Henry Rifle Forums

Recently picked up a Big Boy case colored side gate 45 Colt. Got to the range for sight in with 8 different hand loads. Having never loaded 45 Colt before, I threw together 10 rd of each of the 8 recipes. I gotta say, all 8 were very good to excellent at 65 yd. I had both a 8” plate and a 4” plate set up to practice for some upcoming woods walks. Using just the irons, the 8” plate was always in danger…always managed to hit it. The 4” plate was hit better than 1/2 the time. That, with the front bead completely covering the 4” plate.
Since my eyes are no longer as good as I’d like, I’ve got an aperture/receiver sight on order along with a few different height front sights, including both brass and fiber optic. And, I thought I’d grab a Marbles bullseye rear sight too. Which ever works on the BB will stay. The other will go on another lever gun.
Some pictures of mine, and the full picture from the Henry site.

Beautiful gun!

Nice firearm! Happy shooting!!

beyond beautiful .... looking forward to your reports on selecting sights and the load that works best .... be sure to follow the link below to where you can add your Henry Rifles to our community's total

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... 39#p175539

Very rich looking with the combination of color case hardening and that gorgeous walnut.

Very nice rifle and the color case is exceptional. Care to share the load info for the ones you tested.

What the others have said, beautiful rifle.
Yes the 45 colt is a very fun round, especially in a rifle.

RP

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 07, 2021 11:14 am

Very nice rifle and the color case is exceptional. Care to share the load info for the ones you tested.

EDIT:
I restructured some of this to make it easier to view the load data that I used.


Thanks,
One of the best was Meister hard cast 250 gr with 5.7 gr of Trail Boss.
And another was an Acme 250 gr coated bullet over 5.6 gr of Red Dot. I also tried 6.0 Red Dot with the same bullet.
Good, but not as good as 5.6 gr.
Then, 5.9 Trail Boss and a 230 LRN (45 acp bullet, to be single loaded or just two in the magazine), and the same load with a 200 gr LSWC.
The last three were 7.2 gr unique, 180 gr RNFP
8.0 and 8.3 gr Unique, 250 gr Meister RNFP.
I was told not to expect too much from the 180 gr load, but it was actually pretty good.
All of the rest were also good. Just not as good as the first two.

Because the 5.6 Red Dot shot better than the 6.0 load, I am now trying 5.7 and 5.9 gr to see if there is any improvement. Also, a firmer crimp.
All were loaded to 1.600” and had a moderate crimp. All had signs of low pressure…sooty cases. I am now stepping up a few tenths of a grain where I can and applying a more pronounced crimp. My crimp die is a Lee collet crimp. I am hoping to get a factory crimp die, for a good roll crimp, but they are no where to be found right now. Once I settle on a good one or two loads, I can just use the seater/crimp.
While I was at it, I also loaded some more test loads. I will try 6.5 gr Red Dot, 6.8 gr Red Dot and 6.4 gr T. Boss with the Speer 200 LWC.
5.6 gr Tite Group with the Meister 250, and lastly, 5.6 gr Red Dot with the 230 gr LRN.

Very nice tool that you got there.

I agree, the CCH on that rifle IS beautiful. Glad it turned out to be a shooter as well. A winner all around.