45 Cal Light or Heavy Bullets?
 

I'm researching a hunting load for my new Disc Elite 45. It seem like there are a few camps:

1) Push a light bullet fast. Like a Speer Deep Curl 40/180. I've actually bought some 200 grn Harvester Scorpions which I believe will perform about the same.

2) Use a heavy conical over 300 gns. I've never used conicals only saboted bullets and don't know anything about them.

3) How about something in the middle? I see Precision Rifle has a Dead Center bullet for the 45 which weight in at 260. There a little spendy but I could live with it if they're the best load.

I hunt in West Kansas and scopes are legal and a longer shot is not out of the question.

The simplest thing would be to have confidence in Speer or Scorpion. Since neither has has a ballistic tip, I wonder about long range accuracy and hitting power. I can always dial down my effective range but would hate to let one walk if I can make an ethical shot.

Thoughts?

The thing which controls what will shoot well in your rifle is the twist, most 45 caliber guns are either 1 in 20 or 1 in 28. The 1 in 20 requires long heavy bullets for the best accuracy, the 1 in 28 is what is considered normal and will usually shot well with 180 gr to 220 gr and some people stretch that considerable in both directions.
My personal recommendations would be the 180 gr Deep Curl or Gold Dot and the 200 gr Shock Wave or SST the Lehigh also 200 gr is my most accurate. Personally I stay away from overly expensive unjacketed bullet.

Josmund

Your DISC probably has a 1-30 twist and I think Lee has suggested the best path to follow for most ML shooters.

But, there is nothing wrong with shooting the big heavy conicals if you are so inclined. They carry a large amount of energy with them even though they being shot with less energy, further they carry this energy out to the longer ranges better than the lighter bullets.

I prefer the bullets in the 200 grain area shot at the higher velocities. The 180 grain Gold Dot/Deep Curl is a real shooter from your 1/30 twist. For hunting I do use the 200 grain Lehigh but in a 1/30 twist the math says they can be marginally accirate unless you really drive them out hard. Because of this Dave built the 185 grain Lehigh, which will work great from the 1/28 - 1/30 twist.

If you are going to shoot consistenly ranges greater than 175 yards - then a pointy bullet or a heavy conical might be the way to go.

If you want to shoot long range, the 200 shockwave/SST is a good choice, and should shoot well out of your Disc. IMO it would be the best long range bullet choice for you. Much cheaper and will shoot as flat or flatter than anything from PR bullets.

For close range (100 yards or less) there are a lot of options out there including conicals or other "non-pointy" bullets. My favorites for the .45 are (in no particular order):
200 XTP
200 SST/Shockwave
185 Lehigh
195 Dead Center

I've not shot conicals except for Pwerbelts.

Thanks guys.

I was thinking 150 - 175 would be max range. It sound like I can shoot the 180-200 grain bullets at that range and still deliver a punch.

My favorites for a 1-30 or 1-28 45cal in no special order.

PR Ultimate 360gr QT conical...these are "pointy" but $$$$

PB Plat 300gr with no more than 100grs..man i hate suggesting them but they shoot great and it is a 45-300gr bullet...again $$$$

180gr-200gr XTPs or 180gr GoldDots for general use

200gr SST for the longer shots and not too expensive

TRUE premium priced options
Barnes 195gr MZ or Lehigh 185gr...both are pretty easy to get moving accurately and bullet failure is slim

Lehigh 200gr if you can get them to group in your gun. IMO it should be the top performer at all ranges most people can shoot.

And a great fun bullet is the Barnes 40-155gr TAC-XP when they are on sale. They are little rockets and deadly accurate in mine. The base will still weigh 140grs even with all the petals blown off. :D

I hunted the Kansas muzzleloader season in Southeast Kansas (Cherokee County). I was working up a load with 300 gr PB Platinum and Precision Rifle 260 gr Dead Centers. I ran out of PB's and finished working up a load for the PR 260 gr Dead Centers out to 150 yards. I took a doe at 20 yards, ran 55 yards. Took a 4 pt. at 10 yards (DRT).

Forgot to mention, the load I used was 100g BH209 with CCI209M primers and the PR 260gr Dead Centers, in a CVA Apex .45 cal. with a Nikon Omega 3X9X40 BDC scope.

Muzzlenut,

That happened to my son this year. We spent all fall tweaking the Omega for long range hunting and he shot his Muley at 40 yds.

GM54,

Thank for the suggestions. Looks like I'll have to play around a bit. I only have 11+ months to figure it out.

Ive shot a version of the PR called a QT in 45x40-250gr, sold under the Cabelas Extended Range label....same bullets/sabots. Basically a blue tipped Dead Center.

I found it to be a pretty good shooter with 100gr of Bh209 but that seemed to be the only load that grouped well. It was good for about 1950fps MV and repeatable 1 3/4-2" 100 yard groups.