300+ grain 45 Colt bear loads? Help?

[quail1]

I am brand new to the forum and relatively new to bullet casting.
I have done lots of balls for black powder and have done lead for 30 years for decoy weights. I go to Alaska every summer/fall for rainbow trout and encounter many bears. Often 10+ daily at <30 yards. I camp in a tent on gravel bars, bluffs etc. Doing everything I can to reduce any odors or attractions to myself. Freeze dried food, bear cans, cooking out of camp.
I have carried a S&W 44 mountain gun for the last 10+ years, but last year purchased and carried a Ruger Redhawk in 45 Colt. I carry my bear spray strongside and the pistol crossdraw. I do't want to have to spray a bear and haven't had to yet, want to shoot the pistol at one FAR less. With that said I know that I need and want to do a lot more practice with the heavy loads and so I come to casting.
I'd been looking at the 300 gr Lee mold, but think I'm a lot better to ask first and not just stumble into this. I'm not a big internet guy but came onto you all doing a google search. I obviously would benefit from advice from you who are far more experienced than I am. I purchased 500 new Starline brass a bit ago, and have many pounds of both HS-6 and WSF, and other powders. I've not ever loaded H-110 or 296 which I have seen come up over my limited research. I am not opposed to purchasing powders that will optimize the heavy loads. I have loaded plenty of the 44 mag and some 45 Colt, with commercial cast bullets up to 250 gr in the 45 Colt but purchased "bear" loads.
Can any of you make recommendations of just how to start working on a load that I can do lots of practicing with and gain some real confidence that I've got a viable worst case load in? Gun weight is not a concern to me, I mostly float and nots of long walking.
I'd be very interested in loads, crimping, wheel weights use, lead hardness and any other advice to optimize this. The 45 Colt really seems much tamer to me than the 44 Mag, and from my limited research the 45 Colt platform is a great option for me to pursue. I am not looking to start any discussion of S&W vs Ruger, 44 mag vs 45 Colt. I have the Redhawk and want to use this only. I can't afford to purchase preloaded and do the amount of practicing/shooting that I want to do. Should I buy commercial cast bullets and not mess with casting my own?
I didn't want to walk on anyone elses posts with my long winded beginner questions. Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

[Kull]

There's so much info on reloading 45 Colt on the net. This recent article was the first thing I though of. Not the 300+ info your looking for but still relevant and totally safe in a Redhawk.


Hope this is ok to post. All credit to Brian Pierce, Handloader, Wolfe Publishing, etc, etc.

[runfiverun]

the first question i have to ask is.
do you really want to cast your own?
or would you rather just purchase the boolits and load them.
if it is just buy a mold and lead and make your own then the LEE would be a pretty good mold to work with.
in the redhawk i would have no problems using the 300 and starting out with 17 grs of 2400.
something fairly heavy,with a strong flat nose, pushed to medium fast velocity's will penetrate pretty well.
when dealing with a large angry bear being able to get off multiple shots is a good thing.
having them penetrate is better.

[44man]

First you need to spell "BOOLIT!"
The 300 Lee is a good boolit. The RH is a fine gun.
Use WW metal, the clip on weights, not the stick on stuff. You can water drop from the mold or just air cool them. I water drop and let them sit a few days to harden.
Get some H110 and put 21.5 to 22 gr in your load. If weather is moderate a Fed 150 primer works great and the WW LP primer works fine. I do not use a magnum primer in mine. use them if it gets VERY cold.
Case tension on the boolit is important and Hornady dies work best for me. Use just enough crimp to fold the brass to the bottom of the crimp groove. Lee has small grooves so don't over do it.
You need to determine the diameter of the boolits to fit your throats by slugging he throats but I would say .452" would work. Try a .452" Lee push through size die and if you need larger, the die is dirt easy to lap out and cheap.
This load is accurate, will make it feel like a .44 mag and will go through any bear. Your velocity will be over 1150 and up to close to 1200 fps depending on barrel length.
Use a soft lube like Felix, stay away from crayon hard lubes.
You will find your own cast will be 100% better then bulk boolits like Magnus or Laser Cast and only LBT styles that you buy are as good.
Making your own will get you down to a dime a shot. That's 10 bears for a buck!

[Bo1]

Well said 44Man....

[rexherring]

But don't size your 45's down to .430. I think 44man made a typo. .452 - .454 for the .45 Colt

I use the Lee 300 in my BH .45 Colt and it's a whomper with it and 21 grs of H110 and mag primers. I use only Federal or Starline brass as they're a little stronger than most.

[Moonie]

I'm with rexherring, I have a NMBH convertible in 45acp/45colt and I load 22gr H110/W296 with the Lee 300gr in 45 Colt Starline brass.

[fredj338]

My backpacking load in bear country is a 285gr LSWC @ 1000fps. I doubt it stops inside a yogi. In wetpack testing, it penetrates more than my 400gr softs from my 404jeffery going 2200fps. Same for the 310gr LFP from Lee @ 1000fps. Both cast from clip ww & air cooled. A healthy dose of 2400 gets it there easily.

[tenneesse]

My Dad and I hunted the Kenai Penn for years and he carried a .45 Webley but we never had an encounter. For a long gun we carried a Mod 70 .375 H&H (dad) I carried a Rem sporterized 03 30-06. That was back when Alaska had yet become a state and up until the Good Friday Quake. Like yourself we saw a lot of Browns and Griz but never had a moment when we needed to shoot one unless it was a meat hunt then dad took it down and as I got a little older more experienced then I shot.

Today I wouldn't not consider anything less than a .454 Casull like the Alaskan 2" just because Ive hunted with the Raging Bull and realize its potential. Not a chance I'd consider anything less, the .500 a great bear gun. This is a case where the bigger is better and any attack that I knew of it happened so fast there was no chance to pull and shoot. Two of Dads fellow teachers were mauled and survived no shot ever fired.

I'd load Hornady 300 gr XTP HOT as HOT can be if it were me if I for some unknown reason picked a .45 colt for my sidearm. I'd go for the .44 mag first and max it out.

Your only going to get one shot if you get that and if its already chewing on you best hope that the one shot is as big a you can get off. The cost and the recoil meaningless.

I wish I could go back. You have a great hunt and be safe. Im taking it your fishing??? Where? Eat my heart out.

[quail1]

Im taking it your fishing??? Where? Eat my heart out.

Yes, fishing for big rainbows. All over the Illiamna area. mid Aust thru late September.

Boolits....... there I can learn.

Thanks for the replies, I will check out the article. I have read quite a bit so far. Some where I've got a thread that was written by a person that had worked in Alaska and had taken many brown bears, I believe for the state. He sounded very knowledgeable and recommended lead cast because it stayed together and didn't rely on speed. I believe the velocities were 900-1100 FPS. I will go back and find and continue to explore.
On an aside, I just stopped by a used tire store and was given three overflowing buckets of wheel weights. I had to put it in 8 5 gal buckets to carry out of there. It looks like very little Zinc. I told the manager I would be back with doughnuts and coffee for the whole shop, might have to do that weekly for all he gave me. They even helped load it into the back of my truck! Gonna be a whole lot of sorting going on. What is the recommend for the stick on lead weights?

[Lefty SRH]

Save the tape weight for blending if you decide to hunt. Or you can use the tape weights as trading material. We regard tape weights as pure lead with out having to buy pure lead. Its soft enough for muzzleloaders.
Oh, that 20.0-22.0gr of H110 and a 300gr boolit is a fine load out of a Ruger revolver. I shoot 22.5gr H110 and a 330gr LFN out of my .45 colt SBH Bisley Hunter.

[High Desert Hunter]

Even in my Casull, I rarely load full house loads, the recoil is enough that making a second shot becomes very iffy, especially at the distance the AK F&G guys say a bear needs to be to justify shooting it. I load 325gr WFNGC bullets in my 45 and 454, the 45 are loaded to 1050-1100fps, and 1400 in the 454, either one would penetrate end to end on a big brownie. H110 is the powder, you will want a good firm crimp, helps ignitions, and greatly reduces the chance that you will have an unfired cartridge jump the crimp and tie up your pistol. I miss living in Alaska every summer, and thank God I live in NM every winter.

[tenneesse]

I recall a big lake at Illliama and boy does that picture bring back some memories. I grew up outside Anchorage and left during the Viet Nam era never to return (some regret).

Ive never hunted my handloads, just didnt. Im a real .44 lover I have a couple of older 3 screw that I dear hunt with. You made a real haul on the wheel weights.

The Casull has a lot of horse power but it has a down side getting back on the target it really kicks. Big ole brownies, up close???? SCARY. I loved watching them run up in the grass above the tree line, FAST, they'd cover a mountain side as fast as any horse, amazing creature. I'd always see them when glassing for sheep and goat when we'd be moose hunting, lunch time just looking.

Have a fun trip, there is some great salmon back in the Hope village across the inlet from Anchorage, we would look for bear on the back side of the village follow the road around to the back of the mountain and go up. Good fishing good hunting.

I water drop wheel weights and they measure about 19 BHN maybe a little hard. If I'm going to pack hot I use a gas check but that may even not be really needed at 19. Ive use Lee Molds and the tumble lube with no leading issues. I did a few .45LC with my Casull but didnt do a lot of it seemed the wrong thing to do. Id plan to re-size. You'll know when you slug the gun. Lee indicates that maybe you won't need to resize if you use the TL molds but I do anyway in most cases.

Hook up!!! Do you fly fish? Ever eat any squaw candy?

[Frozone]

tenneesse, you were on the Kenai when the bears still had a "I don't know what that is but it smells bad" attitude.
Now they are very used to people, and a lot more dangerous.

[Lefty SRH]

One thing I did to help with neck tension in the .45 colt is to size the brass with a .454 Casull sizing die. I may have gotten a slightly out of tolerance colt sizing but when I called and questioned the die maker they simply replaced the die.

[41mag]

I use the Lee 300 in my 454, in fact it was my first introduction to home cast boolits. I can say from experience they hit hard even at lower velocities.

I posted up a report from when the oldest grandson and I got a bit bored with the ridiculous summer heat year before last, and went out and shot one through some 5 gallon buckets full of water. I know it is from a 454 but still you can see what an impact it does make,
Lee-C452-300-RF-Water-Test

I have run a few though my Redhawk in 45 Colt as well and they are very impressive in it too. I haven't done a lot of testing, only enough to know they shoot well out to 100yds, but if I am going to use it I just as well use the 454 instead.

If you have the 110/296 or 2400 either will get you where you need to be with this boolit. Probably the hardest thing you will have with it is finding GC's right now. If you do find them then add in the Lee sizer and your good to go. I pour mine from straight air cooled WW, lube with the alox blend of 45/45/10 and haven't had any issues what so ever. I found that if they were water dropped they simply didn't group as well from my revolvers, so that might be something to play with as well.

If you don't want to do the 45/45/10 mix yourself you can easily pick some up from White Label Lubes now, and it will save you some time sitting and stirring up a batch yourself. I haven't used his blend just yet but plan on it once I finish up with the half pint or so I have left from my last mix.

Good luck with your loads, you definitely came to the right place for info.

[quail1]

I purchased 1000 GC's from a company on eBay (James Sage) in both .44 and .45 initially because I wanted to play around with using them for shotshells instead of the Speer capsules that I have been using. I like the capsules better just because I can see just what I have. So I hope I'm OK for a while.
The only fresh food I get out there is ptarmigan and grayling. I do pick some crowberries etc that I add to oatmeal. Everything else is freeze dried and is stored in a bear can out of camp. This has worked well for me for years. The bears have no gripe w me and me none w them.
I need to read further on swaging etc.
I believe the lower velocity loads are key to getting multiple accurate shots off if needed to shoot at all. Can anyone tell me the heaviest boolit it I could put through the Redhawk without pushing max pressures and velocities?
My shooting for this would only ever be yards at most. Insurance, need to have hope to never have to use. To date I've not had to use spray, but it is in my hand multiple times a day.

[quail1]

I couldn't get the video 41 Mag, do I need to be logged on to Photo bucket?

[Lefty SRH]

Look up Linebaughs Dissolving the myths of 45 colt. Great write up on the 45 colt. Google John Linebaughs, it on his website. This may answer some of your questions.

[44man]

But don't size your 45's down to .430. I think 44man made a typo. .452 - .454 for the .45 Colt

I use the Lee 300 in my BH .45 Colt and it's a whomper with it and 21 grs of H110 and mag primers. I use only Federal or Starline brass as they're a little stronger than most.

Yep, I sure did, sorry. .452" to start.