Cast bullet results and sticking brass in Ruger SRH 454 Casull

[wellfedirishman]

Folks,

I picked up a used Ruger Super RedHawk in 454 Casull recently. It is a nice gun, very heavily built.

I loaded it up with 2 loads:

1) Lee 250 grain cast bullet tumble lubed with Alox/JPW, unsized as cast (nominally .452 diameter) + 12 grains Green Dot + Wolf SR primer. I showed chrony results of 1650 fps but I am not sure if that is accurate or not.

2) Lee 340 grain Hammer group buy mold (drops .460) lubed and sized to .454 + 12 grains Green Dot + Wolf SR primer. Chronys about 1250 fps.

I found I had to seat both bullets quite deep in the case (top of bullet about 1/8 th of an inch above the brass rim) to get it to seat properly in the Ruger 454 chamber. In hindsight, there may have been crud built up in the chamber from the previous owner shooting 45 LC that was causing the problem.

The first load shot as follows:


And second load shot as follows:


Both were off sandbags at 25 yards.

The first load required a slight tap on the ejector rod with a wooden mallet to drop the brass. The second load requied significant force to get the brass out of the chamber, in fact more force than I was comfortable with.

I used previously-fired brass, slightly dirty but not excessively so.

Any ideas as to why the brass was so sticky? These loads are not particularly hot for a 454 Casull gun. There were no pressure signs on the primers (no flattened edges or punctured primers) that I could see.

Advice/solutions would be much appreciated.

[bedwards]

You need to start with clean chambers. I would brush them and get everything out then try again. If 45 colt was shot in them as you say, there is residue there. Mine leaves a mess when I do.
The SRH is a sweet shooter. You might want to go the extra step and put a scope on it. It will surprise you how accurate it can shoot.

be

[leadman]

I agree with checking the chambers for a hard carbon build up in the chambers. I have seen it hard enough in a 357 that fired alot of 38s to require the use of a tool to remove it as even stainless brushes would not get it out.

[44man]

Clean the chambers first, there is no reason to load boolits that deep in a SRH to chamber, pressures climb.
If the boolit is too fat to fit through the throats, size them or you will not chamber either. Make them .452" or to the best throat fit.
I have to ask why try for such velocity with G.D.? The pressure peak is starting in the brass, that expands the cylinder and it will tighten on the brass. Use slower powder.
The 250 gr is kind of light for cast in the .454. The gun will be more accurate with a heavier boolit, maybe 300 to 335 gr. The 340 gr should work but is too fat to chamber at .454".
I can assure you the SRH will do at least 1" at 50 yards.

[lbaize3]

+1 on 44man post. I use AA9 and have excellent results in my .454 using 270 grain cast boolits.

[wellfedirishman]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate the tips and input.

I have some W296 powder so will try that instead, along with sizing the 340 grain bullets to .452.

[DragoonDrake]

I have found my SRH shoots best with the lyman 325 and 25grs of 2400. I can tell you that it shoots well and on hot days your brass will stick a little (hot being 70*F+). I have a simmons 2-6x on it and I have had to send the first scope back because it would not hold a zero. After that I have been able to have 5 rounds touching with the sixth round about an inch off at 25 yrds off of bags. I know it is me because I have marked my cylinders and have made sure to rotate which is the last round.

[Guesser]

The first production run of the SRH 454 revolvers were recalled due to poor heat treating of the cylinder, the SS cylinder remained "elastic" and would expand/contract on firing and grip the cases too tight. Ruger replaced several of the cylinders in my circle of acquaintances. There was a write up on it in HandLoader Magazine back around Y2K, I don't remember exactly. I was loading Cast Performance 300 and 335 and 360 boolits for the 454 and we were having that problem when I saw the write up and Ruger took care of it. Maybe your used gun is one of them.

[Whitworth]

The first production run of the SRH 454 revolvers were recalled due to poor heat treating of the cylinder, the SS cylinder remained "elastic" and would expand/contract on firing and grip the cases too tight. Ruger replaced several of the cylinders in my circle of acquaintances. There was a write up on it in HandLoader Magazine back around Y2K, I don't remember exactly. I was loading Cast Performance 300 and 335 and 360 boolits for the 454 and we were having that problem when I saw the write up and Ruger took care of it. Maybe your used gun is one of them.

Actually, the sticking brass was a function of the machining on the cylinders (reverse taper) and not a result of expansion and contraction -- virtually all cylinders expand and retract when they are shot. The 465 Carpenter steel cylinders are amongst the strongest ever produced. The same machining issues plagued the .480 SHRs as well.

[Guesser]

OK, all I know is what I read and what the guns did before and after. Like I said, "what I read".
Covers an infinite number of internet possibilities.
And, the used gun could still be one of "them".

[Frank]

Try it with factory ammo. If it sticks, send it back to Ruger. Tell them you use factory ammo and it sticks brass. What if factory ammo doesn't stick? Then it is your loads! You are too hot or the brass you are using is junk.

[454PB]

Here's some good reading concerning the special SS used in the SRH .454. Notice they fired 300 proof rounds measured at 92,000 PSI.

http://www.cartech.com/techarticles.aspx?id=1608

In my SRH, I cannot chamber a round where the boolit is over .452" diameter.......the throats are too small.

[Snyd]

....I found I had to seat both bullets quite deep in the case (top of bullet about 1/8 th of an inch above the brass rim) to get it to seat properly in the Ruger 454 chamber....

Am I reading this right?.... that you seated the boolit so deep that only 1/8 inch of the boolit was sticking out of the brass?


If so, this would explain the sticky brass, you are probably WAY over pressure.

[stubshaft]

Good catch Snyd.

[44man]

Very true, then to combine Green Dot with it.

[wellfedirishman]

Thanks for the input, looks like some reworking of loads is in order. I hadn't considered the lower seating depth as a pressure issue due to the fairly large case volume. I have since scrubbed out all the chambers to remove old crud and will start from scratch with slower powders.

[35remington]

Any deep seating of a bullet in a straight case using a very fast powder like Green Dot will cause pressures to shoot up to the moon. Shotgun/pistol powders of this very fast speed react dramatically to changes in seating depth.

[Snyd]

Ya, try loading those 340's and your W296 using Hodgdon load data with a good crimp in the crimp groove. I'm shooting a 355 WFN sized to .452 over 27gr H110 (same as w296) for 1300ish fps out of my 4" Redhawk that has a 454 SRH cylinder. Cases drop out and I'm over book max for a 360gr Cast Performance but my boolit is a custom LBT that allows for more case capacity. I worked up slowly and ended up with enough H110 to fill the case to the base of the boolit, maybe slightly compressed. If I do my part I can shoot clover leaf 3 shot groups at 25yds with open sights and my 51 year old eyes. Your SRH is capable of out shooting most of us I'd say. Well... except maybe 44man Keep us posted!

ps, you should use SR mag primers with that 296. Not sure about those wolf SR.

[Snyd]

Very true, then to combine Green Dot with it.

Fortuneatly he's shooting 454 SRH that was proofed at 95000psi. Other wise we might be looking at something like this in this thread...

[stubshaft]

S&W Custom shop convertable model.