Thread: 45 Colt Rifle 350-60gn loads

Anyone doing/done interesting stuff with 45 Colt heavy loads for hunting?

I'm loading for a Rossi 92 Puma in 454Casull, action hardened/strengthened/slicked by LSI. Yes I know I could just do 454Casull but I have more plentiful 45 Colt brass. And it's fun! Aiming at bush hunting loads. Rifle has a Burris scout scope on it.

PM if you don't want to publish data.

Cheers

No but I'm interested.
I have the same gun.Who is LSI?

Is it too late to rename this thread to "Rossi 92 454 Casull"?

I also have this rifle, and I'm keen to hear what others reload.

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

No but I'm interested.
I have the same gun.Who is LSI?

https://www.legacysports.com/

Apparently they take new firearms direct from factory and rework them/trick them out.

I was told re my 454Casull, that LSI hand picked rifles at factory choosing best wood, best fitting or whatever, shipped them back to US, stripped them and with the Casull, re heat treated the action to strengthen slicked it added top piccatinny rail, rubber butt cushion and screw end cap to mag tube to allow fast unloading. Rifke is stamped with their logo. I bought a Howa Mini Action in 243 for my SIL, used, and when it arrived it turned out to be a LSI worked model also. Lovely tack driver.

Someone else may have better info.

Here is published data I've collected so far but yet to try

A little 3x6 incremental load test made up to test tomorrow all going well. 350g (nominal), .352, PC PB FP over Hogdon 800X, 45Colt cases. Shooting in a LSI Rossi Puma 92 454Casull. Projectiles nicely made and courtesy of Forum GC, @Gur1.

So I got to shoot these yesterday. Very preliminary results using 800X powder.

PLEASE NOTE: There is NO published data for these loads. I arrived at my START position by extrapolating from data published for 45 COLT 250gn projectiles and 454Casull 300gn projectiles shot in revolvers. I am using a very strong action LSI Rossi Puma 92 Rifle with 20" barrel. Do not use my results as a basis for shooting these loads in revolvers or weak actioned rifles.

My goal is to find a accurate load for these both at around 900-1050 fps and around 1300-1400fps. I am not too fussed about the latter. For comparison I shot a load previously developed in this rifle for Hornady 250gn XTPs with AR2205. at an average of just over 1300fps and very accurate at 50m these are an efficient killing load for the medium game that I hunt. The value to me of a heavy load is its capability in bush conditions. A 350gn Cast FP bullet at around 1000fps I expect to brush aside the odd leaf or twig and kill emphatically with good placement at 50-60m

I have started with 800X because I have a qty of it, the charges are small, so powder goes a long way and, for me at least, it is very low cost. I intend to do .02gn incremental loads to 13.5gn max. I expect however I am likely to stop before that either because I find an accuracy node not too far above 1200fps, or discover unwanted pressure indicators. I am aware that these Pistol/Shotgun powders can peak on the pressure curve very quickly. There are other powder I would consider for this also, but here I am. FWIW 800X meters very poorly because of it's large flake size. That however also gives it good fill characteristics relative to the weight of the charge yet there is no need to compress powder in getting to a rational Max load. I prefer to avoid compressed loads, even when published data offers them. For other powders compression may give unexpected and unpleasant results.

Anyway, i hope this is of interest/use to someone...