Have been contemplating building a rifle in this caliber. I know it takes 405 Win brass for the round but are dies and chamber reamers available? Is anyone shooting or loading for this round?




JMH

I built one for my son to shoot gong matches when he was young.  We found no problems loading it; it's pretty straightforward.  76 grains Goex express compressed .4 inches, 360 grain NASA bullet finger seated.  It's as accurate as the .45-90, has identical ballistics in our load.  You do need to use a 12 twist barrel.  I think a lot of the people having trouble with it are using traditional 200 yard 16 twist 38-55 barrels.

4d made my dies, I have the reamer cut by Manson.  I made a straight neck on it instead of a taper to the mouth, and sized the reamer to match the Hornady .405 brass.  

This cartridge is almost identical to the 375 flanged nitro 2.5".  Enough so that they can share the reamer.  I'm going to build a bolt gun for the .375 flanged using a P14 action.

I'm fortunate as I have a lifetime supply of .405 brass and .375 flanged 2.5". 

I also would go with what Arnie said.
I have talked to shooters that have a .38-72 I was going to build on in this caliber and all but one said that the caliber has some quirks.
I went with the .38-50 Rem Hep and it turned out to be a fine shooter. But I had a second one build for my Grand Daughter to use and it turned out to be a problem child. 
The .38-50 caliber you can use the brass mentioned and also .40-70 SS. I just ordered 200 .40-70 cases from Buffalo Arms and for these they used .303 British stretched cases instead the Rem brass .30-40 Krag and they are very good. I ran them through a cutdown Lee 30-40 Krag sizing die I cut the neck and some off the base and it makes a very good one pass through sizing die forming the brass. 
I think the die was about $14. 
I have still to see a ram standing hit with a 356 gr bullet with 63 gr of Swiss.
I like using the .40-70 cases. A lot less work forming the cases. Just one passs though the sizing die and trim. 
Kurt

JHM, 
Would you like to try a 40-72?
I have a Ruger Number 1 with a Douglas Prem
heavy barrel, cal 40-72 as in uses unchanged Hornady
405W brass.  12 twist.  Have dies, brass, and several bullet molds up to a 480 grain BFSS bullet. 
beltfed/arnie

No Bob,
The second one was not build by DZ Arms. 
I just today finished setting the barrel back .320" and rechambered it with the .38-50 reamer I ordered from Manson. I loaded some ladder loads this evening and if the sky is not falling in the morning I will see if this thing will come alive for me.

Kurt

If you're OK with a .40 caliber you can't go wrong with a 40-65 Winchester. The 38-50 Hepburn mentioned is a sweetheart also.

Green Mountain has a 20% off sale till the end of the month. There are some 14.5 twist .40 caliber barrels in stock. Reamers and brass for the 40-65 are easy to come by. Just something else to think about.