45 Gallery Loads

[KCSO]

In an attempt to come up with a better 45 caliber gallery load I dug out an old mould that i got years ago. This is a 454192 Ideal. The one piece mould and handle. I cast some bullets from w/w materiial and came up with a 255 grain bulllet that miked out at .457 on the noose. I loaded a batch with 6 grains of Unique in 45-70 cases and at 25 yards they are cutting into one hole if I tip the gun up before shoooting. They hold the grease in the grooves and are not as messy as the r/b loads with exposed grease so I may try these for small game. R/B's work fine for raabbits and squirrels in camp but they get a little messy in the pocket.

[Larry Gibson]

Sounds like you're having lots of fun there. I use 8 gr of Bullseye in my 45-70s with a 275 gr Rapine 460250 mould. I've found that Bullseye is much better than Unique for such gallery/small game loads. The velocity is 1050 fps which actually might not be considered a "gallery load". Dropping the charge down to 5-6 gr Bullseye puts it in the gallery load range. I also have a Rapine 460-210 which casts a 210 gr very blunt (almost WC shaped) bullet with a very deep HB. This gives the bullets a lon bearing surface so they are quite accurate. Over 5 gr of Bullseye this bullet gives 850 fps out of my long barreled TDs and 800 fps out of the Carbine TD. Quite deadly on small game.

No filler or wad is used with the Bullseye cahrges mentioned. No need to tip the barrel either.

Larry Gibson