I found and bought my graduation present.

[drklynoon]

Ever since I started back to school I decided on a Henry .45 Big Boy as my graduation present to myself. Well three years later, the deal is done. I got a good price on it and it is just beautiful. There is one small problem though, the boolit that I use in my vaquero won't feed in the Henry. I'm using a Lyman 452424. The OAL is .050 over the stated OAL and the riser isn't able to pick the round up. I could trim .050 off my cases so that I can use one round for all of them but I really don't feel like doing that. My question is what boolit do you guys prefer in the .45 Colt rifles?
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[ReloaderFred]

I'm not familiar with your bullet, since I use mostly Magma molds, but when I get a bullet that is too long by seating to the crimping groove, I just seat it to where I need it to be and crimp into the side of the bullet. If the load is near max., then I'll work up the load again, but if mid-range, I don't. As long as you've got bearing surface to crimp into on a cast bullet, it will work just fine.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[drklynoon]

Thanks Fred. Its a Keith type SWC. I could deep seat it and I may do that so that I can shoot it until I get a better mold.

[runfiverun]

seat it to sit like a semi wad cutter in a 45 acp...
just about every cast boolit i have ever seen comes out over saami oal.
i use the 452664 the most in my 92's but it won't feed through my dad's 73 because of the length.
i do use the 454424 in my leverguns and seat it like i said above,it actually shoots pretty accuratly like that.

[huntrick64]

I am seating my 284 grain Keith to 1.650 OAL for my Rossi 92. That is the longest I can get away with and expect reliable feed every time. I had to work some on my gun to get it to do this. I seat the same bullet out to 1.700 for my Ruger Bisley, but don't like having to keep track of bullets between the two. Get one of those 1.700s lodged hard in the action of a lever gun and you will not do it again. Be careful if you are loading beyond specs for your Vaquero and then putting them in your Henry. I wouldn't shoot "ruger only" loads in any brass frame lever gun.

With your bullet I would think you could go down to at least 1.590 OAL without any pressure probs. They should feel all day long at that length. Double check that OAL in your manuals.

[drklynoon]

I'm shooting 6 grs of trailboss so their pretty easy. I'm surprised how short they need to be though. If only. 050 over is jamming.

[huntrick64]

I can seat .01 over going from 1.650 to 1.660 and they jam in my 92. Not real sure what you meant by trimming some off the cases. You might change where it crimps on the bullet, but the OAL and bullet style/size is what determines how far it goes down into the case.

[drklynoon]

Lol if I shorted the cases. 050 then I would keep the boolit in the seating groove and the oal would drop. 050. To 1.6

[huntrick64]

To heck with the crimp groove, just crimp em where ever they end up with the OAL you need. That crimp groove is overrated anyway. That lead is soft enough for it to make its own groove AND that groove will be the exact depth needed!

[GARCIA]

Have a 1894 Marlin in 45 Colt that had a similar problem.
The cartridge stop was filed back some (Actually a bunch) to let me utilize Miha's "Ruger Only" boolit.
It will let me feed his copy of the RCBS 270 SAA without a hitch.
Might want to take a look at this quick fix.

Tom