Need cheap 45 cal shooting/practice round advice

[rbstern]

A while back, I traded off my .50 cal inline for a CVA Optima Elite switch barrel setup, which came with a .45 cal ML barrel. I've been shooting Blackhorn 209 and 225 grain Powerbelts with good accuracy. Very much like the ease of loading and cleaning with these components.

BUT...it's about $1.50 a shot, which is downright silly for a ML. So, I'm in search of a cheap practice load. .45 cal ML projectile choices are far more limited (my one regret over letting go of my .50 cal).

I'd like to continue using Blackhorn. I'm looking for cast bullet choices that could work well. Anybody have any recommendations for a mold that might work well? Lee REAL? Paper patching? .45 cal sabot and a cast boolit?

Any feedback appreciated.

[curator]

Lee R.E.A.L. Get the heavy (250 grain) one and put a felt wad under the slug. Works great in fast-twist inlines.

[rbstern]

Lee R.E.A.L. Get the heavy (250 grain) one and put a felt wad under the slug. Works great in fast-twist inlines.

OK, thank you. What about lube? Can I use Lee's tumble lube goop with Blackhorn?

How is it stuffing these down the barrel? The Powerbelts have me spoiled. It's kinda like country club muzzleloading.

[saidnuff]

I have real mold and the boolits load easily shoot well in a T/C G2.

[rbstern]

Thank you both for the feedback. I've added the 250 grain REAL to my shopping list.

In the meantime, I had a chance to try paper-patching with the Lee .450 200 grain conical. Tried it with a variety of thickness wraps using cigarette paper. Got iffy groups. Tried it with masking tape, which produced a tighter fit in the barrel. Shot some groups that begin to approach what I was getting with the Powerbelts. Perfectly good for trigger practice. Both types were lubed with LLA.

Between the Blackhorn 209 and the wrapped bullets, the barrel stays very clean, which is a nice benefit.

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Round ball and cloth patch. Worked for a long time. Still my go to pratice round in my 54 cal TC

[thunderthud]

inlines are meant for hunting, not target. Although you can shoot targets with a Barnett .50 , inlines are meant for hunting, not plinking or line shooting. fast twist for a boolit pointed projectile or a jacketed pistol bullet or a lowly "picket ball". with the replica powder its not feasible to shoot target with an inline unless you can make it shoot rb imho.

[Fishman]

inlines are meant for hunting, not target. Although you can shoot targets with a Barnett .50 , inlines are meant for hunting, not plinking or line shooting. fast twist for a boolit pointed projectile or a jacketed pistol bullet or a lowly "picket ball". with the replica powder its not feasible to shoot target with an inline unless you can make it shoot rb imho.

Gosh, I wish somebody would have told me this years ago before I burned up all that pyrodex in my TC Thunderhawk. And I thought I was having fun and everything! It's kind of interesting though how all that target shooting burnished the bore to a mirror shine and how I seem to hit everything I aim at with it.

[jonas302]

Is there a reason we must use roundball for target shooting? I recken there are a quite a few people shooting pop cans with barrets also

[Alan]

I would try a PRB, and tight-fitting WET patches. Not dripping, but with plenty of moisture to them. 50-50 windshield washer fluid and murphy's oil soap will work well for target shooting. You may still have to clean it every few shots, but they will be cheap shots. 8) In a barrel set up for PRB's, you can literally shoot this all day and never have to clean the bore 'til you quit for the night.

[Alan]

RB's are 1) easy to cast, 2) cheap to buy, and use the minimum amount of lead for a given caliber, and 3) are ready to shoot as cast - no sizing/lubing step. I suppose if you had an appropriate sized picket bullet, you could use that, but you will spend a lot more time cleaning. The downside to fast twist barrels is they _generally_ foul a lot faster than slow twist. YMMV.

Alan

[Iron Mike Golf]

Doesn't that barrel have a 1:28 twist? I have that rifle with a .50 ML barrel. You might look at getting a bag of sabots and then using cast .45 or .44 240/250 gr bullets. I shot T/C Cheapshots with pretty fair accuracy from a CVA Firebolt. Those were a cast HP in a sabot and were like $7 for a box of 20.

Hmmm, I have a Mihec 452 #503 mold....