45 Colt

[Yondering]

The loads I had were 9.0 of Unique @1.630 " under a Meisner 255 gr cast bullet. It was a load I found in a Lyman manual.....for a Thompson Contender. Cycled well enough in the new Win but shot low. Barrel slugged .450-.451 so these at .452 should be fine. Just looking for something using 296 or 2400. My main problem is limited access to a place to shoot a rifle.

The other loading manuals I have only list loading for jacketed bullets or cast at CAS levels. Not looking for the upper limits, just something that takes advantage of the strength of the rifles action. I did see that Midway has some Cast Performance 300 gr cast with GC in stock. Maybe ideas for a suitable load for these bullets also. Thanks.

Ed, I haven't worked up any rifle loads but have some good Ruger-level 45 Colt cast bullet loads if you're interested. May not be much different than what you have though?

With those 255gr cast SWC's, I settled on 10.0gr of Unique for a good general purpose mid-range load; good accuracy and moderate recoil. I generally used the 300+ weights for full power loads; my favorites were the Lee 300gr WFNGC and the Lyman 457122 HP (sized down from .457).

In my revolvers I concluded that 2400 wouldn't do anything I couldn't do better with either H110 or Unique (2400 was accurate but generally produced more blast for a given velocity). It may have some merit in a rifle though, and it does give good accuracy.

[10MMGary]

More often than not(but not always) leading issues are a result of a rough bore. I have hand loaded everything in almost every common caliber(and a few not so common)for both long gun and hand gun using lead projectiles, from both the "softest to the hardest" types of lead. Other than minor normal accumulation of lead which is easily dealt with, the only time I experienced any serious issues(aka over pressure or spikes in pressure)were due to a poorly made or maintained bore. I will add this, quality properly applied lube aka wax and even sometimes gas checks are a lead projectile hand loaders best friend. In my experience I have had far more issues from copper fouling than I have ever had from "leading". Additionally you must remember the that the Winchester 1892, is much like a mini model 1886 in regards to build and has the same vertical dual locking system which is an extremely strong action, but having said that IIRC the1892 was origianlly chambered in cartridges such as the 25-20 32-20 38-40 44-40 and a very few in 218 Bee <(which I have never even seen(a 218 Bee)let alone shot one)by todays standards none of these were even close to off the chart high pressure cartridges as originally loaded. As always others milage may vary, but FWIW I am far into the high hundreds of thousands of hand loaded lead projectiles sent down range. Good luck be safe and lets see some photos of that piece of functioning art.