If someone here has a Lee Loading Manual, and if it isn't a major pain, would you mind emailing me the load data for a 45 Colt using the Lee 300gr RF in both the standard and Ruger Only loads. Heck a decent digital pic would suffice.

I have placed an order but the book and some of the other items won't be in stock until next week, so it will be at least mid week before the order ships.

Thanks,

Mike as far as I know Lee does NOT list a single load for any bullet made with one of their molds. Lee just reprints data published by someone else. Find 300 gr data and work up for your gun.

Well there ya have it. Thanks for the heads up.

Guess I'll work on it from another direction then.

Thanks.

Update on the loads..

**The data listed below was found to be safe only in the firearm in which it was used.**

I got some info from another fellow on another site and worked up from the starting load of 12.5 grains to 14.5 grains of Hercules 2400. These all shot well, but the 14.5gr loads shot excellently into basically a one hole groups at 25yds. This said the hole was a bit over 1", but those big flat noses DO remove a bit of paper.

The revolver used is a Ruger Redhawk 7.5" barrel.
Brass was all new Starline
Primers were Win-WLP
Bullets were cast in a Lee 6 cavity C452-300-RF mold using straight WW alloy, GC'ed sized and lubed with 45/45/10, then seated and crimped into the bottom crimp groove.

These fit and function fine int he Ruger but may be a bit long for other revolvers or rifles. If used with the bullet seated deeper and crimped in the top groove, you should start low and work up to the load which shoots best.

I personally saw absolutely no issues with the loads I shot other than quite a bit of unburned powder left in both the cases and the barrel. I feel this can be addressed by a tighter crimp and will be working on that as I go along.

Mike--glad you found a load. I've always had that unburned problem with 2400 and for that reason, amongst others I prefer Unique. What town in Texas?

Hey Carpetman,

Yea I don't mind a bit of powder kernels here and there, but this was a bit over what I like. Out of 5 shots I had a pile a little over the size of a pencil eraser left in the cases and a line about 1/4 wide down the top of the barrel after each shot, and this was on the upper end loads, the lower ones were worse.

I can honestly say that there was little case tension, as I used new cases and simply loaded them as is. The other thing was the crimp which was simply set into the groove.

I loaded up another 25 of the top end loads which have been sized, and added a bit more crimp, and together I hope to find out here in a little while if they are any better. I have a roll crimp for my 454, but haven't checked it yet to see if I can reach it with the 45's, thats next on the list.

I was simply in a hurry on the last rounds and mainly wanted to see how they would shoot recoil wise, and accuracy wise.

As for location, I'm over in the H-town area. We have property outside of Palestine, and run the roads back and forth as time and funds allow.

Those 300's were originally for my 454 in which they preform very well at mid 1400fps. I took a nice 80'ish pound sow with it a couple of weekends ago with this same boolit, at 87 yards, and it roller her rear over ears. They were in a steady trot out across our back pasture, and I hit her just back of midway on her left side and the boolit exited just in front of her right shoulder, taking out the spine as it passed. I figured the back strap was toast, but was pleasantly surprised to find it was hardly damaged at all. I would have gotten at least one more had I been able to keep my sights on hair and not lead them as they ran away. I just cannot wrap my head around how flat these things shoot the bigger heavier bullets.

To be honest, I had no idea that this would be as much fun as it is. I had a very bad experience with cast years ago and after a week of using everything including some high tinsel silver soldering rods to get the lead out of the bore, I have been a bit put off by it. The 454 however is costly to feed if using even store bought cast so I had to do something. I started out with only one mold for my 41, then added three in 45, and am now up to close to a dozen in several other calibers. I haven't shot them all just yet but will soon if I can garner enough of a pile of ingots to do so. Had I known years ago, I could have had enough to last several lifetimes as I was in good with several tire joints.

Mike--I started casting in 1967. Mostly for plinking in my .357 revolver and some plinking in my 30-06. Didn't hunt with either. Then I added other cals and again mostly just plinking. There was a time I did a lot of jackrabbit shooting and for this I was using .22 centerfires with cast bullets. Worked great and shooting from inside a pickup reduced the noise greatly over jacketed bullets--a huge plus. Lots of nights we shot over 100 jacks. The guy I was shooting with had access to over 50 sections. Then I got a mold for my .243--the 95 grain RCBS mold. Had an accurate load and used a guys chronograph and it showed 2900 fps which was way over what I expected from book--2400-2500fps expected. Other loads I tested were as expected. The owner of the chronie said all his readings seemed correct. ???? didn't know what to believe. Tried it on a spike buck and see no way that I missed, but I didn't find a drop of blood and he ran off??? So I abandoned the idea of hunting with them and remained with my jacketed bullets. No big deal, using cast would not be an amazing feat that lots of people had not already done. I have tried 2400 in several cals and really never liked it--much prefer Unique. I get about 127 .22 bullets from a pound of lead, so a little will last me a long time. Seldom shoot my revolver anymore. I can still get wheelweights, but don't really need anymore.