I took it to the range today for the first time. It worked great and shoots well. It is shooting high but consistent. I like the little gun a lot. Mine is .45Colt. It is the first time reloading .45Colt and it took some doing. I used a 4 die set from Lee and I think that is the way to go. There is a 4th die for crimping the brass and that is handy as hell. The .45Colt and HS-6 powder is only filled 1/3 full, lots of room for more powder. If you hold the .44 Mag and .45Colt side by side you can't tell the difference. I only loaded to basic load not Ruger only load.
Rossi Ranch Hand
- Thread starter JimmieA.
- Start date
Super fun firearm! I have exactly the same rifle, but added the bolt-mounted peep sight from Steves Gunz. That solved the elevation problem, not to mention it's a far superior sight setup. And it gets rid of that gawdawful safety.
Those mild cowboy loads are fun for plinking, for sure, but you can achieve some serious performance levels with the "Ruger Only" data. I use H110 for hunting loads and got 300gr jacketed bullets moving at 1380fps. For the heavy loads, make sure you're using a bullet with a proper cannelure, and put a fairly heavy crimp on it (yes, that Lee crimp die is magic!). Hard on the brass at that level, though!
What I have is 200 grain .452 Lead round nose flat tip with the proper cannelure. I end up being about 1.55 to 1.6 OAL. I would have to get jacketed projectiles if I wanted to up the load. The only powder I have that is listed on my tables is HS6 but it sure seems dirty. I can't find a load for bullseye or other powder I have. I tried back to back the .45 Colt and .45ACP with the same gun (Ruger Black Hawk) and they seemed about the same. The ACP was Winchester white box factory stuff. The .45Colt was way more accurate than the ACP with the Ruger. Don't know why.
Super fun firearm! I have exactly the same rifle, but added the bolt-mounted peep sight from Steves Gunz. That solved the elevation problem, not to mention it's a far superior sight setup. And it gets rid of that gawdawful safety.
Those mild cowboy loads are fun for plinking, for sure, but you can achieve some serious performance levels with the "Ruger Only" data. I use H110 for hunting loads and got 300gr jacketed bullets moving at 1380fps. For the heavy loads, make sure you're using a bullet with a proper cannelure, and put a fairly heavy crimp on it (yes, that Lee crimp die is magic!). Hard on the brass at that level, though!
How much trouble was it to change your sights?
I think handloads.com has a bunch of interesting loads for 45 Colt. The Hodgdon website gave me a bunch of good data, as did the Lee manual. I use Titegroup and SR4756 for plinking loads, and H110 for hunting loads. I used cast lead projectiles for top-end loads without issue, but I haven't shot many of them to be honest. I use jacketed mostly at that end of the range. Anything relatively low pressure is going to be relatively dirty, though, right? Oh, and I use magnum pistol primers, which in theory will give a cleaner burn.
Not sure why the 45 Colt loads would be so much more accurate. Are you using the same diameter bullets? I recall some being .451 and some .452, that might make a difference. And I guess some guns just like some particular bullet/powder combinations more than others.
