Loading 460 S&W Mag in a rifle with 25 inch barrel?

[engineer40]

I have a rifle on order that is chambered in 460 S&W Mag. The rifle has a 25 inch barrel.

My question comes in that most of the load data I see is for handgun length barrels. And even the T/C area of my reloading manuals usually give data for only a 15 inch barrel.

The 460 S&W Mag uses a rifle primer and operates up to 65K PSI. By all rights this is a straight walled rifle cartridge.

If I found a comparable rifle cartridge based on bullet weight, pressure, and case volume, could I then use similar rifle powder loads and probably make full use of my 25 inch barrel?

Or is that a bad idea? Thanks all!

 

[snox801]

I don't think so. The same problem is run into with the smith 500. It's is very similar to my socom. Barrel length does not seem to matter. I have a 16" with a 3" break hat get only a few fps faster than a 12" pistol in the same caliber. Good and bad. Good is you can shorten the barrel to 16" not loose anything and have a very compact gun. The bad is you don't gain much with a rifle over a pistol. I would start will lil gun and find your load and run with it. Lil gun can be used anywhere h110 is and I've been seeing 150fps faster with the same pressure. Only downside I've seen is it's a bit dirtier, but that doesn't bother me cause I clean my guns a lot. Wouldn't hurt to try for more speed but with it being straight wall and all the smart fellas I know hat load for them I'm not sure you will gain anything.

 

[HNDLDR]

I guess I'm easily impressed. My 454 went from 1850ish out of my 7 1/2" barrel to 2100 out of the 16" rifle. That's with the 240 Gr Hornady over H110. I thought that was pretty significant.

I'm not sure what a slower rifle powder would gain you. I'll be following your thread to see.

 

[HNDLDR]

Maybe 16" is the limit for gains. Back in 2005 or so I had a Browning high wall, with a 28" barrel, in 454. I was shooting Hornady's 300 Gr bullet back then and if memory serves me correctly I gain 300 fps over the same 7 1/2" revolver I have now.

 

[snox801]

In my socom going from 16" to 12" only lost 75fps. So not much of a reason for a barrel. Now I could not tell you if it was with h110 or lil gun. It may be the shorter barrel affected the 110 more than lil gun. But the rule of thumb is the less necked down the less barrel length matter in my book when using a short casing.

 

[snox801]

Also forgot to mention big difference from 7" barrel to 12". Seems most start to show very big gains from those short barrels up to about 12" which is where rounds like the socom and 300blk start to see a difference. So in other words after 12" anything longer gains very little. I would be real suprised if he could gain even 100 fps from 16" to 25" with that round.

 

[engineer40]

Thanks for all of the information and background experience! That actually does correlate to another article I read about the 45 Raptor only needing a 16 inch barrel. It said any longer than that any gains in velocity were insignificant and not worth the longer firearm.

So I asked this question because I had that CVA 460S&W with 25 inch barrel on order... Funny thing but between the time I ordered it and this morning (3 days), CVA stopped production on them. I just happened to notice they had no more rifles on their website chambered in 460 any longer. So I go over to Cabela's website and they also took their listing off. Hmmm, something fishy going on. These people already have my money, I better start making phone calls.

It ended up working out better for me in the long run. Cabela's upgraded me to a better rifle, a TC Encore Pro Hunter in 460 S&W. And it only has a 20 inch barrel.

My main white tail hunting location is in a thick wetlands area. I see deer every year and multiple bucks most years. It's a great spot, but the longest I can see in any direction is only about 85-100 yards. But now I'm wanting to stretch the legs on this new rifle a ways longer!

Ahhh, I have the feeling the first one that gets close to me is going down this year.

 

[HNDLDR]

Keep us posted on that engineer40. I've always wondered what my little carbine would do to a deer. It does nasty things to a bowling pin.