Good 45 Colt Bullet and load for deer and Black bear hunting

[huntersdog]

Thinking of using the 45 Colt lever for deer and black bear hunting this year. I'm thinking of the Lee 255gr or 300gr bullets would do great. Shots would be 100 yards max.

[DougGuy]

Either one would be good but the 255 iirc is a tumble lube design. There are improved molds of both these boolits if you hunt for them.

I am going to use the LBT 250gr WFN boolits that Montana Bullet Works sells, they have a plain base and a gas check in a softer bhn 15 alloy with Veral's soft blue lube, work well in my Rugers.

Deer and Black Bear are both thin skinned game and don't take much to put them down, almost ANY 250gr boolit will do the trick so the key would be find one that's the most accurate in your gun(s) and hunt with that one. You can push the 250 a little easier than the 300 as this boolit needs spin to stabilize it and you won't have much luck with it at 100yds unless it is pushed fairly hard. It would also have to be seated in the top crimp groove to cycle in a levergun which leaves less room for powder and can reach max pressures before you get enough powder under it to shoot it to stability at 100 yds. I would go for the 250 for deer and bear, save the 300 for hogs.

[Hickok]

I have shot deer with the Lee 452 255 RF out of a Marlin rifle in .45 Colt and it worked perfectly.

I also use the RCBS 45-255-SWC in my handguns and it is a great boolit. Very large meplat. Don't know if it will feed in a rifle or not.

[frank505]

Wish we had video of the hat black bear we killed. Took four hours from a 405 WCF and 350 grain cast bullets and one round from an 06 loaded with 220 partitions. The 405 runs over 2200fps. Front end was a neat up mess. He finally stuff on his hing legs and roared then feel dead. He started for us from over a hundred yards. He was a problem bear some time in the past as he was tagged. Doubt this bear weighed over two hundred pounds. So I disagree about them easy to kill always. When I pack my 45 colt rifle it's loaded with 300 grain semi wadcutters at 1550 or a250 at 1800. Either of them work quite well.

[frank505]

Wish we had video of the hat black bear we killed. Took four hours from a 405 WCF and 350 grain cast bullets and one round from an 06 loaded with 220 partitions. The 405 runs over 2200fps. Front end was a neat up mess. He finally stood on his hing legs and roared then feel dead. He started for us from over a hundred yards. He was a problem bear some time in the past as he was tagged. Doubt this bear weighed over two hundred pounds. So I disagree about them easy to kill always. When I pack my 45 colt rifle it's loaded with 300 grain semi wadcutters at 1550 or a250 at 1800. Either of them work quite well.

[izzyjoe]

Black bear are not much harder to kill than a large body deer, just shoot 'em behind the ribs with a wide nosed bullet, and then the work begins!

[Mgderf]

A few years back (I was not yet loading my own) I found a small, custom ammo shop locally that made me up some hot .45Colt to run through my Puma .454Casull lever gun.
I had to promise them I would only load these in my Puma or my Raging Bull (also .454).
I don't know the recipe, but they are 300gr JHP that run right at 1000fps.

They told me they were pushing .44mag pressures at muzzle.
I've used them to drop no less than 6 deer in their tracks more or less.
I don't think a single one went more than 2 or 3 steps before piling up.

I've still got a couple dozen rounds of this great stuff, but the company went under so I can't get more.
Might have to try to contact them and ask about the recipe.
They liked playing with my Raging Bull, so maybe...

A 300gr JHP .45Colt will do the job on deer every time, as long as you do your part.

[Tom W.]

The RCBS -270-SAA is a very accurate boolit. If it feeds that's what I would use.

[curator]

LBT .454/280 LFN and 10 grains of Unique. .45 Colt hammer of Thor. Good for Black bear, big feral hogs, and medium to wimpy wht tail deer from a lever action rifle (Not winchester 73 safe!)

[osteodoc08]

The RCBS -270-SAA is a very accurate boolit. If it feeds that's what I would use.

This right here.

[Jeff Michel]

This performs well out of my Marlin and Winchester 92. http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=41_436&osCsid=pjh3pd85il92082p6763okl2f4

[jmort]

I like this Ranch Dog from NOE but no HP, just a FP at around 290 grains

200570

[yeahbub]

My go-to load for .45 Colt in a '92 is a paper-patched Lee 255gr RNFP backed by 21gr of 2400. Primers are still have a radius around the edge and they thump the target pretty hard. Needless to say, these aren't for revolvers of the usual sort. The Rossi '92 handles them fine, though I must say, it also has a big chamber. All my reloads look bottle-necked because I only size the first .5". They won't chamber in any revolvers I've come across so far.