Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 416 ruger load question

Howdy gents. What powder/bullet combo are you guys using with the 416 ruger? Seems like the 350's are doing well in this caliber. What is the go to powder for the 416? What is the velocity you guys are seeing with the 20" barrels? Thanks in advance. Ryan

For my .416 Ruger Alaskan rifle, I load the 350gr TSX bullet using 75.0gr of Reloder 15 to get a muzzle velocity of about 2350 fps. Here's a link you may find useful -

http://www.realguns.com/archives/177.htm

From my 416 Alaskan;

82 grains of Re15 with the 350 TSX gave an average of 2435 fps, high 2460, low 2393, 7 rounds fired. Standard Dev 21.6 energy 4609 ft/lbs
1922 feet ASL, 21 degrees C.

Thank you guys. So far my internet search is showing a lot of folks using R15. I've seen that varget works well. Is varget a proven powder for 350-400 grainers out of this caliber? Thanks

Don't have a 416 Ruger, but in my 404 Ruger (0.423" caliber), RL-17 produces 2400+ fps MV with 400 grain Barnes Solid FPs from the 23" African barrel.

RL-17 allows greater load density than H-4350, next best powder in the 375 Ruger case based cartridges, IME.

Can't comment on 20" barrel MV, as I just sent my 375 Ruger Alaskan to Dan Pedersen today for re-boring to 0.423". Will post results in a few months when I get the Alaskan back.

Gunchamp, the factories load this class of 416 caliber cartridges with a non canister R-15, but I don't know the trade name of it. Note; Tite Group is the canister version of Bullseye 23. So while you may hear another name, just remember that its still Reloader 15.

If there's a tipping point between the 375 and 416 Ruger, I'd guess the 375 would use the slower powder of these two. But the factories know what's best in the .416s, and R-15 is it. Hornady is loading powder mixes, for some of their short barreled creations, and those mixes can't be sold on the open market as canister powder. They can settle out in shipping, with disastrous results. So what you can work up with, using R-15, is all that you can do, wtih a 416 Ruger in an 18 inch bbl.

I have no experience with a .404 Ruger, but using 375 Ruger Basic Brass as the parent, you can actually make a 450 Ruger, with just enough shoulders, and absolute minimum( Hornady's take), body taper. This will give you 458 Lott velocities, in equal length barrels, out of standard length actions. I don't know which powder to use, or even if the Ruger stocks will hold together. In a short, light, .458 magnum rifle, the recoil will be terrible.

A gentleman from Cody, Wyo. has made a pseudo 450 Newton with the original 23 degree shoulders, and 2.5 inch length. My design is presently only the first stage of a five stage forming die set, for my 8mm x 416 Ruger magnum. My design will be trimmed -0.030 inch, shorter than the nominal 2 & 1/2 inch 458 Win. Mag. to prevent those undersized cartridges from going all the way in.

The commercial replacement 458 Win. Mag., short chambered barrels are being shipped out, at minus 0.050 inch, so this makes doing my chambering job very easy. The belt recess disappears in the barrel's new chamber, so I need a finish reamer and a rimless cartridge GO head space gauge for it. I have one of these PT&G GO gauges shipped with each finish reamer I design for my wildcats, and then order from them.

My G.S. wants these gauges to be able to replicate my chambers. Hornady has been making my custom reloading and forming die sets, so these additional die sets will work perfectly, for other rifles, using their existing CNC program to grind them. Hornady's New Dimension Seating dies are generic for caliber, so they only need to program, and grind, one custom F.L. sizing die, per set. The seating dies merely come out of their existing inventory.

More info...
I also loaded and fired 1 round in 1 grain increments as I worked up to that 82 grain load in my previous post.
1922' ASL
My results:
75 grains Re15, 350 TSX ---> 2267 fps 21 degrees C
76 ---> 2275 21 degrees C
77 ---> 2302 21 degrees C
78 ---> 2318 26 degrees C
79 ---> 2364 26 degrees C
80 ---> 2385 26 degrees C

Still had no appreciable pressure signs at 82 grains. Extraction was not sticky whatsoever, no primer cratering etc. I stopped at 82 since I was happy with the velocity it gave me and happy with the accuracy, printing ~1MOA at 100Y

Here are some 404 Ruger loads with RL-17. With the same weight and construction bullets (e.g., Barnes 400 grain FP Solids) the 416 loads should give very similar MVs and chamber pressures, all other variables held equal. Note these loads all were held to COAL 3.420" because of max magazine length allowed in my African Hawkeye.

Can't answer the Varget question as I have not used it in the 375 Ruger case.

Great info guys. Thank you. Looks like its time to stock up on some R15. Thanks again. Ryan

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I would think that something a little faster than R-17 would be best in the 416 Ruger, for the following reasons.

Our 416Rigby's like 101.5 grains of R-17 with the 350 grain TTSX for 2825 fps. Since the Rigby case is cavernous in comparison, and since straighter-walled cartridges tend to prefer faster powders, the 416 Ruger should probably prefer something a little faster than R-17. Of course, R-17 might produce just what you are looking for in the 416 Ruger. But R-15 might add just a tad of fps and capacity balance.