45 for rifle SASS

[cajun shooter]

I purchased a Taurus Thunderbolt for SASS before I knew better. Any way I just received it back from the factory and to my surprise the @!#*< thing works almost. I tried to cycle at least 5 different bullets and the one that works the best is the Lee 452-230-TC. Now everyone knows that this is a bullet intended for a 45ACP. I was thinking about buying this same bullet in it's TL form so that I would have both lube grooves and a crimp. Has anyone tried to lube this bullet on a star and if so how did it work? Are the grooves deep enough? My current revolver bullet is the RCBS 45-230-cm and it works great but the nose is a little blunt and when I cycled the rifle, 2 rounds stuck nose down. :castmine:

[missionary5155]

Greetings I am assuming this is a 45 Colt... AS with all firearms the most important item to complete is to slug the chamber area and bore ... You need to seal off the gases before they eat off the nice flat bases of the boolits you will cast. Also a nice FAT boolit will grip the rifling and not go merrily scipping down the bore.
So once you KNOW that measurement and have it wriiten down in your reloading book you will have a good idea if that .452 boolit is going to work as is or needs to be "fattened" up.

[MtGun44]

missionary has the right dope. You need a nose shape to feed with
a crimp groove to get the correct LOA, plus a big enough diameter
to get accy and no leading. You need you groove diameter measured
by slugging the barrel (see the sticky). Make your boolitdiam = groove diam
or groove diam +.001 or .002 inch. Set the LOA equal to factory to
start on the assumption that Taurus used factory to set the gun
up - which may be true or not, but a good starting point.

Good luck. Your unhappiness with Taurus is one more case that I have
seen that keeps me away from them even tho some seem to be
interesting designs.

Bill

[Boomer Mikey]

Welcome to cast boolits cajun shooter,

It doesn't matter which style bullet you use TL or Regular groove. Either one will hold enough lube for low pressure work and 45 ACP bullets will work fine for CAS work or anything else you want to do with the 45 Colt. I use them in my 450 Bushmaster and 45 Colt revolver and 1892 rifle all the time with great accuracy up to 1600-1700 fps with the right lube.

The 230 grain TC bullet is excellent in revolvers, rifles and my AR-450 Bushmaster too... just use a taper crimp die to crimp the case into the bullet slightly to keep it from being setback by inertia and pressure from your tube magazine spring. A Lee Factory Crimp die will do the job as well.

If you shoot 45 ACP try your lead 200 grain SWC's too; their profile is the same as a roundnose and will feed fine. I use a lot of Lyman 452640's in my 45 Colt levergun and revolver. My favorite in the Backhawk revolver is the Lyman 452374 225 grain roundnose... excellent accuracy!

If you want to have some fun resize some 45-70 300-360 grain bullets to 0.452" or 0.454" and load these over 5 grains of Bullseye, Unique, or TiteGroup. It's great to have some of these around when a match director wants to get cute with a hard set knock down target. Shooting these is a virtual guarantee to knock them down...

The Hodgedon website has loading data for lead 230's.
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR 800-X .452" 1.580" 6.2 746 9,100 PSI 9.0 1003 13,200 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR SR 4756 .452" 1.580" 8.0 766 9,300 PSI 9.2 898 11,800 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP Hodgdon Universal .452" 1.580" 6.5 761 7,600 CUP 8.1 975 13,800 CUP
230 GR. CAST LRNFP Winchester 231 .452" 1.580" 5.8 738 7,300 CUP 7.3 941 13,700 CUP
230 GR. CAST LRNFP Hodgdon HP-38 .452" 1.580" 5.8 738 7,300 CUP 7.3 941 13,700 CUP
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR SR 7625 .452" 1.580" 7.0 770 9,600 PSI 8.8 959 13,000 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR PB .452" 1.580" 5.8 751 10,000 PSI 7.3 933 13,200 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR Trail Boss .452" 1.580" 5.5 685 9,100 PSI 6.5 802 12,400 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP Hodgdon Titegroup .452" 1.580" 5.8 857 10,300 CUP 6.5 934 13,000 CUP
230 GR. CAST LRNFP IMR 700-X .452" 1.580" 4.7 771 10,100 PSI 6.0 904 13,500 PSI
230 GR. CAST LRNFP Hodgdon Clays .452" 1.580" 4.4 734 7,600 CUP 5.4 865 13,900 CUP

TightGroup, Universal, Unique, Bullseye, and 231 are very popular in CAS loads... I use 6.5 grains of TiteGroup which is a comfortable middle of the road CAS charge using 225-260 grain BHN 8-10 bullets in the 45 Colt. Softer bullets are better at the lower/slower pressures/velocities.

All of my current 45's are 0.451" groove diameter and I size to 0.452" - 0.454"; like the guys said... larger diameter is better than smaller and 45 rifle chambers are usually sloppy on the large side of SAAMI specs.

I don't believe you'll find a difference between the standard lube groove and tumble lube groove bullets unless you're sizing them more than 0.002" in which case the smaller tumble lube grooves tend to disappear.

Have fun with the Thunderbolt... my amigo never could get his to make it through a match.

Boomer :Fire:

[cajun shooter]

Thanks Boomer, Your info is what I was looking for. When I decided to shoot SASS I wanted to either shoot 45 Colt or 44-40 as they are real to the time period and not the 38 spl so that I could shoot faster than anyone else. I've always liked the Colt Lightning and thats the reason for the purchase. It's never shot a match and has been back to the factory twice for the feeding problem. The TC bullet I tried is one that I have for 45ACP. I've been shooting my 45 revolvers and a Marlin 1894 with 38spl. I don't intend to shoot the Thunderbolt in alot of matches as I've found that they won't hold up. Even the $1700 models break. I talked to Steve Young and decided to buy a 92 from him. My SASS name is Fairshake and if I decide to sell the Taurus I want to be able to give the buyer just that and not a rifle he can't use. If I can find the right combo to pass down then I can sell with a clear mind. Thanks for the input