Best mold for heavy 45 LC rifle load

[DHDeal]

Does anyone on this site sell .44 and .45 plain base gas checks? GF

While this may not be what you were asking, Sage's sells them. I've installed quite a few, and while I had good results with a Lube a Matic, trying to just install them with a Lee die didn't work so well.

They did shoot accurately, though not any better than a PB that was PC'd. In the end I considered it not worth the effort.

[rickt300]

Well It's been almost a year of the Rossi being in my truck and loaded with the Blue Dot load I settled on. I have shot around 150 of them doing general gun chores, killing trapped hogs, taking iffy shots at hogs as they ran off and even shot a few rabbits. I haven't actually cleaned the barrel one time other than ran a clean patch through it and for some reason leading is a thing of the past and it has remained sighted in. So far so good. This little carbine has been a real pleasure to use overall.

[cwlongshot]

Blue Dot is a favorite!

I just used 11g under a 220hp cast soft in a 350 Legend to restock the larder with venison! Plowed in and out leaving 1/2 of one lung and a nearly 2" hole Thru the heart.

CW

[Dinny]

Rick,
Are you familiar with the Lyman 457122? It's a 330gr LHP made for the 45-70 but some have sized it smaller. I mention this because in every test I have conducted that bullet lost it's nose, creating shrapnel, and the base penetrated fairly deep. It's also of RN design so it should feed well. I have a Rossi 92 45 Colt enroute to my FFL and will perform more tests in wet newspaper.

http://www.lasc.us/FryxellOldNewBorrowed.htm
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010230362

Thanks, Dinny

[rickt300]

The 350 Legend has been calling me, need another toy Hah!

[rickt300]

I have heard of it and somewhere I think I have a similar mold that is not a hollow point. I was thinking about casting some and running them through a sizer and trying it but it is floating around in the mists of time shooting ducks with Fred Kimble lining the abyss of things I haven't seen in years yet know it is here somewhere.

[cwlongshot]

Rich. Its a common shape for Lyman and there is at least 3-4 using same profile only weight differences.

CW

[rickt300]

Found it! Or should I say I looked for a couple hours and the wife says "What are you looking so hard for?" And I said trying to describe it to her as a square piece of iron with a flat piece of metal screwed to the top of it. She says look in one of them coffee cans and goes back to cooking dinner. Last time I saw it was around a year ago, had it sitting next to the computer as I was trying to identify it. She had just cleaned up and put it in a coffee can of irregular stuff that surrounds me. And she remembered doing it. Lucky this time she didn't say "if you would put your stuff up you would know where it is wouldn't you"? I am too smart in my old age to say it couldn't have been there even a couple of days before you hid it from me. It is a 457191 two holer. Guess now I will have to cast some bullets with it.

[cwlongshot]

Thats a favorite in my 450 Bushmaster!! As stated it and many Lyman molds drop
Small and mine is no different. It sizes down to .453 easy and shoots very well. Its just shy of 300 in my alloy.

CW

[rickt300]

Thats a favorite in my 450 Bushmaster!! As stated it and many Lyman molds drop
Small and mine is no different. It sizes down to .453 easy and shoots very well. Its just shy of 300 in my alloy.

CW

If my Rossi will stabilize it I will load up all my empty brass with it. Good looking bullet.

[cwlongshot]

Many comment and worry. But in my experience they will stabulize. Mine shoots the 300+ g LEE. Bullet just fine.

CW

[rickt300]

Just got back from checking the cows, what a muddy mess. We have had a bunch of rain the last week or so. Ended up muddy as you can get with your shoes on. I cleaned off my boots enough to get back in the truck and while I was using a stick to get the mud out of my rubber boot lugs I hear something crossing the plowed field behind me. I lean the seat forward and get the Rossi which has been there loaded almost continually for as long as I have had it. Turns out to be a medium sized feral hog at the bottom of the field having slow going. First shot a hit and I saw the bullet hit the mud on the other side, second shot another hit and the pig rolls and starts trying to get back up, third shot down and kicking. Another good hog. Didn't even consider going over to look closely at it and I could tell it was solid coated with good ole Texas clay mud. This is the kind of use I have been getting out of the Rossi regularly for a while. I usually have it and a dedicated coyote rifle behind the seat and the Rossi rides on top of it. Next stop was the car wash. If I had to snivel the only thing I can come up with is that the back of the chamber is more than a little oversize which leaves a good bulge that is sized back to spec. I haven't lost any cases yet but I may retire some of them soon just to be safe.

[cwlongshot]

Good show!!

[John Van Gelder]

I have this bullet is the lee 457-340 I size them down to 452 and load over 19 Gr. of H 110 for my 94 Winchester I used the same load in my Blackhawk.

[PositiveCaster]

I’ve used that Lee 340 bullet in my M94 Trapper for many years. Ahead of 26.0 grains of Reloder 7 it gives 1378 fps in the Trapper’s short barrel (use at your own risk, start five grains lower!). Accuracy is very decent, especially the first three shots. It would be a better hunting bullet if the meplat was wider, but it penetrates like nobody’s business.

[John Van Gelder]

A heavy load in the .45 Colt out of a rifle is pretty close to the old black powder .45-70 load. My 340 gr., bullet load in my Blackhawk will penetrate twice as many 1" plywood panels as a standard 240 gr. cast .44 magnum load.

[rickt300]

Well I can see the bottom of the box of long ago cast semi wadcutters. I ordered a .452 LEE sizer and cast some of the 457191 with a mix of very soft lead and wheel weights 50/50.Pan lubed with some old brown lube I sized them and will soon shoot some using a Paco Kelly load of H110 for somewhere in the 1500fps area from the 16 inch barrel. Got a feeling that steel butt plate is going to greet my shoulder with gusto.

[cwlongshot]

I have also used the 191 bullet in both the Bushmaster and Colt. Its a dandy in the bushmaster bolt pushed hard powdercoated!!

I always liked my 325 LBT as my heavy for the 45 Colt. But I loaned it and it never came home. So my heavy is the Lee 452-300. I have a MP 300 RUGER bullet. That shoots great and gets real good velocity but is way long and cannot feed.

CW

[Greg S]

WFN or WLFN @ 300-325 with a freight train of slow power, i.e. 300MP, H110 ect with an OAL of 1.650 (reliable feeding).

This is AKA Buffalo Bore 325 WFN @ 1325 in a pistol.

[Castaway]

Original post asked about a heavy bullet/mould. The 270 RCBS bullet drops about 280+ for me with a 1:20 mix. The coverall profile allows it to be seated “long” in the case and maximizes what will fit in a Black Hawk cylinder. It cycles flawlessly in my Win 92 and gives good accuracy in each. The Keith design cuts a full diameter hole in anything it happens to contact after leaving the barrel. The down side is, I could never get it to shoot well in a Rossi 92. What would be 1.5”-2.0” in my Win 92 would be 12”-14” in the Rossi at 50 yards. There are a lot of experts here that may have their opinion, but I think the accuracy problem in the Rossi comes back to the slow twist, which would be exacerbated by the heavy bullet.