Hornady 255 grain .454 dia. 'Cowboy' Bullets

woodlotowner

woodlotowner

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Super GunNutz
Rating - 99.7%
595   2   2
Location
Haliburton County, Central Ontario
I picked up a box of these cast lead bullets thinking I would load up some light plinking rounds for the 1895, but none of my books have any load data for this bullet weight in 45-70. Can anyone share load data, or sources of same, for these bullets?
 
.454 bullets

sounds to me like you have bullets for .45 colt revolver .45/70 lead bullets should be .458 diameter. good luck
 
You will almost certainly have horrible leading and poor accuracy with these bullets given their small diameter in a .45/70 rifle.
 
+1 to everyones comments. The bullets you bought have a diameter of .452. For your 45/70 you require .458. These will not work in your rifle. These are for a 45 Colt.
 
So, not to belabour the point, and draw undue attention to my hair-brained idea, I micrometered some bullets. The .454 'Cowboy' bullets measure mostly .4545, while my 45/70 bullets (.458 dia. on the box - both the Sierra 400 gr. and the Hornady 325 gr. FTX Leverevolution bullets) actually measure .457. Both these bullets are copper clad. That's a difference of only 2.5 thousandths. Without slugging the bore (to see what my 1895 barrel actually measures) I wonder how much of a problem these slightly undersized bullets may actually present. Will the fact that they are a soft cast bullet allow them to deform somewhat under chamber pressure to make a better seal, or will hot gasses simply blast on by them melting the lead for deposition in the barrel? It's kind of like the guys who use .308 caliber bullets in their 7.62x39 (.310") or their .303 British (.311") loads perhaps? Is this worth a try?
 
If a jacketed bullet barely grips the rifling it will still spin and shoot half decent, even well.

If a lead bullet barely grips it two things can happen. The lead might just be torn from the bullet like a tire spinning in mud, and the gases will blow past the bullet melting the sides and causing leading in your bore.

Typically you want a lead bullet .001-.002" larger than the groove diameter of your rifling. Too large is not a problem as long as it chambers freely. If one didn't slug their gun .001-.002" over normal jacketed size would be a good starting point. (.309" for a 308 Win etc). .459" and .460" are very common sizes used in .458" barrel .45-70 for lead bullets. The fit to the barrel is probably the most important factor over lube, lead hardness etc (these are still important too).

You may also want to check out the Cast Boolits forum. Lymans Cast Bullet Handbook #4 is a good read too.
 
Instead of melting them, sell them. These bullets work well, in my experience, in .45 Colt as well as .455. The soft lead seems to slug up nicely to fit the .455 bore.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom