And specific to the 480, at least with my SRH it has been an exceptionally accurate and easy to load for round with cast. I'm sure I'll forget a few I've tried, but I've had great success with a custom 275 gr swc (I tried to scale up the classic keith design) a 310 gr LFN, more 390-410 gr designs than I can remember, and even a 460 gr WFN (it was supposed to be a 450 gr).



275 gr swc, 310 gr lfn, 400 gr rf lee, 400 gr XLFN gc, 460 gr WFN gc 310 LFN and 460 WFN from balisticast



275 swc and 400 XLFN from Mountain Molds



Loaded rounds

I basically settled on the 275 gr over 13 gr of blue dot for ~1000 fps for a mild load, and the 400 gr XLFN gc over 21 gr of H-110 for a 1200 fps working load. Sadly I misplaced the four cavity balisticast 310 gr LFN mold which was an outstanding bulelt and I need to get a replacement mold made. The lee 400 gr rf is also a good one, I have one of the prototype molds.

The 460 gr WFN seemed to be too much of a good thing. 19.0 gr of H-110 would push it 1050 fps, but I found that after ammo had been sitting some time I'd get sticky extraction. Not something I'm fond of for a self protection round so I ended up selling that mold. I think a 430-440 gr with a long nose idealized for the 480 cylinder would be the way to go. I had to crimp into the first lube groove to keep the gc from bulging the case.

Though years ago I sent someone a box of those 460's to try at the linebaugh seminar and as I recall his load pushed them 1100 fps and they penetrated 90% as deeply as the best 475 and 500 loads, and outpenetrated most everything else that year. Something like 38" of wet newsprint in one test, and 12" of newsprint and 2+" of bone in the other other test.

recovered bullets from the the penetration tests



I've only had a few cast bullets that I haven't been happy with, and that's mostly because I've been spoiled by a gun that with most cast bullets will print five into 1" at 50 yds, scoped off the bench.

I tried a Lee .490" round ball as a plinker. I was looking for a powder puff load and while a few grs of red dot was such a load, accuracy was about 3" 25 yds and cases were very sooty. The lee 325 gr rf. Somebody cast some up and sent them to me. I didn't have enough of them to really work up a load, but various charges of unique were ho hum in the accuracy dept. I had a 400 gr mihec hp mold. I think it's a well designed accurate bullet, but I had the darndest time trying to get them to cast properly. HP molds need to be cast hot to get complete fillout, and you need a fast enough cadence to keep the mold hot. The problem is if I cast fast enough to keep the mold hot the bullet bases would tear when they dropped from the mold. Slow down to keep the bases in tact and the noses would be wrinkly or incompletely filled out. I'm partial to molds that cast easily so gave up on it and sold it. I might get another in the future. It was pretty impressive when I shot it into glacial silt. Blew the nose off but still retained a 300+ gr full wadcutter which in and of itself would be a respectable killer.



275 swc, 400 hp after testing, fresh 400 hp



.358" 160 gr hp compared to .476" 400 gr hp