.45 Colt bear loads

Maximizing the performance of your Rossi firearm.
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Moon Tree
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.45 Colt bear loads

Post by Moon Tree »

It's been awhile since I posted topic. I haven't forgotten my friends on here. I've pretty much kept up with the topics, but life kept me from doing much posting.

Well, Fall is here. All the food plots are as good as they get and it's time to get to the range in prep for upcoming hunting seasons.

I had worked up a load for the .45 Colt last March. I did velocity and penetrations tests through bags of wet pine chips (those used for animal bedding). I was satisfied with velocities slightly over 1500 fps and penetration through my medium of around 39 inches. The expansion of the 300 gr XTP magnum bullets were in the .710 range. I'm convinced that they should be "bear stoppers."

The only thing I hadn't done was to test them for accuracy. So, I made some time the last couple evenings to do just that. I bet I haven't shot 20 rounds through a rifle since March, so I knew I'd be a bit rusty. After a couple strings of 5 rounds, muscle memory and hand/eye coordination improved.

My setup is a green Tru-glo front sight backed with a Lyman's tang equipped with a Merit Optics Aperture Peep Sight. The Tru-glo allows me to see the front sight in dim light, hunting situations and the peep setup allows my old eyes to have the sight and target in focus. The disadvantage of the Tru-glo is has a pretty large bead. At 50 yards it will pretty much covesr the black 4 inch bullseye circle. At 100 yards, it just HUGE compared to the black circle.

At 50 yards, I felt I had it pretty dialed in. At 100 yards I was shooting left a couple inches. After the shooting session I ponder this. Examining my sights, it's obvious that the front sight needs a tap to the left. I'll solve that issue before the next range trip.

Here's the results. The 100 yard shot had a center spread of 5 1/2". That's not impressive shooting my any stretch of the imagination, but with the "kill zone" of a deer or bear being 10 inches or so, I feel pretty confident in taking that shoot. Hopefully, with tweaking the sights some and bit more practice, I'll get that group down to around 4 inches. The high flyer was my first shot at 50 yard. I covered the orange spot with the front bead. The next 4 shots, I split the orange dot with the bead. I did the exact same thing at 100 yards.
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Last edited by Moon Tree on 08 Oct 2017 15:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by rondog »

Hollowpoints for bears? Seems I read more recommendations against that than for it. But I don't hunt bears.
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by Ranch Dog »

It is really good to see you post, I know your writing has been missed. I've checked on you regularly and saw that you were still returning here (yes, it is kind of like stalking), but I figured you've been too busy to post. I've been in the same boat this year, wildlife projects on the ranch have been all-consuming for this single operator. When I'm not actively engaged in a land practice, I'm in the barn cleaning, prepping, or repairing the equipment. I haven't even planted any fall/winter food plots yet; Hurricane Harvey threw our weather off, it was 90° yesterday. I can't wait until I have a few hours to get to my range.
rondog wrote:Hollowpoints for bears? Seems I read more recommendations against that than for it. But I don't hunt bears.
Moon Tree wrote:I had worked up a load for the .45 Colt last March. I did velocity and penetrations tests through bags of wet pine chips (those used for animal bedding). I was satisfied with velocities slightly over 1500 fps and penetration through my medium of around 39 inches. The expansion of the 300 gr XTP magnum bullets were in the .710 range. I'm convinced that they should be "bear stoppers."
I found Moon Tree's expansion testing topic; I had remembered it being very interesting: Field Report ~ 92 45 Colt & XTP. Once MT has his shooting settled in at 100 yards, maybe he could find the time to repeat the expansion and penetration test at that distance. I think that would be very interesting. I wish I were nearby; we could use my Labradar to record the 100-yard velocity.
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by GRV01 »

I mustve missed it, what was the load?
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by Moon Tree »

Ranch dog that would be a very good idea. and one that I had been thinking of doingbut it will require a couple hours of setup as my hundred-yard range is actually on the back side of the farm. so I will need to take tables plus all the bags of pine chips down there with me. and of course a chronograph.

Rondog, the 300 xtp Magnums are actually designed for the 454 Casull. they expand much lower than the regular 300 XYP's they start expanding at about 1200 feet per second up to I believe 1800 feet per second is the recommended velocity. but I will have 300 grain hard cast bullets as the backup.

Grv,the load data is listed on the first picture of 50 yards I believe
Last edited by Moon Tree on 01 Jan 2018 01:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by GRV01 »

Ah gotcha H-100, not familiar, or is that a typo for H-110?
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by Moon Tree »

Grv, That was supposed to be h 110 thanks for catching that. I will remove the picture and correct it this afternoon when I get back home
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by GRV01 »

Moon Tree wrote:Grv, That was supposed to be h 110 thanks for catching that. I will remove the picture and correct it this afternoon when I get back home
Cool, just curious as im eager to try H110 after i get through tbis pound of 4227 (if i can ever get to opening it)

Ive an idea to load using the Hodgdon Pistol Trinity: HP38, HS6, H110

Great groups btw
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Re: .45 Colt bear loads

Post by zippy »

rondog wrote:Hollowpoints for bears? Seems I read more recommendations against that than for it. But I don't hunt bears.
I don't hunt, but like to read about it.
I read a good article from an Alaska hunting guide who preferred Swift A-frame hollow points in his .44 mag. revolver. He said they seem to have the effect of stinging a charging bear and distract his attention enough to get additional follow-up shots.

https://www.swiftbullets.com/pages/bull ... y-revolver
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