working up a new load from scratch (450BM)

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pnewlon

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Good afternoon folks -

I recently purchased a Ruger American Ranch in 450 Bushmaster. My choices for suitable ammunition is limited to a couple choices from Hornady and Remington.

I have been handloading since the early '80s for many firearms and calibers. I have always been able to find a starting recipe in a loading manual that worked for me to achieve my desired outcome.

With the 450 Bushmaster, I want to use cast WFN or WLN gas-checked bullets in the 300-400gr range. I purchase some 335gr WLN GC bullets this week and am now trying to figure out where the best place to start is for working up a load. I have H110, LilGun and 296 available (more LilGun than the others).

The Hornady manual has recipes for 300gr JHP bullets. My inclination is to start there but I'm not sure how much to back off the 300gr loads for 335 / 350 etc. What would seem reasonable to y'all in this case? For example, using a 300gr XTP bullet with Lil'Gun has a 25.5 starting load and 35.2 max.

Stated in a more general way - is there some good source (book, etc) that has a process for safely working up a load for a cartridge/bullet/powder combination when one doesn't have an load data to start with? In my case, I keep reading "it's close to the 460 S/W" but I don't think that is quite so as the SAAMI spec for 450BM chamber pressure is 38.5K and for the 460SW it's 65K. Right out of the gate it's a problem to use the 460SW, at least from my perspective.

Thanks for your feedback!
 
For the 450 BM using a 300 gr Speer SP bullet, Lyman manual shows starting loads of LilGun 27.0 up to 30.8, and 31.0 up to 34.0 of H110. To go the cast bullet route with gas checks, go to www.montanabulletworks.com for bullet selection.

Heavier bullets are not shown in Lyman.
 
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The majority of what I've found referenced is about MSR platform. Sometimes Google provides 3 or 4 too many references and one gets paralysis by analysis. I was hoping for a wise soul to say "check this out"
 
450bm.com has data for 400 but has a disclaimer of basically an unknown source.

My SWAG theory start point would be 25gr of lil gun, but that's worth exactly what you paid for it.

Accurate Powder has data for a 325gr Barnes bullet but only for their powder.

As a side note the Speer bullets are plated and much closer to lead than they are jacketed and any data for them should be close to what a 300gr lead should be.

Lots of variables

I'm trying Accurate 5744 for my 450 with 300s, IMHO it's too bulky to get in trouble pressure wise, but I'm still waiting on muzzle brake for MSR build.
 
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QuickLOAD isn't matching pressure well with Hodgdon's data, but I can say that putting a 325 grain lead bullet in place of a 300 grain jacketed bullet actually dropped pressure with H110/296, so I think the 300 grain jacketed starting load should be good with the lead bullet.
 
Thank you! That is much more helpful!! I found a guy on castboolits that seems to have done a lot of work with the Ruger Ranch. I PMd him, waiting on some sort of response.
 
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