FA,
Have you went out and got another fine firearm to make us all jealous? Don't tell me you've wrangled yourself one of the new 1895's in the 405. You da man.
It did appear to me that the BT bullets were designed more for 41 mag than the 411 Hawk or 405 Winny (except for that super model 300 grainer). I've just ordered my 1895 (in 270, because I'm behind the times and because I was going to wildcat it anyway), I'm seriously considering the 400 Brown-Whelen wildcat. Yeah, it'll shoot the 411 bullets too, but performance seem to be a little better than the Hawk version. I guess the biggest reason is that I just don't have a lot of sense. I would think the 405 Winchester in the 1895 being production and all would be much cheaper than the Hawk or BW. Reloading components are readily available for the Hawk on Z-hat's website, but their rifles are pretty spendy, well worth it, no doubt, but spendy. I'll be honest, I just wanted to start my path to wildcatting and fully degrading myself on the first try, hence the BW. I'm not real sure about cast bullets for the 405, I'll leave that to the experts, Marshall, Sir James, MikeG, ID, arkypete, caster and the other assorted cast of characters. I had planned on shooting the 400 grain Barnes and the assorted 350's in the BW. I would like to try BT's bullets for the BW, but was wanting a little heavier bullet than is offered, although the 300 gr does look mighty interesting. I would think the 300 gr would perform in the 405, though if you are looking for a bear load, seems the sectional density might be a bit low for the type of penetration needed. But like I said, the other fine folks here know a lot more about it than I do and please take their recommendation over mine.