Another Bullet Option For The .45?
 

As you guys know, I have a lot of confidence in Speer Gold Dots/Deep Curls.

Right now I'm hunting with the .452/250 grain Gold Dot in my .50 GM/LRH Renegade. When (if) I take a deer with that gun and load I plan to finish the season with the .45 GM/LRH Renegade and .40/180 grain Gold Dots. According to Speer that bullet (which shoots great out of the Renegade) has a BC of 0.143.

Looking through the Speer web site I ran across their .35 caliber bullets in the Rifle Bullets section. They show a .358/180 grain Hot-Cor Flat Nose Soft Point hunting bullet. It's not a Gold Dot/Deep Curl, but the Hot-Cor is a bonded bullet. The thing is, that .35 caliber bullet shows a BC of 0.245, significantly better than the .40 caliber pistol bullet.

Here's the bullet: http://www.speer-bullets.com/ballist...il.aspx?id=116

Unfortunately, Speer don't list the overall length of their bullets. I'm wondering if my 1:30 twist LRH barrel will stabilize that bullet. Have any of you guys ever tried a similar bullet in a .45 using 45/357 sabots? Or, does anyone have a .357/.358 180 grain bullet on hand that they can measure the length of for me?

that looks like a real nice bullet.the only .357 bullet i have is a 180g xtp which is.748"long.these came prepackaged by hornady with blue sabots and they measured .457 OD.they shot good for me in the 1/20" disc using 100g. BH209....
karl

The ideal twist for a .357 bullet at 1800fps that is .75 long is 1 in 25.

I believe a guy on modernmuzzleloading.com has played around with this idea some. He was able to get good accuracy with a .358 180 grain rifle bullet using the .357/.45 PR bullet orange sabot. But only out of his 1 in 20" White rifle. I believe he tried with his 1 in 30" Knight inline and the bullets were keyholing.

I've thought of this idea as well, but it seems few people have had success with a 1 in 28" or 1 in 30" twist, so I just haven't bothered. The other thing, I'm not sure how well a rifle bullet will expand at muzzy velocities. That .358 bullet is designed for .35 Remington/Whelen velocities, so it might not open up at 1700 or 1800 fps....

My concern is.. are we perhaps going "too light" or "too small" in some of these experiments. I mean the actual appeal to me of the muzzleloader when I first started was, it shot a pure lead projectile that was already .530 in diameter. Any expansion what so ever made that thing basically a large hole through major organs. The animal had to die from that wound.

Now it seems the new trend is .40 caliber, and even smaller. I just am not ready to go that small with a muzzleloader unless I can really push that thing to some center fire rifle speeds.

Good points by all. Thanks for the input guys. I don't think I'll bother playing with that one.

Ive only gotten 2 45x357s to shoot within my standards and both are light loads.

9mm 147gr XTP BTHP in a MMP blue with 60grs

357 140gr XPB in a PR Orange sabot and a 36cal wad IN the bottom of the sabot also with 60gr or a tad more....not under the sabot. I know it sounds odd but the PR Orange is made for their lead Boattail Dead Centers.

Ive tried 2 200gr bullets. The 200gr FTX and Sierra Pro Hunter. Neither had a bearing surface/ogive length that worked well in a 1-30 or 1-28. I never tried a 180gr but if you can find some cheap there is a slim chance. Wideners still has the 357 180gr Partitions on sale and they would be my choice if i was going to try it again.

You will have to use the PR sabot. The MMP is too short IMO for any long 357. The sabot doesn't fit a flat based bullet well either and the wad seems to help.

Im going to try a few again when my 1-20 arrives but im not getting my hopes up. Sabot failure is likely if they are shot fast enough to make good use of the higher BC. 100grs was pretty much max from the few ive seen that shot well.

My 1-20 smokeless NEF, will stabilize the .358/200g bullets well--while using the PR Sabots. I'm also looking for a small steel or zinc washer, to place into the sabot, to end sabot failure. So far, I have to use a .060 fiber wad on top of the powder charge--and then the PR sabot and .358 bullet.
But it really loves the Lehigh .40/200 the BEST in the Harvester smooth Blue 45/40 sabot :woot:

The 45cal Disc Elite--is as you have said already--with the .358 bullets= key holing or with reduced loads only=50-60grains powder.