Loading for Henry .45 Colt

[Na-vah-duh]

Just picked up a new Henry .45 colt and loaded xtreme's 255 with 23.5 gr of H110 velocity was 1541-1580 fps. Recoil was moderate. Does anyone have other data a little less mild? Using 2400 or maybe Unique etc? or a plinking round they'd recommend?

Thanks

[JagerDog]

My standard pressure"plinking" loads use Blue Dot (partly cuz I have a bunch of it). IIRC it was ~12.6gr with a Bear Creek 255 RNFP. Verify on Alliant's site.

Less mild? That's a full bore lever gun load you have right now IIRC.

Recoil is always going to be mild to moderate when using pistol cartridges in a rifle.

Edit:

Checked my data. 12.6 BD w/255 cat was getting 1200 fps.

21.5gr H110 w/300gr jacketed Speer was 1400 fps. 22gr gave 1440.

this is a Marlin w/ 16" barrel.

A host of powders will work well. The slower will tend to make the most advantge of the longer barrel. Not ure a lots to be gained slower than say Unique though. I have a Unique load I like in the 45 Auto Camp Carbine.

[Eljay]

Yeah, it's a big case so you would think you could really pack a big load in there, but it was originally a black powder cartridge and the spec is for pretty low pressure by modern standards.

Personally I load 45 Colt only for a conversion cylinder setup so I keep it to traditional black powder loads or roughly the same power but with trail boss. You're running twice as fast (so four times the energy) as it is.

[manny]

you can also use about 8-10 grains of universal clays for a great plinking round with any 250 grain lead bullet.

[MongooseV8]

Thats way too fast for a plated bullet. You should really be using jackets for H110.

9.0 grains of Unique is a great accurate light load. Still plenty of power to whack a steel plate over.

[Eljay]

That's a good point about the plating - he's in a grey area where he's exceeding their (conservative) recommendations for speed but a lot of people have luck. I push their flat nosed lever action .308 bullets to about 1600fps and others report problems at more like 1700. But if he goes faster it's more and more likely that he'll see problems.

[Dark Mod]

That's a good point about the plating - he's in a grey area where he's exceeding their (conservative) recommendations for speed but a lot of people have luck. I push their flat nosed lever action .308 bullets to about 1600fps and others report problems at more like 1700. But if he goes faster it's more and more likely that he'll see problems.

Yeah the .30-30 plated bullets have a heavier plate from what I understand, you can also buy some plated bullets with the HPCB (Heavy Plate, Concave Base) prefix and those are supposed to be good for over 1500 fps.

With regular plated bullets I get to about 1350 - 1400 fps and stop there. Even then I sometimes have separation problems with .357, either because its reached the upper limit of its velocity or because of the crimp, not really sure which.

Im surprised your getting that much velocity out of .45 colt, that's really impressive and I would be very happy with those results provided they are marginally accurate.

If you want to experiment and see what you can get out of the .45 colt cartridge, it may be time to buy jacketed or hardcast bullets. I just bought a Marlin .44 that ill pick up on Monday and plan on having a ladder test of hardcast projectiles ready to go.

[cruddymutt]

My 45 Colt load, which I shoot out of my Henry Big Boy FYI, is

9gr Unique
200gr LRN from Missouri Bullet Co
Starline Brass

I don't have a chrony but its a decent little reduced load.

[Na-vah-duh]

My 45 Colt load, which I shoot out of my Henry Big Boy FYI, is

9gr Unique
200gr LRN from Missouri Bullet Co
Starline Brass

I don't have a chrony but its a decent little reduced load.

Thanks I will give these a try.

[at_liberty]

Just picked up a new Henry .45 colt and loaded xtreme's 255 with 23.5 gr of H110 velocity was 1541-1580 fps. Recoil was moderate. Does anyone have other data a little less mild? Using 2400 or maybe Unique etc? or a plinking round they'd recommend?

Thanks

I would suggest reading the AMMO section of your owner's manual. My Henry 45 Colt will never see ammo that hot. None of my loading books show rated velocities close to your number by 100s of fps.

[Na-vah-duh]

I would suggest reading the AMMO section of your owner's manual. My Henry 45 Colt will never see ammo that hot. None of my loading books show rated velocities close to your number by 100s of fps.

You mustn't forget I'm shooting out of a 20" barrel, Velocities you are looking at are from shorter contender barrels. I specifically called henry and they stated the henry is capable of handling such loads and mentioned buffalo bore ammo which is just "hot" and I can feed said henry a steady diet with no problems.

[at_liberty]

You mustn't forget I'm shooting out of a 20" barrel, Velocities you are looking at are from shorter contender barrels. I specifically called henry and they stated the henry is capable of handling such loads and mentioned buffalo bore ammo which is just "hot" and I can feed said henry a steady diet with no problems.

I will have to remain skeptical, because both my Hornady and Speer books have rifle sections for 45 Colt, the Speer using a 16" Winchester Model 95 Trapper, and Hornady using a 20" Rossi 92 SRC. The velocities, as I said, are not close to yours by hundreds of FPS, even in lighter, jacketed bullets.

[JagerDog]

I will have to remain skeptical, because both my Hornady and Speer books have rifle sections for 45 Colt, the Speer using a 16" Winchester Model 95 Trapper, and Hornady using a 20" Rossi 92 SRC. The velocities, as I said, are not close to yours by hundreds of FPS, even in lighter, jacketed bullets.

If the rifle is rated for the "Ruger" loadings, those velocities are indeed reachable.

[Tom-ADC]

If I had one of those, cast bullets & Trail Boss powder, lots of fun, accurate out of my Ruger and saves wear and tear on a fine rifle.

[MongooseV8]

The 45 Colt can be safely loaded to crazy velocity even with heavy bullets. Just make sure you shoot the correct loads in the correct firearms.

45LC> 44Mag.