Assitance on a .460 Magnum load

For the record, the "shock and awe" that you boldly quoted was indeed the reason I bought the revolver. Or rather, it was the justification. Actually, my buddy purchased it new in 2011 and I bought it from him a month ago as he's been clearing out guns. I figured that it was too much fun to shoot and too much fun to experiment with to let it walk away. So I took it in.

The "shock & awe" that I mentioned in the original post is merely my answer for those who were curious about the purpose of these loads that I am chasing. I simply wanted to make it clear that I intend to hunt NO ANIMAL with this revolver, ever. I will shoot at steel plates from 100-400 yards and I will let (many!) others enjoy a couple shots from it when they are curious. That is truly 100% of the use I will get from this 460XVR.

The Goal of this thread was to pick a few fertile brains on developing a load using exclusively 240gr XTP-Mag over Alliant Power Pro 300-MP.

That
Is
The
Goal
There is no other goal. There is -zero- here on my wishlist (ZERO) that H110 will solve.

If the work I put in to Alliant Power Pro 300-MP does not bring a smile to my face, I will default to AA#9 and that will be "good enough."
 
Nothing wrong with your intentions with the .460. Mine was purchased pretty much for the same reasons, killing paper targets. Oh and for giggles, fill a gallon milk jug with water, place it on one of those cheap metal folding chairs and put it out about 50 yrds. If you hit the water jug squarly in the middle it will vaporize the water to there there isnt any left to make a puddle and collapes the chair into the ground. Just be prepared to by the wife a replacement
 
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That MP-300 will give you the shock and awe you desire, you hav eit, you might as well use it! Just going to have to be a little more resourceful in determining load data. I will be curious as to your results when you load it down. Some slow powders that can be loaded down, don't perform so well when you do.

With MP-300 is is so new, with so few users, I think whatever you report will be interesting to the magnum pistoleros out there.
 
And I understand clearly your stance on H110 but continually pounding on it in this thread is as helpful as telling me the best .460 load I can make would be a .500 S&W Magnum load. It's beside the point. Take the high road already, I have no plans to use H110 in .460 Mag or any other caliber either.
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The road I took was to give you an answer to the question of getting the most velocity and "shock and awe" from your .460. The confusion you had about the use of inappropriate bullets for this purpose made it very clear you were unfamiliar with reloading for the .460. As TMD said, 300 grainers will do a better job than the 240s for the purpose, but alas, you have that thousand 240s. I understand your stance on using what you have(and you have a lot of it), and you should easily find a load with MP-300 that will shock and awe most folks. I advise you to work up your load in small increments as my experience has shown me, that in my .460, sometimes even 2-3 tenths of a grain will make the difference between easy extraction and using a dowel to get the empties out. Loads that extract easily when shot in 65 degree weather, don't wanna come out when shot at 90 degrees.

I didn't mean to take any road other than try to direct you to the easiest and safest way to achieve your goal. There are tons of threads in the reloading section pertaining to folks wanting to use inappropriate components and then wondering why they can't find recipes, then coming to the internet with hopes some stranger here can give them a magic load. The use of bullets in the .460, intended for .45 colt pressures and velocities is one of the most common, especially for those new to reloading for the .460. Number one reason is generally because they are considerably less expensive than more appropriate bullets and are more readily found. Another thread common here is folks that buy components in bulk before they find out they are not the best or that there is very little published info on them. I'm surprised that Alliant shows no data for the 240 gr XTP-MAG with it's MP-300. Seems that would be a no-brainer as it's one of the most common projectiles used. MP-300 has been around for over 5 years, hard to believe data is still so hard to find. I wish you luck with your quest, let us know what you figure out.
 
I can tell you this much...
If .460 Magnum and 300-MP had been on the market and active before 2005, Alliant likely would have published data.

2005 was the last decent published Alliant data source before someone (seemingly) ordered them from above to wipe clean ANY published load data for a non-ATK bullet. Very nearly every single bullet in their published data since 2006 is some manner of a Speer bullet.

As for the non-proper bullets in the harsh environment -- actually, I was familiar with that concept, actually learned that from an ATK tech via e-mail somewhere around 09 or 2010 when I was working up .327 Federal loads using the tiny 71gr FMJ (.32 Auto) bullet. He explained how a slug of light construction will get warped under pressure and forcing cone damage will result. Made perfect sense to me and I settled on around 1,100 fps with them. (in .327, you can launch a 100gr to 1,600 so potential on a 71?! Light speed...?!). And -WHY- this bullet, why why why?! Well, the Barackolypse made nearly EVERY component bullet disappear by mid-2009 and the manufacturers were running 24/7 to feed demand. 9mm and .45cal bullets got produced. .312" jacketed slugs did NOT get produced. Zero of them, for like two years.

In the case of today's Alliant .460 data, I fully understand the concept but am so unfamiliar with Speer products that I simply did not recognize the bullets. Your pointing that out helped tremendously.

I have constructed six different loads and my starting load is the published max for the 300gr Gold Dot. I believe that start load is going to be a light one. I will likely get first testing done next weekend.

On my side are AA#9 loads who's feel and output I am familiar with to compare. Also will have the fun-sucking Chrony in tow. Beyond that, I will be hyper sensitive to case extraction/ejection and I will eyeball them closely in direct sunlight searching for any clues. It is a shame that Alliant has a fantastic, high dollar laboratory do to this but they are leaving it to me.

My best guess at this point is that I will return home with even the top loads tested -- and still have room to go higher if I want. We shall see what happens.
 
I have constructed six different loads and my starting load is the published max for the 300gr Gold Dot. I believe that start load is going to be a light one.
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I agree, when comparing other powders and their min/max loads with 300gr Gold-Dots(now they are called "Deep Curls"), in every instance, the max load for the 300gr GDs is quite substantially below starting loads for the 240gr XTP-MAGs.
 
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