.45 Colt shooting all over.

[WildmanJack]

I was a bit scared of shooting anything over 800 - 900 fps out of this Uberti. I was told that the linkage design was not very strong and I shouldn't load to heavy. I'd love to shoot a 300+ gr boolit out of it but figured the powder charge would tear up the action, or possibly me!! So tell me, should I keep the loads low? Or will the Uberti take a 1000fps round without damage?
Jack

[Jon K]

Jack,

The metals in the Uberti are a lot stronger than the old Original Winchester '73. I had a Uberti '73, and shot 325 gr Lyman boolit @1300+fps with no adverse effect.
*Please note I only shot about 500 rounds with this combination, so I don't know what the long term effect would be. It was a good gun, but I sold it and several others to buy a Shiloh Sharps.

Jon

[WildmanJack]

Jon,
Man, thanks for the info. Now I won't worry quite as much when I'm trying to pick a really accurate load for the gun. I'm going to load up some 700x for pigs this week and then some trail boss for Cowboy shooting. My next gun will be a .45-70 Sharps. Probably around February sometime..
Thanks for the info...
Jack

[badgeredd]

I was a bit scared of shooting anything over 800 - 900 fps out of this Uberti. I was told that the linkage design was not very strong and I shouldn't load to heavy. I'd love to shoot a 300+ gr boolit out of it but figured the powder charge would tear up the action, or possibly me!! So tell me, should I keep the loads low? Or will the Uberti take a 1000fps round without damage?
Jack

WMJ,

Bear in mind that a 850 FPS load out of a pistol will be near 1000 FPS out of a 20" rifle barrel. If the load is safe out of a pistol, it'll be safe out of the replica rifle (modern steels and all). I had a Winny 94 in 45 Colt that was a tack driver with loads that checked 900 FPS out of my Blackhawk Bisley, although the bullets were j-word. I DID find that heavy slugs were much better than lighter (225 or so). Good luck,

Edd

[WildmanJack]

Well today I took out the '73 and shot about 50 rounds of 230 gr rnfp over 5.5 gr. of 700X I was getting ( at 50 yards) 2 x's then 3 fliers. The fliers were mostly down and to the right. It drove me nuts. So tomorrow I'm going to try 6.o gr of 700X and the same boolets, then the same powder load under a 250 gr. rnfp. So we'll see what happens.


Jack

[Just Duke]

I had good luck with Trail Boss.

[TCLouis]

First BRAND SPANKIN NEW gun, with cast boolit.

New gun, ONE random loading with no load development.

Shooting all over the place . . . .

A few ideas come to mind what the problem(s) might be.

[PatMarlin]

I'd do a barrel break in with copper first using light loads and the shoot clean method.

[Larry Gibson]

wildmanjack

Quite frankly your load is a pipsqeak cowboy action load. It may do fine out to the usual 25 yards for that "sport" but with the slow tist in your rifle you need a higher velocity to keep the bullets stable at longer range. Felix is correct, try 6 gr 700X and 6.5 and 7 gr. All are safe ".45 Colt" loads for the older gun actions. Your M73 should shoot that bullet well. I prefer the 200 gr Lee "cowboy" bullet in my rifle at 1100 fps. I also shoot a lot of SWC 200 gr .45ACP bullets. They are quite accurate. They look kind of funny and out of place in the .45 Colt but they sure do shoot good. I just worked up to good max loads in my Uberti SAA and then took that in the rifle...it worked out very well.

Larry Gibson

[redhawk44]

If you want to use the space in the 45 LC case, about 7.5 grs. of Trail Boss is good for just over 800 fps when using a 200 gr. RNFP plain base bullet.

Other than that, about 6.5 grains of Accurate Arms #2 will get the same velocity.

The standard deviations are in the low teens to single digits with both these loads.

This is from a 4-5/8" Vaquaro. The sights aren't the best, but I get groups of about 4" offhand at 25 yds and I don't shoot the handgun a Hell of a lot better than that, whatever I shoot.

[Just Duke]

Call me Jack.

[compass will]

is that a commercial cast 225 rnfp??
those do have a pretty small lube groove. but i have shot many of them with the plastic lube over 5.0 of clays.

I will second this load .
I shoot a heaver (255gn) boolit in my 1892 Puma 45 rifle. In fact around 5 grains the cases come out cleaner (less blow back). works well in my wheel guns also, at wheel gun distances.

[WildmanJack]

I will second this load .
I shoot a heaver (255gn) boolit in my 1892 Puma 45 rifle. In fact around 5 grains the cases come out cleaner (less blow back). works well in my wheel guns also, at wheel gun distances.

Just got a Lee 255 gr. mold and cast a few dozen yesterday. So I'm gonna try them. I weighed the rounds and found that they are a bit on the light side, like 5 gr. light. I was kind of suprised as I'm using WW's for casting and thought they would load closer to the 255 gr. weight that the mold was designed for.
I let one of the range officers shoot my gun Friday, figured maybe it's me!!!! He said he thought that the boolet needed to have more velocity as he was shooting low and the rear sight was topped out. So I guess I should just start working up a load with the new boolet.
I slugged the barrel last week and measured it at .450 wich also suprised me. I figured it would be bigger than that. So the new 255 gr boolets are not going to be sized, they cast at .452 I'm trying some spray on moly lube and we'll see what they do..

Jack

[Just Duke]

Cast them hotter Jack and that shoud make them bigger.
Did you slug it from the breach?

[Three44s]

A quick try:

Take your boolits and lube as you are ...... and then also lube with Lee Liquid Alox as well.

I would also concentrate on boolit size in relation to your gun's ACTUAL dimensions .... not what a gunsmith tells you the size he reads from "tea leaves".

And with that in mind: Get this book .................

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/bulletselect/index.htm

And really ...... drop the lead slugs for a little bit and run J-words and do the break in.

To get a jump on cleaning lead ...... this trick is in the above book ....... get some copper scrubing pads (Copper Chore Boy) or equivalent and cut a tuft of it and wrap it around an old worn bore cleaning brush ....... but before you stuff a generic brand down any bore .... test it with a magnet ...... the cheap Chinnese clones are generally steel coated with copper .... NOT GOOD ......

If the so called copper scrubber sticks to a magnet ........ scrub something else with it but NOT your guns!

The Beartooth book is going to blow yer hat off! Get it as soon as you can .........

Three 44s

[WildmanJack]

Thanks a million you guys. Duke, aft43er our phone conversation, I'm going to do the breach thing, Three 44's, I'm ordering that book right after I post this.. Thanks again fellas.. Sure appreciate the info.
Jack

[WildmanJack]

Went to the range to day, Shot a lee 255 gr. rnfp over 6 gr. of 700X, not sized, and sprayed with moly spray lube. Man did that boolet make a difference. At 50 yds with open sights I shot consistant 1.5 inch groups. Sure glad I listen to you guys!!! Thanks for all the help. I may still fire lap the barrell to see fi I can tighten up that 1 1/2" group a bit...
Jack

[goatboy_k]

i also had this problem with my 1894 marlin in .45 colt, couldn't get it to group with 200 gn slugs, all were sized to .454, ended up moving to 250's and it came right it. Decided that the extra bearing surfaces just keeps everything lined up better. I also use downsized 330 gould HP's in this gun and they do very well. My regular load for this rifle is 250 lead with 10gn unique.

[WildmanJack]

Way to go Goatboy, glad u picked up on the heavier boolet. It took me a while, I was ready to trash the gun.. Now I'm VERY happy I didn't..
Jack

[goatboy_k]

yea it's my go to plinker these days, 10 rounds, no recoil and big holes!!