45LC in a rifle?

[Mr. 16 gauge]

How effective would the .45 LC be in a rifle? Would it be as adequate as a .44 mag lever action rifle at similar distances (less than 100 yards)? Just curious........

[Adam Helmer]

Mr. 16 gauge,

The .45 Colt round would be a neat woods rifle in my view. A 255 grain lead slug is something to be reckoned with and a better choice than the several .357 Magnum guns I see at my local club that are used for deer hunting. The trajectory would be a limiting factor and under 100 yards effective in my view. I want one in a lever gun.

Adam

[Catfish]

There is no animal out there that can tell the difference between being hit by a 44 mag. or a 45 Colt.

[dovehunter]

I was going to get a .45 Colt accessory barrel for my Handi-Rifle but NEF stopped offering them. I have read that those who have the .45 Colt in a rifle really like it. Like someone else said, with proper loads, it is essentially the equal of the .44 mag.

[GoodOlBoy]

Actually in somthing like the marlin that will take a Ruger level load the 45lc is MORE effective that the 44 mag. A 300 grain lead 45lc can easily reach 454 casull levels, BUT your gun MUST be able to handle that kinda preassure. That being said the 45colt 250grain LRN cowboy load is extremely effective on deer and hog.

GoodOlBoy

[PJgunner]

"Like someone else said, with proper loads, it is essentially the equal of the .44 mag."

Actually it would be even better. A 300 gr. bullet at 1500 FPS or a bit more would duplicate the old 45-60 black powder round.

"A 300 grain lead 45lc can easily reach 454 casull levels, BUT your gun MUST be able to handle that kinda preassure."

The only fly in the ointment is the Winchester M94's and marlin M94's had way too slow a twist rate to have a bullet that heavy. That's the primary reason I sold my Winchester M94 in .45 Colt was that too slow a twist. Groove diamter was .452" and I sized the Lyman #457191 292 gr. (nominally but 300 gr. in my alloy) to .454" and the twist being too slow caused the bullets to keyhole by 50 yards. Accuracy even at 25 yards was totally abysmal. (4" on a good day and there were few of those.) Too bad ads it would have been a perfect gun for some of my hikes. Light enough that it didn't bust my arches and potent enough for lions and bears.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd spend the bucks and have it rebarreled with a proper twist and thoat. I'd also go with a .45" groove diamter so I would not have to size the bullet down as much.
Paul b.
Paul B.

[skeet]

I got my father in law a Marlin 1894 in 44 mag. He shot quite a few deer with it..but finally gave up on it and went to my Rem 141 in 35 Rem. He considered the 44 a 50-60 yard gun. He never lost a deer with the 44 but he really wasn't happy with the performance..even with some of my rather hot handloads..I would consider the 45 Colt loaded hot to be a slightly better performer than the 44. He also liked my 444 Marlin and the 1895 45-70 I have. But really preferred the 141..kicked less and killed well. He was an excellent shot and hunter

[Bigwoods Hunter]

Hi Mr 16 ga.. My wife and I are outfitters in Manitoba ,Canada . When our clients are finished for the season we love go hunting big game with our 45 colts just for fun.
We both have macthing Winchesters , model 94's in 45 colt. Trust us we have many bigger guns in the gun safe but hunting with these guns are pure fun and satisfaction. Most hunters would be surprised how many big game animals we have taken with these rifles over the years . We have taken large bodied Canadian Whitetail deer and barrien ground caribou . Here is how we do it . We reload using the following load . Sierra 240 gr. JHC power jacket bullets pushed by H 110 - 22.3 grains powder, and a large pistol magnum primer . From years of personal in field experience ;takeing big game with this load, there is no reason for going to heavier bullets or larger powder loads or faster velocities . All our harvests are, one shot kills taken broadside or quartering away right behind the front shoulder and clean pass throughs . This fall I took a caribou with the aid of a range finder at 185 yards and my wife took a caribou at 125 yards. Both shots, one shot kills and complete pass-throughs. Pictures can be seen on the Sierra web site , double click on hunter success and scroll down or and other pictures of some of our 45 colt harvests at bigwoodshunting.com under pictures and your guides. Sight your gun in at zero at 25 yards and believe it or not this load will be zero or close to zero at 100 yards. At 150 yards you put the cross hairs on the back of a big game animal and at 200 yards you will have to find your hold over from the top of the back of your big game animal . It is really not that hard , you only have to remember space hold over for 200 yards .We are useing scopes for this long range shooting on caribou. This is how we practice, we use old frying pans with the handles stuck into the sand. Use the top of the frying pan is the animals back and practice at 100 , 150 and 200 yards. Useing this practice technique a couple of times out and you will realize the 45 colt is a muzzule loader with back up shots. Yes the 45 colt reloaded, is a great hunting round . The 45 colt derserves to be out in the deer woods. If we can use it out on the tundra to harvest caribou,take it deer hunting and don't look back . I hope this helps out all those thinking of hunting with a 45 colt in a rifle . Russ Popp bigwoodshunting.com .

[GoodOlBoy]

Some of the marlins like the 189x cowboy guns (dont remeber the proper designation right now)handle 300 grains loads very well. Dads Shoots very tight groups at 100+ easily. That being said yes the rate of twist in most of them ( i think it is year or generation dependant) maxes you out at about 270 grains. However I have had a 250 grain rnfp lead "cowboy" round completely penetrate and drop a deer at 30+ yards. One such round was a neck shot since I could not see his body for the brush. It entered the left side of his neck at the spine, severed the spinal column and exited the right side of the neck. It then proceeded to bury more than halfway through a 8 inch yellow pine... A 270 grain Keith round at the proper velocities makes that shot look as anemic as it is...

GoodOlBoy

[skeet]

Guy at the show here has a really nice 1894 44 mag..and a nice 94 357 Price was only reasonable..400 range or so..