45 Long Colt load

[Lou Lou Lou]

Skirmisher friend just acquired a 45LC Henry. His first two loads, 20 and 25 grains of FFFg did not group.
He is asking for recommendations. Thanks in advance.

[BobbyHannula8450v]

Most people I know who shot the 45lc well were using around 35 gr. Fffg

[bobanderson]

He is asking for recommendations.

Honestly? Sell it and buy a 44-40.

Just kidding.

I have a model 94 in 45 Colt that shoots great with 17 grains of Goex 3f and 17 grains of filler under a 255 grain Keith style semi-wadcutter.

[Michael Bodner]

Lou,

I'm a little rusty on my actual load, but it's much closer to 30 grains... I'll try to remember to check it out soon. I do know that its a compressed load, however.

BUT, I can tell you that he needs to be sure his bullet has a BIG lube groove otherwise it will foul-out in about 5-6 shots.

Find out from him his mold make/type. Here's a picture of mine:

4536

-Mike

[jonk]

Ok... now, me and a teammate both have Uberti Henry rifles in .45. Our team doesn't enter a repeater team, so we usually do the pick up routine. I have yet to pick up with a team that has anyone shooting a .45. They all seem to buy into the silliness of "a .45 won't shoot as well!"

90% of the time, we're the best shots on the team(s) we pick up with, and the remaining 10% of the time we're no. 2.

Now, the thing is, your friend is going to have to thoroughly go through the load work up process. For any .45, I would recommend annealing the cases and fireforming, and then neck sizing the first 1/3" only. Helps with both powder capacity and gas sealing.

For ME, I settled on a Lee REAL 250 gr mold. It's their muzzleloader mold, but I size to .454 with SPG over 26 gr of TWO F... that is, 2fg. I tried 3f, didn't work as well for me. Under that is a .030 cork wad and .3cc of corn meal. I use moderately hard lead, 1 part wheelweights to 1 part dead soft. Soft lead doesn't work well for me at ALL in the Henry. Winchester large pistol primer.

My hit time on the bird board, tiles, or hanging birds runs about 6-7 seconds. Pots, perhaps double that. It isn't a 10 ring load, and I admit I could still work on that, but is an 'in the black if I do my part' load, and easily hits any of the larger targets, and hits the pots about 2/3 of the time.

The only downside is that bullet doesn't do well at 100 yards; not in my Henry, not in my CVA inline. For that I use a 200 gr SWC. Same load, just a little more ballistically friendly bullet. If I do my part, it will easily hold minute of tile. Maybe an 11 second hit time.

To illustrate the importance of load work up, my buddy settled on the heavy Lee 405 gr hollow base bullet over something like 20 gr of 3f. I think. IIRC. That bullet anyhow. He gets if anything better hit times than I do, but that bullet does zilch in my gun. He's shooting 20:1 alloy. No wads or filler.

I personally would say whatever bullet molds he has, go with 2f to start, and filler if needed, or wads; start at 30 gr (which is about right if you don't use filler or wads) and work down, filling up with whatever filler he choses as he goes. No luck? Try a different bullet, or 3f.

If he's going to be at nationals, let me know... I'd be happy to provide 10 rounds of what I shoot in full length sized cases for him to try on the unlimited individuals thing they do at the far end of the range. He can even keep the brass if it works for him. Or, if someone wants to pick it up, he can just have them on me... PM if interested.

One thing to note: on my gun at least, the throat and what feeds in the magazine are totally different. I could seat the bullet quite far out if single feeding, but have to seat deeply to feed in the magazine to clear the reciever face on the lifter. I think that's why hard lead works better for me; too much distortion with soft lead jumping to the lands on firing with soft lead.