Cast in a rifle question

[lead-1]

I was presented with a a question tonight that has me looking for some other opinions.
If you had a rifle made in the 1950's or newer that was a copy or newer version of a 1800's lever action rifle (1894, 1873, ect...) chambered in a handgun caliber like 45LC, would it be barreled for lead boolit or jacketed or would it matter?
I was talking to a new caster this evening, like myself, and he was asking this because he shot some of his reloads with jacketed bullets in his rifle and the accuracy was awful but when he tried some factory lead bullets in his reloads the accuracy was much better.
To me this is an interesting question because I have zero experience with handgun calibers in rifles except some .44 mags for a lever rifle that used 200 grain XTP bullets.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Undersized "j thangs" can shoot just awful also. Any undersized projectile is apt to start the barrel journey tilted off center. It that tilt could be constant might not be too bad. But it never is. Bullet wobble is a real bug-a-boo.
Mike in Peru

[lead-1]

Good afternoon missionary5155.
We were hashing over several things and the fact that in the 1800's there probably weren't any jacketed bullets and as the rifles were improved over the years so did the jackets on the bullets so were the newer rifles designed more to jacketed maybe only differing in twist rate?
I realize that there are many people that shoot cast in the most modern of guns and I tried to explain to him about fit is king and slugging his barrel but this posed a good question to two bored guys killing time.

[runfiverun]

i'm guessing a 44-40 jaxketed are usually 427 and most cast are 429.
he most likely used closer to 430 in his loads.
it's all about the bbl and chambers neck diameter.

[1Shirt]

Trial and error answers a lot of questions regarding blt fit, leading, lub, sizing, etc.
In general however with cast if you are about 2 thousands or more above bore size you will be in the ball park of reality.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[hydraulic]

I'm guessing the rifle is a Marlin. A friend of mine had the same problem with a .44 magnum; it wouldn't shoot factory ammo accurately, but cast bullets worked just fine.

[lead-1]

My friend started answering his own questions when he told me he tried some .451 boolits and then when he shot some .452 boolits they shot better.
I told him that is why he needs to slug the barrel to see what boolit he actually needs. I'm not sure which rifle he is working with but it is a .45LC.

[MtGun44]

With cast you can fit the boolit to the barrel, often solving problems if the barrel is oversized.
As long as the loaded round will still fit in the chamber (not guaranteed!) larger boolits can
be a real benefit.

Bill

[303Guy]

Might I ask what a 45LC is?

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
45LC= 45 LONG COLT, it was originally a black powder pistol cal. loading.:Fire::Fire:

[Linstrum]

.45LC is the .45 Long Colt, an old, very popular, and very good cartridge originally loaded with black powder. (BOOM BOOM, ya beat me to it!)

I looked but may have missed it, but the rifle in question needs to have the bore slugged, and maybe even get a casting of the chamber. That may answer all the questions about why "jaxketed" red coats didn't do well. Like was mentioned, 0.427 inch diameter projectiles are a standard size, but so are 0.429-0.430 inch projectiles. Depends what particular cartridge it is. Two or three thousandths of an inch (0.002" or 0.003") difference can be very critical and fairly often can make the difference whether a gun shoots or just patterns its bullets. Also, soft lead boolits will upset in the bore from the pressure swaging the boolit bases and end up fitting the bore quite well even though the boolits started out undersize. Jacketed red coats take A LOT to upset compared to lead, and most usually won't upset, especially when used in a lower pressure cartridge like a pistol cartridge.

rl1016

[randyrat]

Might I ask what a 45LC is? I was thinking the same thing:p

[swheeler]

I always thought it was 45 Colt, although I see the LONG added all the time now.

[runfiverun]

the troopers started calling them that when they were issued the 45 schofield round that fit both the colt army and the top break schofield.
they would ask the armorer for the "long" colt round.
there was never a "short colt 45" round, except i seen a box that said short colt caliber 45 on it once and it was a military type cardboard box.
anyways many today call it the 45 long colt [including my dad, but his grampa was a trooper stationed at ft. douglas]
some call it the 45lc., i just call it the 45 colt.

[mpmarty]

It is called a 45 Long Colt rather than 45 Colt to avoid confusing it with the Colt 45acp.

[swheeler]

It is called a 45 Long Colt rather than 45 Colt to avoid confusing it with the Colt 45acp.

And I just call that cartridge 45ACP(automatic colt pistol)

[rayzer]

I thought that the Groove size for a long Colt was .454",as aposed to the .45ACP that is .451" That could be the problem. As has been mentioned, always slug youre bore.