Siglover518
.38 Special
Anyone currently reloading this cartridge? What loads are you using? I'm just getting into this and looking for some direction.
50 beowulf loading
- Thread starter Siglover518
- Start date
I've played around with the 12.7x42 as well as proper .50 Beowulf and found a few things:
First off, Heavy Bullets: they tend not to have sufficient ogive, so they will catch in the Rifling before the bolt fully closes, requiring a deeper seating, which either limits the amount of Powder or compresses the Load.
Lyman Cartridge Case Gauge: Save your money and buy a really good Steel one like a Wilson.
Trim Length: AA cases seem to run on the long side, Starline works very well and is slightly shorter: I use a Lee Trim set up which makes them ALL uniformly on the minimum length, and makes heaver squarish (heavy) Bullets easier to seat.
Hodgdon Lil'Gun works super as does IMR4227, and IIRC I've used AA1680 and Magnum Large Pistol Primers (Winchester LPP works just as well)
Magazines: While you can use regular ol' USGI type, I did score some genuine Bushmaster made magazines for the .450BM and they are superior; They look like a conventional 20 round AR mag, but have a sled-like follower for the top and a .556 follower in the bottom that prevents more than (5) rounds. (these also work for .458SOCOM)
You DO want to trim, chamfer, and radius the Case Mouth as well as flare it before seating a bullet as the Cases are a bit thin.
Take your time, make a few WITH NOTES, try them out.
I can't give you any Load Data right now, but if you do a search on ".50 Beowulf Load Data" you'll find several promising Rabbit Holes...Alexander Arms used to have loading Data on their Web Page, but I think that's gone...Factory Ammo is $2~$3 per round, but the shit works great!
I have/had a lot of components for loading the .500 S&W and you'll find it's similar, certainly can use the Bullets, but as you get heavier and heavier, you WILL find it becomes more a pain in the ass to gt 'em just right where they'll feed and function in a Gas Gun...after all, if you're killing flies with a Sledge Hammer does it matter if it weighs Five pounds or Fifteen?
First off, Heavy Bullets: they tend not to have sufficient ogive, so they will catch in the Rifling before the bolt fully closes, requiring a deeper seating, which either limits the amount of Powder or compresses the Load.
Lyman Cartridge Case Gauge: Save your money and buy a really good Steel one like a Wilson.
Trim Length: AA cases seem to run on the long side, Starline works very well and is slightly shorter: I use a Lee Trim set up which makes them ALL uniformly on the minimum length, and makes heaver squarish (heavy) Bullets easier to seat.
Hodgdon Lil'Gun works super as does IMR4227, and IIRC I've used AA1680 and Magnum Large Pistol Primers (Winchester LPP works just as well)
Magazines: While you can use regular ol' USGI type, I did score some genuine Bushmaster made magazines for the .450BM and they are superior; They look like a conventional 20 round AR mag, but have a sled-like follower for the top and a .556 follower in the bottom that prevents more than (5) rounds. (these also work for .458SOCOM)
You DO want to trim, chamfer, and radius the Case Mouth as well as flare it before seating a bullet as the Cases are a bit thin.
Take your time, make a few WITH NOTES, try them out.
I can't give you any Load Data right now, but if you do a search on ".50 Beowulf Load Data" you'll find several promising Rabbit Holes...Alexander Arms used to have loading Data on their Web Page, but I think that's gone...Factory Ammo is $2~$3 per round, but the shit works great!
I have/had a lot of components for loading the .500 S&W and you'll find it's similar, certainly can use the Bullets, but as you get heavier and heavier, you WILL find it becomes more a pain in the ass to gt 'em just right where they'll feed and function in a Gas Gun...after all, if you're killing flies with a Sledge Hammer does it matter if it weighs Five pounds or Fifteen?
Siglover518
.38 Special
Thanks for all the info!!! Great stuff really.
I did some tinkering with pmags and I found that if you dremel out the rib inside on the front it allows most rounds to fit. They have functioned well so far (10 rounders) I've been thinking of trying out one of the aa specific magazines but parting with 50ish dollars for one magazine (thats essentially a 8$ usgi mag with a different follower) makes my blood boil.
While I have several boxes of factory aa ammo we all know how the ammo market is. And I'd like to offset my range fun by as much as I can lol