok I went to a gun show on Saturday should of stayed home,I bought a encore barrel in 460 12 inch from TC custom shop .The barrel has been magna ported ,I have everything to load for it from owning a s&w 460.shipped it down the road not impressed with it ,let's here your favorite 460 loads. I think it will make a fine Ohio deer gun.
Thanks Mark

I don't reload, but I have slain numerous Alabama and Illinois bucks with my .460s firing the Hornady 200 gr. FTX/SSTs. Recoil is not bad, it's flat and fast and puts them down when I do my part.

39 gr. of 2400, 45 gr. H-110, using the 200 gr. FTX, worked awesome on whitetails for me , stay off the shoulder!

Sorry, but it sounds like you got a piece of junk. I'l do you a favor and take it off your hands.

I tried some 300gr XTP mags with 39 gr H-110 today 100 yd around 2 inch group but the SOB was a handful with that load and it's under max,makes my FA .454 feal like a toy.

Definitely try one of the lighter bullets.

I have a box of 240 gr mags il try them tomorrow,300 gr load shoots fantastic but about 10 is all you want at a time.

Another load I use, which is sedate compared to the above loads is 19,20, 21 gr. of Power Pistol , with a 240 XTP Mag, more than enough for whitetails, and pretty mild to shoot.

I will never, ever shoot an FTX at an animal ever again. Ever.

I'm loading the 300gr XTP at 41.5 grains of H110. It's a handful.

Agree my hunting partner took a nice buck last season with a FTX bullet,perfect broadside hit ,I was not impressed with the bullets Preformance used the rest of them up on paper.

Why is that?

I hear they're a bit fragile.

My partner took a perfect broadside shot at 50 yds ,bullet came completely apart and no exit wound.The deer only went about 75 yds into a thicket but no blood to follow made a difficult recovery.

Like I said, Stay off the shoulder.

In November of 2014 I made a shoulder shot on a mature doe standing still, broadside at 75 yards. Should have been an easy find. Visible impact, front leg buckled, she took off and I never saw her again. No blood or bone. More than that, there were no turkey vultures over the next week anywhere close to where she should have been.

A 200 grain bullet traveling however fast Hornady says it is should have destroyed a 140 pound doe at that distance. After that I shot the same bullets into dirt and recovered the most underperformed hollow points I've ever seen. The nose crumpled into itself and it had little, if any expansion.

If you want to use a 200 grain bullet out of the 460, go with the Barnes XPB in that weight.

I have had good results with them on deer only, I learned the hard way to stay off the shoulder , and hit them in the lungs.

Understand. My thought is that a 200 grain bullet from a .460 shouldn't rely on placement to avoid a shoulder.

I agree, I don"t think any bullet from a 460 in the shoulder would be too pretty.

335gr hardcast from Cast Performance. Max, or near max load of H110. Large rifle primer.

Very very accurate out to LONG range. I had a MGM barrel on my TC Pro Hunter and used that load out to 300 yards with plenty left in the tank.

Performance results ?

Sorry, I don't have a lot of results to post for ya concerning performance on live critters. That load was just super accurate for me, and that bullet especially. I use it in the 45 Colt and the 460 S&W with a near max load of H110, and also with a light load using Titegroup. It's a great bullet as far as accuracy is concerned, and there are several others on here that can vouch for its performance on the terminal end of big game. Their experiences are why I started using it, and it is all I will use now. I've seen the accuracy while shooting metal critters and gongs at the range out to 300 yards with the 460, and have very high confidence in it.

I trust the word of most of the really experienced guys on here, and when they say the performance of that 335gr hardcast is extremely lethal, that was good enough for me to try it out. I'm sure glad I did, and it's all I use now.

Most people don't realize / utilize the potential of the 460 S&W. With a heavy bullet like the 335gr hardcast, it does a lot more than what people think it can do when using the scam bullets.

I know that Whitworth used the 395 gr HC on a boar and filled it full of holes....he's not a big fan of HC in the 460 at mag velocities 😉 just saying....

The 325 gr Swift A Frame is the top 460 S&W bullet 👍

Good point Franchise. Forgot to mention that "qualifier". Rod (s4s4u) and I have talked about that via phone conversations as well. Slow the big heavy hard cast down, and it seems to do better. But at 300 yards, with the full house load, I would *think* the bullet would have slowed down to acceptable levels to do it's job by the time it got out that far. I know it sure hits the iron hard at those distances. But like I said, I don't have experience on critters at that distance.

I do prefer the tightgroup loads out of the 45 Colt, and those shots are under 100 yards. Still like the full house loads in the 460 though, but probably not on critters at closer distances. "Closer" being less than 150 yards.

I'm no expert on terminal performance with the 335g hardcast, but I know they hit hard, and have been very accurate for me.