Please be gentle, this is my first post and it has two parts! I’ve been handling guns (with my dad at the time) since I was 9 years old. I’ve mostly shot auto pistols but recently bought a Smith & Wesson 460 XVR magnum with the 5 inch barrel. It is my first revolver. Due to the scarcity of ammo and the ungodly expense, this pretty much requires that you reload. No problem, I’ve always wanted to reload but never really had a need to until now. I was intrigued by being able to fire three different calibers of cartridges and decided this was the gun to get. I have read untold hours of information about the gun and reloading in general. I bought a Lee Turret Press and like it very much. It has some minor issues, but does the job well. I bought a set of dies for all three calibers and quite a bit of supplies including brass for each caliber. Unfortunately, the brass for the 460 mag is still on backorder so I have only shot the 454 Casull. It was quite a punch but much fun. So now, I’m getting to the real point of my post. After purchasing dies and supplies for all three calibers, I start reading more than one post about issues with firing the smaller cartridges first and then the 460 rounds. I’m not so worried about having to clean it first, but some of the posts say you can erode the forcing cone and cause problems with the barrel by shooting the 45 Colts and the 454’s. What I don’t know is if this is just an issue with the brands of guns they were using or if it applies to every brand including my S&W XVR. I guess I could see the point if I was using a lot of lead bullets at high velocity, but I plan on using Hornady XTP’s or XTP Mags for higher velocities. Does anyone have any comments on this? Yes, I know I have to clean it, but I’m concerned about damage to the gun. There is however another school of thought that says Smith & Wesson has a lifetime warranty on the gun. Since they promote it as being able to fire all three rounds, should I be concerned about the warranty since I am hand loading? Or, does the warranty only cover use of factory ammunition?

Another thing that I have leaned (actually I have learned so much in the last month that my head hurts!) is that I may have made a mistake by even worrying about the 45 Colt or the 454 Casull. Since I am reloading the brass, why not just create three different rounds for the 460? A light load at about 900 to 1000 fps for plinking, a medium load at about 1500 fps, and a kickass load at about 2200 fps. This way I don’t have to worry about the 460 rounds sticking in the gun after I have shot a 45 Colt and I shouldn’t have any issues with the forcing cone or barrel. I realize some of you are going to respond with “well, duh, that should be obvious”. Well, not having reloaded before and this being my first revolver, it wasn’t obvious to me in the beginning. So after buying the dies for the 45 Colt and 454 Cassul, I might not actually need them! Again, back to the point of the second part of my post! I can get the hot load data from Hodgdon by using H-110 and either 240 or 300 grain XTP mag bullets. That’s easy enough. I found a light load on one site using Trail Boss and a 255 grain lead bullet at about 950 fps, so there’s my plinking round. What I can’t seem to find is a good mid range load. BTW I’m using Star Line brass and Winchester WLRM primers. I have both 250 and 300 grain XTP bullets (not the mags) to use for the midrange velocities. So what I need is a powder and load suggestion to get about 1500 fps in the 460 mag brass. I would like to get this for both the 250 and 300 XTP. Yes, I understand the concept of designing the round for accuracy, but what I want to do is to develop accurate rounds in each of the mild, medium, and hot loads.

Thanks. Without the information I have been able to read from guys like you, I would not have been able to do any of this.