Author Topic: hot 45 in a 454  (Read 442 times)

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Offline Gallahad

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hot 45 in a 454
« on: February 09, 2005, 05:24:50 AM »
I dont know if this has been covered here, but my question is... Whats "healthier" to shoot out of a 454? I would think 45lc (talking about lead bullets) as they would fill the barrel better, but I suppose id have to slug my barrel to find that out. They would fit tighter in the cylinder, and I thought that was better for accuracy. Is it? How hot can you load 45lc in a 454? What id like to do is load a little hotter than 45lc ruger loads, but lighter than full blown 454 loads. Is this logical, or a bad idea? Thanks for any responses, and God Bless! :D

Offline Rmouleart

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hot 45 in a 454
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2005, 06:00:40 AM »
If you hot load the 45lc's too hot the case will split, thats why Dick Casull developed the 454 Casull, the walls are thicker in the 454 Casull case, plus more room for powder due to the case is longer as well, One thing I have noticed using these 454 Casulls, well talking my SRH, the 454 casull loads like to be closer to max loads, its hard to tame a 454 Casull, with out loosing accuracy of sort. You can load a 45lc hotter than a 44mag, I would think this should be good for what you are asking, now some 454 Casulls, one to mention is the American Arms, has such tight tolerances, that some need to buy a custom die's to resize there 45lc brass to be able to fit into the cylinder of the 454 Casull, I know a few shooters had lee make them up a set. I have found no problems with the SRH 454 Casull in that manner. I use the 454 Casull RCBS carbon dies for the 45lc without problems at all. I worked up some 45lc loads fr hunting southern area's of NH, can't use the 454 Casull, not on the list as revolvers you can use, I used the same bullets I used for the 454 Casull using the same powder as well,just less powder;) got some good results, and much less recoil to boot;) I used Hornadys 300gr XTP & Speers 300gr GDHP using Win296, CCI mag primers, lee factory crimp, I got good accuracy using these components, about 300 fps less than the 454 Casulls load, I don't think the animals can tell LOL. good luck. Aim small hit small RAMbo.

Offline Gallahad

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hot 45 in a 454
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2005, 10:40:24 AM »
Thanks for the info, It sounds like longcolt would work fine for what i have in mind. also in a srh. :D

Offline bigdaddytacp

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Re: hot 45 in a 454
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2005, 01:55:49 PM »
Quote from: Gallahad
I dont know if this has been covered here, but my question is... Whats "healthier" to shoot out of a 454? I would think 45lc (talking about lead bullets) as they would fill the barrel better, but I suppose id have to slug my barrel to find that out. They would fit tighter in the cylinder, and I thought that was better for accuracy. Is it? How hot can you load 45lc in a 454? What id like to do is load a little hotter than 45lc ruger loads, but lighter than full blown 454 loads. Is this logical, or a bad idea? Thanks for any responses, and God Bless! :D
.........It will be like shooting 38specials in a 357 revolver.......I had two Fredom 454's....one with extra 45lc chamber to avoid "ringing" the 454 chamber at the 45lc length and making the 454 hot loads hard to eject from the 454 chamber.......IF you are going to shoot a lot of rounds ....then I would use lower load levels in 454 brass......modern 45LC brass is good and strong but the hot loads will burn the chambers at the mouth from powder and melted lead or jacket material.......It does take hot loads and lots of rounds....MOST of the time.....and lead bullets without gas checks or extra hard alloy will melt the base with hot loads and lead the cly in a ring at the mouth of the LC brass......hth...good luck and good shooting!!

Offline jd45

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hot .45 in a .454
« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2005, 10:26:25 AM »
Rmouleart wrote, "If you load .45 Colts too hot you'll split the case. In defense of the .45 Colt, I think if you can shoot that cartridge out of a tightly bored chamber, it'll be less likely to do that. John Linebaugh says in his article,"Dissolving the Myth;Discovering the Potential", that Ruger cylinders are bored .486 to .490, whereas the .45 Colt case is .476 at the web area. Shooting a read hot load in an overly large chamber will stretch the case beyond its elastic limit, causing the failure. Of course, I don't know how many people can afford a custom cylinder with proper dimensions, so as a practical matter, we have to use what we have & not load "real" hot, so our guns & components will live. Just my 2 cents, jd45.