.458 bulging Starline

[laowho]

Wow. Haven't come across that before Don. Now I understand better what at first seemed a cavalier, "Just load 'em and compress." And now Lumpy has put up a warning not to remove powder, but I already have. They'd already been compressed previously, but I was meticulous to only scrape off (w/ a shishkabob stick) 1 gr from the 40 cases. These all then had to be re-compressed further to accommodate the 530 gr bullets and usin my dowel gage. And yes, these were all originally scale thrown and drop tubed. (Can't imagine how much less powder I'd get in there if not drop tubed.) And for good contact the bullets compressed the powder another 1/32" to 1/16"

Well, got back at it 6:30 this morning and had to tweak some final things, and finally got everything dialed in. WOW. What tolerances, but what machining magic. Seems the moving parts are every bit as well-fitting as are the wood-to-metal. A properly loaded cartridge--no crimping--goes in and out like velvet steel. In the words of Van Morrison, "And it stoned me." Sublime really.

Wound up w/ the following:

20 bullets @ 512 gr over 68 gr OE compressed @ .25"
20 @ 530 gr 69 gr @ .25"
20 @ 530 gr 69 gr @ .30"

Next time I load these I'll probably load lighter, w/ .060 wads and lower compressions. But after what Don and Lumpy have said, I'll also try higher compressions for a full 70 gr load. All these combined will gimme a decent spread to see what she likes. All subject to change of course. Can't wait to shoot and start takin notes. Thanks for yer help!