460 S&W and 225gn flex tips

M

McDowell300

Inactive
New to the forum guys. Not found any recent threads on 460 loading and thought I'd bring this up. Just chrono'd some of those 225gn hornady flex tips at 2355 fps. Now before the arguing starts. Yes I know they are probably meant for colt velocities. And yes they are probably too hot for safe measure. However I was wondering if anyone has found a good load with these at 460 velocities. I'm shooting a S&W performance center with a 12" barrel. It shoots the factory 200gn hornady loads at around 2400fps. Its been a few years since I've played much with this gun and loading for it (too many kids slow down the load development)
Just looking for some input.
Thanks
Dave
 
Like any other .45 caliber bullet designed for .45 Colt velocities, terminal performance on medium sized game and larger, at legitimate .460 velocities, will probably be dismal. On top of that, thin jacketed .45 Colt bullets shot at those same legitimate .460 can separate in the barrel and/or cause excessive and premature forcing cone and barrel erosion. While they are cheaper initially than bullets designed for .460 velocities and pressures, they end up costing you in the end. My suggestion is to use the proper bullet @ the proper velocity. Keep velocities to 1600FPS or less and it won't matter.

Still, it's your gun, your choice.
 
There is a 0.452"250-grain flex-tip FTX for the 450 Marlin. The extra 0.001" won't be a problem as long as you work the load up from the lowest starting load data. The extra hardness will raise the pressure a bit. But it will get you around the issues Buck mentioned.
 
Like any other .45 caliber bullet designed for .45 Colt velocities, terminal performance on medium sized game and larger, at legitimate .460 velocities, will probably be dismal. On top of that, thin jacketed .45 Colt bullets shot at those same legitimate .460 can separate in the barrel and/or cause excessive and premature forcing cone and barrel erosion. While they are cheaper initially than bullets designed for .460 velocities and pressures, they end up costing you in the end. My suggestion is to use the proper bullet @ the proper velocity. Keep velocities to 1600FPS or less and it won't matter.

Still, it's your gun, your choice.
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I agree 1000%

There is a 0.452"250-grain flex-tip FTX for the 450 Marlin. The extra 0.001" won't be a problem as long as you work the load up from the lowest starting load data. The extra hardness will raise the pressure a bit. But it will get you around the issues Buck mentioned.
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Did you mean 450 Bushmaster? 450 Marlin is a .458" Rifle Bullet no?
 
Unclenick said:
There is a 0.452"250-grain flex-tip FTX for the 450 Marlin. The extra 0.001" won't be a problem as long as you work the load up from the lowest starting load data. The extra hardness will raise the pressure a bit. But it will get you around the issues Buck mentioned.
Click to expand...

The other .45 caliber projectiles Hornady makes intended for use in the .460 are .452 also. The problem with that bullet(I believe) is the lack of a cannelure to roll crimp into. With the powders used and the recoil produced, I would want to use a heavy roll crimp in any legitimate .460 ammo.
 
Hornady Flex Tips are made for lever action tube mags and not so much for velocity.
Hornady loads a .452", 200 grain, FTX in .460 S&W with a MV of 2200 FPS. Their 225 grain FTX .45 Colt runs 960 FPS. Same bullet construction.
Your 2355 FPS is a tick faster than factory 200 grain ammo. 25 grains difference is far too much.
Your only issue would be finding 225 grain jacketed data. Hodgdon's site only lists Barnes, lead free, X, solid copper, bullet data.
I'm not seeing any 225 grain data anywhere. A guy on Alaska Outdoors forum posted back in 2011 that Hornady had no data and hadn't tested the 225's.
You might want to contact Hodgdon and ask.
 
It's curious, though, that the 200-grain FTX would be labeled for the 460 S&W, specifically, while the 225-grain FTX is labeled for the .45 Colt, specifically. My guess is the expansion velocity ranges are different. I would email Hornady and ask.

I missed that 200 the last time through. The Hornady site wouldn't take me to it as a 0.451" bullet. Searching under the FTX line, I had to click on the .452 and .454 menu selections before it turned up.
 
Hornady specifically developed the 200 gr FTX for use in the S&W 460 mags. The 200 FTX has a thicker jacket as compared to the 225 FTX. The 200 FTX can handle velocities of 2000+ fps (and they are expensive little buggers too ! :eek: )
 
Thanks for all the input I appreciate it. I'll try and get ahold of hornady before I load anymore of these up. Anyone tried powder coated lead bullets in the 460? I've got the stuff to do it just haven't got around to it. Thanks again.
 
McDowell300 said:
Thanks for all the input I appreciate it. I'll try and get ahold of hornady before I load anymore of these up. Anyone tried powder coated lead bullets in the 460? I've got the stuff to do it just haven't got around to it. Thanks again.
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I've never tried loading coated bullets in my 460, and don't see why you couldn't. I have loaded hard cast 325 gr Beartooth bullets up to 1600 fps with no issues. The 460's are very versatile as far as handloading combinations. This was the main factor I chose the 460 over the 500.
 
T. O'Heir said:
Your only issue would be finding 225 grain jacketed data. Hodgdon's site only lists Barnes, lead free, X, solid copper, bullet data.
I'm not seeing any 225 grain data anywhere.
Click to expand...

I came to the realization a while back that when one cannot find data for a specific combo in a specific caliber.......there's generally a reason. The .460 has been around for a good while and folks have tried lots of combos with it. The 225 Flex-Tip has been around for a while too. If there's no one publishing recipes and/or no one giving unsolicited recipes on the internet for using it in .460, I would seriously suspect it's not a good choice. Thankfully there are a lot of other good choices out there. The 200 gr FTX is a great bullet for paper and varmints........but from my experience, too fragile for use on deer size game. As for powder coated, I would think like any other projectile, one would have to try them in their firearm to see if the gun likes them or not. The heat produced from certain slow burning powders may have some affect on the coating. I know of folks that use standard Hard Cast without much leading, but most I know that push lead to the upper end of the .460 spectrum, use a Gas Check if they use lead.
 
McDowell300,

If your gun has Magnaporting to help with muzzle jump, I would not be surprised if the coating got blown off next to the ports by gas cutting. If so, it might unbalance the bullet enough to limit its accuracy. You'd have to try it to see, but a gas-checked bullet should be immune to it.
 
"...It's curious, though..." Marketing. Only thing that's crazier is the assorted hunting regs. I'm thinking Smith wanted to be able to say they make the fastest hand gun cartridge there is. In keeping with Dirty Harry and his "most powerful handgun in the world." Dirty Harry sold a lot of Smith 29's.
 
Thanks again guy. Yeah I've played a bit with some hard cast bullets with it, never pushed anything very fast though. I have a Lee mold for 500gn .458 RNFP bullet that's gas checked that I swaged down to .452 and tried. I'd have to look through my logs to find speeds and accuracy but I didnt like how far in the case it had to be seated to clear the cylinder. It provided more of a push then a sharp recoil. Didnt notice any leading as I want to say the speeds were 1600 or below.
 
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