Which jacketed bullets question

[5shot]

I'm planning to use my Henry .44 mag and .45 Colt levers for deer hunting this year. For the last couple decades I have been mostly a handgun hunter and know the effectiveness of big meplat cast bullets on deer and bear. I cast my own bullets but some of my favorites just aren't going to cycle through these levers. Years ago I had a 240 gr. XTP out of a 6" S&W 629 blow up on a whitetail bucks neck. It was during a snowstorm and at 20 yards the only target was a little bit of neck between the trees. He went down instantly but needed a finisher. All that was left of the bullet was fragments. Might have been that same year I filled a doe tag with a 9 1/2" Super Redhawk and 240 XTP. It was a classic broadside lung shot with an exit hole but the amount of damage looked like something you'd get with a .300 magnum. I wondered if it was shoulder hit whether that XTP might have blown up without penetration? I've read similar stories about 250 XTP's from .45 Colt rifles.

So...this could have been posted in the hunting section but it's also a handloading question.
For those that handload their hunting ammo in these two calibers for use in rifles I'm wondering what jacketed bullets have worked for you that also reliably function in leverguns. SAAMI spec OAL is 1.600" for .45 Colt and 1.610" for .44 magnum and these two rifles cycle good at those lengths.
Anyone have any input? Thanks

[JEBar]

for decades we've loaded 23.8 grains of W296 or H110 pushing Nosler 240 grain JHP or JSP bullets for our hunting ammo used in our Ruger Red Hawk and now our Henry BBS .... along the way I've used them in other 44 Mag rifles as well .... the Noslers have performed well out to 150+/- yards on whitetail deer .... I've also used them on black bear and boar

[Rifletom]

Agree with Jim here. 44 or 45, I'd go with Nosler. If you consider cast, 250gr coated rnfp from Missouri Bullets has a brinell hardness of 18. This would be a solid choice also. Navigate their site, they have a lot of choices. Hope this helps.

[5shot]

Thank you gentlemen!! That's exactly the kind of firsthand info I was looking for. I've never used that bullet but as luck would have it upon searching the dark dusty shelves in the toy room there appeared a 250 count box of 240 gr. Noslers. I don't remember when I bought them but I'll give them a road test. I'm too old to try to reinvent the wheel and appreciate the responses!

[Vaquero]

Not sure what your favorite mold is, but
I've run several different profiles of cast bullets through my bbs41 and bbb44 with little to no issue.

RP

[Mr. Neutron]

I dunno if a larger manufacturer like Nosler, Sierra, & etc. would do this, but......

When I shot a lot of Oregon Trail lead bullets in my .45 ACP, Oregon Trail, if requested, they used to send you a sample pack of 5-6 bullets. You could then load up some "dummy rounds" with no primer (or a case with a spent primer), and be able to check for function; feed, fire, & fling, without the "fire" part of the equation.

I haven't dealt with any of the folks previously mentioned other than Oregon Trail Bullet Co. to know if they will send you a couple slugs to simply try out, but it's worth a shot.

[5shot]

Not sure what your favorite mold is, but
I've run several different profiles of cast bullets through my bbs41 and bbb44 with little to no issue.

RP

Vaquero

In .44 mag the RCBS 245 SWC, the RCBS 250K and the Lyman 255 gr. GC. will absolutely not feed in my .44 Xmodel. Actually they're a PITA to get out of the action. Those three all have OAL's of from 1.680" to 1.710". I'm relatively new to levers but as I understand this is not an unusual thing. On the other hand, if I was determined to use any of those three they will feed like butter in .44 Spl brass.

In the BBS .45 Colt I'm referring to the Lyman 452424 and RCBS SAA 270 and the RCBS 300 gr. GC. They are not going to function. This rifle hasn't been a real stellar performer accuracy-wise with any cast bullets but it does very well with jacketed. I have a buddy with a borescope and one of these days we're going to take a little tour in there and see if there's an issue.

[Vaquero]

5shot, I run a 270 gr wfn bullet in the 41 mag. it measures 1.71 and it cycles fine as does Underwood's 265 gr wrn that measures 1.69.
I did have a slight issue with a 300 gr swc in the 44, but when I switched to Lee's 310 gr rfn that was no longer a problem.
But those measure 1.61 I believe, maybe 1.62.
I now shoot the swc in the two Marlin 444s.

RP

[DsGrouse]

I've had very good luck with Cast performance 265grn GC and 300grn GC for my 45colt. They are by far my best. Hornaday's 300 is good, but not as good as some cast offerings from Cast Performance and matt's bullets.

This is a link to my thread on 45colt and 38/357 sub sonic loads
https://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=13208

[Bill.68]

I would vote a JSP with 23.5gr of LilGun. I have not found a single bullet more accurate in my 20" HenryBBCC than the 240gr JSP from Zero nor one that feeds any better. Ive shot over 1000 of these bullets, which are very economically priced and have a huge meplat, and they all have shot extremely well and reliably. I shoot them with A7, A9, H110 and the LilGun and all are just lasers.

The charge mentioned above is an absolute barn burner. You wont shoot many, but at almost 1900fps that huge meplat is going to hurt something. Their meplat is way bigger than Noslers jsp.

Ive tried hundreds of the ol standby XTP's in mine and theyre not as accurate, at least not in mine. Theyre ( the JSP and Zero brand in particular) a vastly underrated bullet if you ask me and would make a fine deer slug.

I stopped killing things that werent trying to kill me but if I had these bullets 15 years ago I would not have hesitated to use them.