I just purchased a rossi lever action rifle with a 20 inch barrel. I cant find any info on loads for the rifle to hunt deer at 50 to 75 tards. any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks arnold
Just load what you load for handguns. You'll pick up quite a few more fps in velocity and being that handgun in that caliber is a very good deer round the rifle will make it perform better. Also in some of the reloading manuals are hotter loads for the 45 Colt in the Rugers and TC's. You can use those to get a little more.
I have a 16" M94 Trapper in .45LC. My favorite load is 12 grains of Unique under a 250 Hornady XTP bullet. It is slightly under the maximum load in the Lyman #48 manual. This load gives 1510 fps in my 16" barrel, expect around 30-50 fps more in your longer barrel. It works very well on deer at 50 yards and was very accurate in my rifle.
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Posts: 677 | Location: Arizona USA | Registered: 22 January 2006
Specifically what rifle are you shooting? Some are stronger than others. A M-94, M-92 or Marlin will handle about any load you care to cook up. A M-73, M-66 or Henry should be limited to "factory" type loads as the action is not nearly as strong.
If you can find some of the articles written by Paco Kelly there is lots of info on his experience with that set up. I like to read his articles. He loads hot so be careful.
Something has changed..I know a very late model, carbon steel built Browning/Winchester 92, will not take more than a few hundred rounds of 454 pressures before it gets a beginning case of bolt set back. My 1990s 45 Colt Rossi model ‘92 with 24 inch octagon barrel also didn’t do well at the 60,000 lb. Level of pressure. One Winchester was so bad, the mortises on the bolt itself had to be peened back in place, and the steel bolt blocks had to be given Mig Weld lines up the front of them, and ground and refitted to regain action tightness. In our case, I was reloading 45 long Colt cases to 60,000+cup. When a modern Rossi...a Christmas present from my children and wife three years ago, is loaded to a top end of 50,000 cup....no damage has occurred after thousands of rounds.
Posts: 1615 | Location: Washington State | Registered: 27 May 2004
Right....Paco....okay. His claims have nothing to do with the use of Ruger-level .45LC loads, which do not exceed 30,000 cup. They all were chambered for the .44 Magnum, which has much higher pressures than the published Ruger-level .45LC loads do. He is perfectly safe if he sticks to published, pressure-tested data.
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Posts: 677 | Location: Arizona USA | Registered: 22 January 2006
Getting too technical here. The OP already said he's going to use Ruger/TC loads which will be very safe in his model of rifle.
I also have a Mod 94 Win Trapper and although a wonderful rifle and very accurate it has a very fat chamber. If I pump up the loads much they swell the case a lot.
One thing forgotten in comparing hot 45 Colt loads to 44 Mag loads is the 45 Colt has more bolt thrust then the 44 mag.
Don't know what you mean by "fat chamber". Original Winchester 92's would "jug " the chambers with 44 Mag loads. Not a lot of steel around the chamber. Yes I know a 94 uses the same size barrel shank, but the chamber is smaller on a 30/30.
