405 Winchester reloading

[jjames]

Has anyone seen any reloading data on using lighter 41 mag bullets in a 405 Winchester?

[TedH]

I've been trying to compile all the data I can for the 405. So far I have not seen any specifically for pistol bullets.

[Leverluver]

Ken Waters did an extensive article on the 405 and did a lot of work with different 41 mag pistol bullets. He really got them smokin' Be aware that you might have problems with your sights coordinating with such light bullets.

[CBinNH]

This is a bit of an info overload, but I emailed Accurate/Ramshot Powder a while back & here is their response. At the beginning of the high velocity loads there is a load with a 210 & another with a 260 gr bullet & 5744 powder. I havn't tried them yet.

Chris,
We suggest the following.
Caliber: .405 Winchester.
Barrel length: 24â€

[Don McDowell]

I believe Jeff Quinn did some 41 mag bullet shooting in his write up on the 405 on gunblast dot com
If you subscribe to load data .com there was some data there where they wasted perfectly good 41 mag bullets also.

[hfcable]

i have some data some where else but here is what i can find right now.

here is a link [ the data is for a longer barrel, but no matter, the loads should be safe and perform well]:

http://loaddata.com/members/search_deta ... W=&PM=&PT=

and if it doesn't work here is the pistol bullet data from that link:

210 Hornady JHP Hodgdon H-4198 50.0 2,546
Remarks: case: WRA; primer: W 120; expansion: maximum; highest-velocity load; accurate

210 Hornady JHP Hodgdon H-322 54.0 2,107
Remarks: case: WRA; primer: W 120; expansion: moderate; accurate

200 Speer JHP IMR IMR-3031 56.0 2,215
Remarks: case: WRA; primer: W 120; expansion: moderate; very accurate

210 Rem JSP Hodgdon H-4198 51.0 2,495
Remarks: case: WRA; primer: W 120; expansion: normal

220 Speer JSP Alliant RL-7 55.0 2,545

[CowboyTutt]

This is a great thread with a lot of good information. Every time someone posts "what is a good levergun for..." I want to recommend the 405 in a 95 Winnie. A great cartridge and great rifle. I still think about getting one, but I have enough carbines including a BLR in 358 Win that comes pretty close. If I had to do it over, I would get the Win '95 in 405.

-Tutt

[jjames]

Thanks gentlemen. A couple of these loads look like what I was hoping for.

[Don McDowell]

Just curious as to what you're wanting your 405 to do?

[Kansas Ed]

About 15 years ago I experimented with cast lead bullets weighing 210 gr. out of my original 405. After a couple of loads I gave up, as the accuracy was so wild. I still have them on the shelf somewhere. I don't see a need to load pistol bullets in this caliber. The 300 gr is the end all to be all for this caliber. Now with that said, I do have some GC 265gr bullets which might get tried later in the year just for kicks and grins, but they have been primarily relegated to being resized for 40-82 duty...

Ed

[Leverluver]

I did some impact testing with the 411 hawk and 41 mag pistol bullets. Most of the pistol (hollow point, soft point) bullets have little use for hunting at anything but moderate slow (1100 - 1500) velocities. One that looked pretty good was the Hornady 210gr silhouette bullet. It was (I don't think it is available anymore) basically a full metal jacket but with a skived jacket nose. It worked cool in that it didn't "expand" like most soft point or hollow point bullets. The nose actually imploded upon itself. The nose pushed back but it did flatten out from the impact. If impact velocities were kept 2,000fps or less, it would work pretty darn well on smallish whitetail or would definitely give a coyote a really bad day.

[Don McDowell]

KEd I shot quiet a few of the 265 gc offered by leadheads in mine. They shot ok, but if they could of been another .001 bigger they would of been better.
I never could see the point in trying 41 pistol bullets, they were just to hard to come by at reasonable prices, and being to small diameter added to being so short leaving alot of free bore for them to jump, just didn't seem like the thing to do.

Leverluver hows things up in Glenrock?

[Kansas Ed]

Thanks Don,

The bullets I was talking about in 265gr were ironically enough, the Leadheads....they shoot great in the 40-82's so I think I'll just stick with that and pass on the 405 experiment...no need to change my current 405 load (Hawk bullets) anyway....

Ed

[Don McDowell]

Ed for all the rounds I put down range with all the different bullets from everywhere I could find, the Lyman 412263,cast from 16-1 is hard to beat for a general purpose just shootin bullet.
I'll forever have a great admiration of the Northfork bullet , but sadly we all know the fate of those.....

Have you ever tried any of the heavy weights in your 82? I loaded some snovers in the 405 and got some promising results out to 750 yds.

[Shasta]

I've been playing around a bit using a Saeco 225 grain .41 Magnum cast lead pistol bullet in my current production Winchester 1895 in .405 caliber. I'm going at it differently though. I thought it might be fun to see if I could make some "express" loads using a light bullet and black powder.

Best 50 meter group so far has been a load consisting of a Winchester Magnum Rifle primer, 65 grains Cartridge black powder, and a 1/8" grease cookie sandwiched between 2 card wads under the bullet.

First 3 shots went an even inch. 4th shot opened it to 1 1/2", and the 5th shot was to the left and made it a 2 1/2" group.
I think if I had a receiver sight I could do better. It sure is fun to shoot black powder in the .405 and it tames the recoil substantially.



Velocity average 1422 fps