.45 Colt NEF, How Hot?

[Good Cheer]

How hot have you loaded your NEF .45Colt break over?
I've played around some with bore riding boolits to free up powder space. Working on it.

[Outpost75]

I have used Ruger loads up to about 25,000 psi based on Speer data, you get about 150-200 fps more than in a 7-1/2" revolver.

[tacklebury]

I load 300 gr. XTP Magnums with a book near max load of H110. Very accurate and kills deer quickly. I've also played around with the Reloader7 version of the same load, but they are for carbine only and cannot be mixed into the pistol box. hehe



http://www.leverguns.com/articles/pa...ltlevergun.htm has some good resources for different powders and speaks of the reloader7 loads.

[Good Cheer]

Nice picture!
Thanks for the info.

I've read of the chambers being reamed to Casull or even to .460S&W.
And you know, I'm not really too sure that I'd want to except for loading black.

[Tackleberry41]

I run ruger only loads in my rossi single shot all the time. The rifle was sold as a 44 mag, I built a stub barrel in 45 colt for it, if it can take 44 mag, why cant it take the hot but still lower pressure 45 colt.

[tacklebury]

Yah, many people at GB rent the reamer and take it out further. My colt is pristine and took me 3 tries to get a good chamber. This one is so perfect, it deforms the brass less than my .45 Blackhawk which basically doesn't need resizing. I still do typically resize, but back when starting to load for it, I didn't have a lot of brass. My near Casull load with that carbine kicks less than the 30-30 barrel to me and performs better for short distance shots, which are typically what I have on our property.

[Good Cheer]

It's kinda tempting to design a boolit specifically for the piece.
Something with a blunt nose, gas check and one small lube ring inside the case mouth, bore riding portion that will let the cartridge be thumbed into position. Probably about oh what, maybe 300 grains?

Or paper patched? Would that require altering the angle on the lead into the rifling? Maybe.

This is how some bore diameter 445599's have been tested. I'm thinking that maybe something similar could be done with a gas check design.

[Duckdog]

A lot of this depends on the receiver. If it's on a shotgun receiver, load it a bit lighter. I generally load mine to about 1150 FPS with a 255 gr pill using Unique. I have a 45/70 for the heavier loads, so I load this one so my wife can shoot it, as the load I am using has pretty light recoil

[leftiye]

SB2? You could almost put a .454 in that barrel if you wanted. The action should be fine with it as it will take full house 30-06. Question really is how loose is the chamber, and do you want split cases. Or maybe how fast do you feel the need to push your boolits.

[Tackleberry41]

I use the 300gr shockwave muzzle loaders bullets in mine, minus the sabot of course. Using 296 they run about 1300fps. Its a rifle only load as they would never fit in a revolver.

[Outpost75]

SB2? You could almost put a .454 in that barrel if you wanted. The action should be fine with it as it will take full house 30-06. Question really is how loose is the chamber, and do you want split cases. Or maybe how fast do you feel the need to push your boolits.

I found the chamber in my Cowboy Classic .45 Colt was quite loose. Annealing the brass to obtain a better seal in the chamber and using larger diameter .455-.456 bullets helps alot. Most of the time I shoot 7.2 grains of Bullseye with a Saeco #955 255-grain cowboy bullet cast 1:30 tin lead and this is very accurate from both the Handi Rifle and my Ruger Vaquero. The soft alloy tolerates the Ruger's tighter .452 cylinder throats OK and while this load is a bit warm for the Colt clones, it works great in the Rugers and H&R.

In photo below Saeco #954 230-grain is at left, #955 255-grain at right. Only difference is the width of the base band, being .10" on the #954 and .150" on the #955, both molds cast .455-.456 in 1:30 tin/lead alloy.

Attachment 158704

[BAGTIC]

The advantage of a single-shot is that you can load the bullets out as far as you want, With typical H&R chambers it might be possible using the right powder to approach 1600-1800fps with a 300 grain lead bullet at safe for the rifle pressures. Personally I would not want to shoot that powerful load in the lightweight H&R but because I have already had that shoulder operated on once and hope to finish out my years without an encore.

[wgr]

i shoot a lbt 300 grain wfn with h110 ruger loads. it will hammer a whitetail

[Lonegun1894]

I don't have the .45 Colt version of this rifle, but do have the .44 Mag, and it came on a shotgun receiver instead of the stronger rifle receiver. It is on a rifle receiver now, but I would say that you are safe going to at least "Ruger-only loads", but really don't think it is necessary to load these that hot for a good and effective hunting rifle.

[Good Cheer]

For experimentation purposes I rummaged around and pulled out some 245 grain 45ACP hardball contour round noses that will pretty well maximize the powder space to see what cooks. Won't be the most accurate boolit but they're here and will provide some data points.

[Good Cheer]

Put together some test loads today with 4198 at about 95% of the available space.
Looks like shifting to CCI-350's will be tried next.

[Good Cheer]

It's not February yet and cabin fever is setting in...
Just musing on a design that would be a bore rider.

[Good Cheer]

In the past it was contemplated that a paper patch might be better...

[Good Cheer]

Backing up a bit and rethinking the matter, this design has all the bases covered except weight.
Maybe if it had a bore riding portion inserted into the middle to run the weight up into the neighborhood of 360 grains.
I might have to spring for a totally custom mold. Haven't done that in a while.

[Lonegun1894]

I know this takes a lot of the fun out of it, but if you want a 300+gr .45 HP, how about the old boring Gould bullet? The Lyman 457122HP, just size it to .452 or .454", as your rifle prefers, and start testing. For what it's worth, mine casts at .461" and weighs 335grs as cast, but I have only used it in .45-70, so not sure if or how well it would work in the .45 Colt. My .45 Colts are either revolvers or Win 92 clones, so I'm not much help.