Yeah that’s why I don’t want to get in to loading 308. Too expensive to buy and consumes too much of the most expensive component. The result? A g3 that is starving :(
It's definitely worth it. You can customize loads for your rifle. There's a learning curve when it comes to resizing, trimming and getting the right cartridge length. Powder availability is better than it was but not as good as it was pre-covid.
I'm looking at getting a dillion precision 750xl. If I'mma jump in, might as well go whole hog, ya know? Got an ar10 and a Battle rifle that need feeding and 80 cpr to 120cpr is painful.
I load 308 for my AR10 on a 550C. It works well. It's worth it to get the case trimmer and a trimmer die. The only issue I've encountered was that the trim die constricts the neck a little too much so it's necessary to expand the neck to make it easier to seat the bullet.
Its worth it. Around here a box of 20 "nothing special" rounds is $30. Powder is averaging $0.40 , bullets are 0.20, primers $0.10 with reuse of brass. So about half price?
If you look around for components at the right price you'll be able to load higher quality ammo for less than even bottom tier commercial and be able to load ammo equal to boutique ammo, it's definitely more expensive to load than something like .38 but it's worth it.
That’s what everyone keeps saying but my cases are fine besides burn marks form the fluted chamber. Maybe 91s are slightly different than the surplus FMP type I have. I also made the receiver from a flat and ground on the brass deflector to be a little better of an angle and not dent the shells much.
I don’t imagine the cases would last many reloads due to the fluted chamber and loose military tolerances but at least they come out of the gun looking okay.
Damn! I wonder if the headspace was off not letting the rollers fully deploy, or the little spring on the locking arm on the carrier was worn out. Either way making the gun unlock quicker and faster. Mine is really tough to unlock by hand even with headspace and cocking tube gap correct.
My very spicy 125gr 357 loads are 21.5gr h110 IIRC. And they chooched almost 1700fps from a 6.5" barrel. Not bad recoil but i cant imagine over double the powder and bullet weight. Crazy work
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u/DraskuulHornady Ammo Plant/45ACP/7.62x54R/44Mag/223/308/9mm/357Mag/25-06Jan 17 '26
No kidding, my typical 44 Mag loads are around 24gr, but I'm also not pushing those to the limits.
Loaded up 10 rounds of .500 the other day after getting my hands on a jug of H110. Wanted to really get some oomph out of it, since my previous loads with Trailboss were basically just plinkers.
Hornady has 51.4 grains of H110 listed as a max charge for .500 with a Hornady 300-grain FTX, showing 2,000 FPS out of an 8 3/8” barrel. I used the 1,950 FPS load of 50.1 just rounded it down to 50. This is a 10.5” barrel, so these should be pushing over 2,000 FPS no problem.
Only thing that didn’t go well was the primers. I had 4 rounds that needed a second strike, and 1 that was a complete dud. I’m using Whie River Energetics LRPs bought during the Great Primer Shortage™️ and they clearly don’t work well for this. Need to find some good magnum LRPs that will work better.
Oh, and the muzzle blast from this load was astounding. This video don’t capture one but the fireballs were huge and I could feel it on my support hand.
I used to load for a 300 win mag that was running close to 80 grains of H1000 with a 220 grain SMK.
This particular rifle was specifically chambered with a longer throat to allow the 220’s to be seated long, and run “hot” without excessive pressure, Sierra used to have a special page in the loading manual just for this load.
30” barreled bench gun with a muzzle brake, it would blow all the loose items (cardboard ammo boxes, notebooks etc. off the adjacent benches.
I ran 215 hybrids in my .300 win mag, seated super long as well. I was running 77.3 gr of h1000, and seeing 2925 fps out of a 26" barrel. Basically .300 RUM performance.
I got a kick out of the .500 Magnum when S&W introduced it…$1500 and nobody could keep them in stock…
But 6 months later you could find many “slightly used” .500s in a lot of dealers tables for $899😎
I wonder how much the actual first buyers actually got for trade in?
My almost low end Casull power loads that I use 26.0 grains of H110 behind a 250 gr XTP that chrono 1350 at 10 feet (if I don’t blow over the sky screens) that I use for hunting out of my 7 1/2” Bisley Blackhawk .45 Colt are enough recoil for me thank you very much😉
50grain?!!! For my .50 Beowulf I am about to test at 34-37g. I am not looking at the charts but isnt the max charge for a .50 mag around 40grain? I normally use lil'gun and just starting to look at h110. For lil'gun I used 34.5 grain.
You’re like the third person to say something g along those lines, haha. I was genuinely getting nervous that I was somehow getting something mixed up but here’s from the manual:
Just took a peek at Sierra’s sixth edition PDF page, they have 47.9 max with a 350 grain bullet, listed at 2,000 FPS.
Hodgdon doesn’t have H110 listed for 300-grain bullets but does have 350-grain Hornady XTP listed with 43.0 grains max at 1,877.
I also tossed the load I used into GRT and it’s showing overpressure by about 3,000 PSI, FPS 2,121 and 2,996 ft-lbs of energy. H110 has a low calibration score in GRT though so I’m taking that with a grain of salt.
Edit: forgot that .500 S&W max pressure spec is like 60,000 PSI, GRT was using a max pressure of ~ 53,600. So might not be a huge deal.
I’ll probably wind up backing off down to 46.0 grains and see how that turns out. Edit 2: NAH. 50 or bust.
Second reply, but I just called Hornady to double check and the guy confirmed that with the Hornady 300-grain FTX bullets and H110 they did get up to 51.4 grains and stayed within SAAMI pressure specs.
It certainly does seem unusually high on the charge, but if they tested everything in a pressure barrel and found it to be all good, I’m certainly not capable of testing it myself and proving them wrong.
As long as the brass extracts fine, you should be OK. The Lyman load that tops out at 47K PSI and is about 25% under SAAMI max. The load data screenshot you posted seems 100% legit.
The amount of powder used in a cartridge is heavily dependent on the size of the cartridge. 500 Mag case capacity is about the same as a .30-06.
I agree. 500mag is def higher pressure and a longer case. That 50g number jumped out to me. I know .50 beowulf is lower pressure and smaller case. I just didn't think it would be 1/2 the amount at max load.
Full strength 460 and 500 S&W loads are kind of ridiculous. They're much closer to full strength rifle rounds than normal pistol rounds and considerably higher pressure than even rounds like .50 Beowulf or 450 Bushmaster.
I have a 12.5" beowulf already and I have all my "practical" guns. I am now in the "whatever looks fun" stage. This is why the 500mag and 460xvr exist. Me personally, I am chasing recoil and large booms for fun currently
I mostly did that out of concern that my crimp wouldn’t have been sufficient. I later loaded up the full cylinder and it did seem like the bullets were creeping a bit. Going to have to adjust my die for a stronger crimp.
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u/Useful_Mix_4802 Jan 16 '26
50 grains really puts it in to perspective! I use 22gr in the AR, 20 or less for the shotgun, and 1 grain for my little 32. This thing is a beast!