deer hunting with a 45 colt

[DanWalker]

Your load is fine. Go kill some deer with it. My opinion, backed by my own experience, is that the VAST majority of people shooting critters with handguns would be better served by reducing their loads, and striving for accuracy instead of wrist wrenching power. Your bullet will zip right through any whitetail that makes the mistake of offering you a shot inside of 100 yards.

[lbaize3]

I have had excellent luck with 7.5 grains of Universal Clays pushing a 250 or 255 grain boolit. Clean burning and accurate. Runs close to 1000fps. Easy on the gun, you and the deer meat.

[FlatTop45LC]

I shot a couple last year with a 255 Keith over 9 grains of Unique and these 120 pound deer in south Alabama just don't stand a chance.

Shot through and through both of them. Broke both shoulders on one.

[Doughty]

jhammer,
Several years ago I acquired a Ruger single action in .45 Colt with the short 3 3/4" barrel. Some call it a Sheriff's" model. I got this revolver just a couple of days before leaving on a hunting trip. I threw together a load with some 300 grain bullets and an unremembered amount of Unique. I was able to test fire it for point of impact with the fixed sights. I was unable to chronograph the loads however.

A few days later I had the opportunity to shoot a mulie doe at about 50 yards, broadside. It ran a few yards and then fell over dead. I had hit it, centered behind the front legs. The bullet went clean through, leaving a hole I could easily stick my thumb into.

A week or so later I was able to chronograph the load, 730 fps.

I prefer a load with a 280 gr. or so bullet at closer to a 1000 fps. But if you can put your bullet where you want it, it will do the job. You mentioned "getting excited" which caused your group to widen to 4 inches. I still get excited when I'm close to a deer. A 4" group will kill a deer. You just have to take that into consideration with all the other things when you are judging how close you have to be to be.

[FlatTop45LC]

jhammer,
Several years ago I acquired a Ruger single action in .45 Colt with the short 3 3/4" barrel. Some call it a Sheriff's" model. I got this revolver just a couple of days before leaving on a hunting trip. I threw together a load with some 300 grain bullets and an unremembered amount of Unique. I was able to test fire it for point of impact with the fixed sights. I was unable to chronograph the loads however.

A few days later I had the opportunity to shoot a mulie doe at about 50 yards, broadside. It ran a few yards and then fell over dead. I had hit it, centered behind the front legs. The bullet went clean through, leaving a hole I could easily stick my thumb into.

A week or so later I was able to chronograph the load, 730 fps.

I prefer a load with a 280 gr. or so bullet at closer to a 1000 fps. But if you can put your bullet where you want it, it will do the job. You mentioned "getting excited" which caused your group to widen to 4 inches. I still get excited when I'm close to a deer. A 4" group will kill a deer. You just have to take that into consideration with all the other things when you are judging how close you have to be to be.

This mimics my experience with the old war horse. If it starts at .45" it sure ain't going to come out less than that!

I would like to see a 280 WFN at around 950 fps in my stable at some point.

[Huntsman]

DougGuy,
I checked my data and it is in fact 23.0 grs of H110, I even pulled one to be sure. They still kick some good
I do use 454 Casull brass trimmed down and sm rifle primer.
I only use these loads in my Win 94 lever action.

[runfiverun]

I wouldn't sweat the velocity too much.
in fact going too fast is often times detrimental.
750-900 and a 250 or whatever gr boolit will kill pretty dang quickly.
airc the original 250gr 45 colt loads were picked because they would penetrate deeply enough take down an enemy's horse and they only run slightly hotter than a 45 acp.

[jhammer]

Thanks everyone, now I feel like I can carry this gun and load into the woods with confidence. I will be sure to post a picture if I succeed. Our season opens the Monday after Thanksgiving.

[reloader28]

255gr RF NOE with 6.8gr Green Dot runs 767fps in my 5 1/4" Bisely.
Went clear thru 6 milk at 8 yards. 7 might have caught it as it was stuck in the stump behind, but thats enough penetration anyways.

I was going to use this for hunting this year, but am going with the big Lee boolit and 16gr 2400 at 1000fps.
Way overkill, but it shoots excellent.

[Wolfer]

I've killed several deer and two coyotes with the 45 colt in a new vaquero. Starting out I wanted to closely duplicate the original 1873 load. 40 gr of black and a 250/255 gr round nosed bullet. These ran near 1000 fps. The army thought these were too much and cut the loads back to about 850 fps.
Once I had the thread restriction lapped out of my barrel it took 8.8 gr of unique to push the lee 452-255 RF to 970 fps. This is very accurate in my gun and I shot a few deer with it. It pretty much just cut a 45 cal hole straight thru. Blood trails were scimpy but were never very long. Usually less than 50 yards.

I wanted a little more so I went with the Lyman 452-424 and had Eric put me a cup HP in one cavity. Since this boolit sets farther out of the case than the lee it takes 9.3 grs unique to push the solid to around 1000 fps and the same POA. It takes 10 grs to get the HP to shoot to the sights. It's running about 1070 fps.
This blows a bigger hole in the exit side and I get a little better blood trail but the end result as to distance traveled after the shot is about the same.

Ive shot two deer with my 58 Rem and the lee 452-200 RF at around 700 fps. The end result mirrored the heavier 45 colt loading.

Ive came to the conclusion that if you put a 45 cal hole thru BOTH lungs it doesn't really matter how fast it's going.

Side note: it's really difficult to recover these boolits in solid form from MO. Whitetails. I have several recovered boolits but most were dug out of the ground behind the deer.
Woody

[crowbarforge]

I have a Ruger Blackhawk 5.5" bbl with both .45 LC and .45 ACP cylinders. I need to get in touch with Doug Guy and see about the reaming process to improve accuracy. I want to take this one deer hunting. Where I hunt here in Georgia, I have a real hot spot in a travel lane, but ranges are like 20-25 yards tops. Close quarters for a rifle, even a carbine, but this little Ruger will work just right.

[rexherring]

I've harvested three big mule deer with my old 70's Blackhawk. An RCBS 255 SWC drops at about 265 with WW pushed with 18.5 grains of AA#9 comes out at 1000fps. None of the deer went more than a few steps. Shot placement is still the most important thing so just get used to the gun and good luck.

[TMenezes]

Indeed it is. The blackpowder 45 Colt was the Magnum of its day, and in 7.5" barrels easily attained 1000 FPS. I use 10.0 grains of Alliant Herco powder to get 1000 FPS from my Bisley Blackhawk 7.5" barrel. Both Lyman #454424 (Keith SWC) and #454190 (traditional conical flatpoint) work for this application. The Green Dot load you specify may only be yielding 750-775 FPS from your 4-5/8" barrel, but there is an old saying in hunting circles.......velocity is fine, but accuracy is final. If you can place rounds with those 45 caliber 5/8 oz slugs when and where you want, they will make venison for you. The big meplat on that RCBS bullet lets in a lot of air. Archery hunters aren't using a lot of "power" when they stick a deer--place a bullet or an arrow where it belongs, and you will have meat. The most-blooded rifle in my safe is an 1873 Winchester 44-40 carbine, whose 200 grain bullets barely get to 1100 FPS. It served for many years on my great-grandfather's and grandfather's ranches as deer/bear/bad guy disincentivizer, and accounted for at least two black bears and dozens of muleys.

I completely agree, especially at the ranges he is talking about. I went magnum on my Ruger 45LC for awhile but now am back to loading at standard pressure or just slightly +P. I read John Linebaughs favorite caliber is the 45 Colt, and his most used loads are 8gr of HP38/Win231 for about 850fps and 13gr HS6 for about 950fps in the short 4in S&W Model 25. In my 5.5 Ruger that should be 900fps and 1000+ for the HS6. I loaded up some HS6 loads but my local range is closed for the moment so haven't tried them yet but really looking forward to it.

Doug I really need to mail you my guns for the cylinder boring and forcing cone cutting. Both my .44 and .45 Ruger's have a thread constriction at the beginning of the barrel though. I've looked at Taylor throating and the method with soft lead bullets rolled in an abrasive but have my reservations about both. Seems like it would be better to reinstall the barrel to the correct torque but I don't know how hard that would be to get that torque set correctly and have the sights perfectly straight up.

[DougGuy]

Anybody up for cylinder throating/forcing cone work can send a PM and it will get the ball rolling. Still less than a week lead time.

Wolfer you are right on the tier 2 edge with 9.3gr Unique, but 10.0gr is most certainly beyond 23,000psi. Also, Unique at 10.0gr can be very spiky and unpredictable, I won't even go there with a full sized BH or Vaquero, let alone a medium sized one like the NV and the new flattop BH.

reloader28 I used 2400 in a short barreled Vaquero to "bring the boolit to the sights" (Lee C452-300-RF) starting with 19.0gr which shot 4" low at 20yds, 18.0gr shot 2" low, 17.0gr was 1" low, and at 16.0gr groups opened up to near 6" because with 1:16 rifling, you need to shoot that boolit hard enough to spin it up and 16.0gr fell short of it being enough to stabilize. No way was it doing 1,000fps. I doubt it was doing 800. I took one of the 17.0gr loads and climbed into a tree stand and fired it almost straight down on a target, and that made it shoot dead on the sights so this is the load I will take up the tree stand with me.

[Washington1331]

Maybe I'm just traditional, but load it like Sam Colt intended. I've had excellent luck with 38 grains (weight) of 3F black powder and a 255 grain pure lead boolit lubed with emmerts lube. More than enough powder to get the job done, good accuracy and it won't break your wrist or wear your gun excessively.

I've clocked it at close to 900 FPS out of my similar blackhawk revolver. More than enough to get the job done, and it cleans up with a nice helping of soapy water.

[reloader28]

Huh, I guess my chrono has been wrong all this time.
I guess with 10gr Unique being such a bad load, it shouldnt shoot so good out of all our 45 colts at 1000fps either. But maybe my chrono is wrong on that one too.

As soon as the wind quits I will try these again. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize and keep my mouth shut from now on, but I think I know my equipment.

[FlatTop45LC]

Huh, I guess my chrono has been wrong all this time.
I guess with 10gr Unique being such a bad load, it shouldnt shoot so good out of all our 45 colts at 1000fps either. But maybe my chrono is wrong on that one too.

As soon as the wind quits I will try these again. If I'm wrong, I'll apologize and keep my mouth shut from now on, but I think I know my equipment.

10 grains of Umique shot well in mine too but started to show flattened primers on about 1/3 of the shots. That is thr only reason I dropped back to 9 grains. Now the cases fall free without the ejector stroke.

[DougGuy]

I was going to use this for hunting this year, but am going with the big Lee boolit and 16gr 2400 at 1000fps.
Way overkill, but it shoots excellent.

What is your COA on this load? The ones I tested were all seated long in the bottom crimp groove. Seated short in the upper crimp groove would make all the difference in the world. I didn't mean to say this was a bad load or that your equipment was reading wrong, just 16.0gr 2400 in my short barreleld Vaquero this boolit began shooting all over the target, and it couldn't possibly be traveling at 1,000fps, in my situation on this day, it would surprise me if it was making 800fps.

[Wolfer]

I started with the lee 452-255RF and 8 gr of unique. A standard 45 colt load since 1898. This got me around 950 fps or above. When I hand lapped my barrel it took 8.8 gr to get me to the same velocity.
Since pressure equals velocity when all things are equal I believe my slick barrel takes more powder to build the same pressure as before.
When I used the 452-424 it took 9.3 to get to the same velocity due to setting farther out of the case.
My HP 452-424 only weighs 245 gr. My 10 gr load would only be 9.2 before I slicked up my barrel.
I get no flattened primers, no sticky cases and I can shoot this load without ear plugs.
I don't feel like I'm in the danger zone. Perhaps I'm wrong, I often am.

[FlatTop45LC]

You probably aren't Wolfer.

Every gun is different.

One reason I have pressure spikes is my chamber throats are too tight.

DougGuy is going to take care of that soon though.