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.45 Colt for long range shooting (200 yards)


Willie C Tachutem

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9 hours ago, Griff said:

Where?  Lack of specific info is the reason it took me 3 years to find the location EOT was shot.  Otherwise, I'd have been shooting cowboy action longer!  Or maybe you don't want others to join you!:P

Where = Central Oregon,

 

I see you are from Texas, and you are more then welcome to shoot with us.  It might take a few days of driving just to get to the Texas border, but hey the rest of trip is just a few more state away.

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1 hour ago, Clyde Henry #7046 said:

Where = Central Oregon,

 

I see you are from Texas, and you are more then welcome to shoot with us.  It might take a few days of driving just to get to the Texas border, but hey the rest of trip is just a few more state away.

Although not often, I do find myself in OR from time to time... now I have at least one more excuse!

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22 hours ago, Clyde Henry #7046 said:

My long range club has a match call the Little Q.  Its for rimmed tradition pistol caliber rounds.  Rifles are limited to lever repeater and single shots.  For safetey, only one round can be loaded at time.  The match is not timed, rather its the number of hits that counts,  We shoot this match once a month April thru Oct. 

 

We use steel gongs for targets, and they are set at 300, 400, 500 and 600 yards.  You get 8 shots per target with no sighters.

I shoot a low wall Browning 1885 in 45 colt.  Sights are an MVA Soule and globe front and rear.  Never use a post front sight,  you want to see all the target thru the front sight.

 

I load my rounds with a 330 grain bullet with a Postell (elongated round) type nose.  My cases are made out cut down 454 Casull brass.  The 454 Casull uses small rifle primers.  I load enough Swiss black power to get about 50 thou compression and still maintain the correct over all length of the loaded round per my rifle's chamber.  I use a compression die to compress the powder, never use the bullet to compress the powder.

 

At long distances, you want a very consistent bullet speed, so the bullets do not vertical string (ie spread via high/low due to variants in speed).  I use black powder because it gives me the lowest standard deviation on speed.  In other words, the speed of the bullets is extremely consistent.  I've tried several types and kinds of smokeless powder and none of them can match the low SD of black powder,   The use of small rifle primers helps in keeping the low SD numbers with black powder.

 

So how does all this sights and load thing work for me?   I am happy to report that I have won that match several times.  The shooters using smokeless loads get progressively worse as the distance increases (lots of high/low hits).  They keep adjusting their sight to compensate for the high or low hits and end up just making things worse. 

Pretty much my way of thinkin. I just used a heavier bullet.

kR

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I think Clyde Henry has a good point. I have not tried the 45 at long range but did compete in black powder silhouette matches shooting out to 1000 yards.  My weapon of choice was an 1874 buffalo rifle. 

Once I got my bullet and load figured out, I was amazed at the consistency. Black powder seems to need to be slightly compressed to work best.  The 45-70 really has a rainbow trajectory but once you figure it out it’s pretty consistent. I can’t see why the 45 would be any different. 
 

you guys are really a pain.  Now I am going to have to put a globe front and vernier sight on a 24 inch Rossi that was just sitting in the safe minding its own business. 

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If upgrading sights, might want to add a bubble level. It will pay you back.  

 

Have a few guns that will do it, but eyes no longer cooperate much past 200 yards even with the BPCR.  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/3/2023 at 7:55 PM, Willie C Tachutem said:

Can I get your thoughts on using a .45 Colt as a 200 yard target rifle? I have a Navy Arms 1873 with a 30" barrel I want to use as a 100 and 200 yard target rifle.  And, yes, I  know there are much better cartridges, however,  it's what I have.  I have a Skinner ladder sight on it and it's great at 100. My current loading is 9 grains of Unique behind a 250 gr SNS round nose flat point.  Haven't taken it out to 200, yet. What's your thoughts???

 Practice, Practice and more Practice. 200 yds. should not be a problem . We used to shoot clay birds set on a sand bank at that distance and some farther out and used   handguns. Once again practice .

 

Best wishes 

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I used to like.   to play around a little with 45Colt at 200 on my backyard range using my SASS main match 30” Uberti and SASS main match legal ammo. My target is steel 25”x36”. 
 

I wasn’t good enough to talk groupings but this was back when I could at least hear it ring.

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I always find it interesting the discussions on if a certain caliber will work for long range.

If you want to shoot 1MOA then pistol caliber rifles aren't the ticket.

I hvae shot my 66 44-40 out to 300 yards on a 36" target. Hit 10 out of 10 on a non-windy day.

We shoot 22 caliber silhouette out to 200 yards, the ram being about 9" wide and 7" tall.

I had a 73 in 30" 44-40 for long range. I only shoot black powder. I found the barrel fouled out real quick. Using a blow tube didn't work well.

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On 12/3/2023 at 7:58 PM, Colorado Coffinmaker said:

Tee Hee Hee Hee. Rainbow trajectory.

That is like the 45-70 at a thousand yards.  Sometimes you watch it go.

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13 hours ago, irish ike, SASS #43615 said:

I always find it interesting the discussions on if a certain caliber will work for long range.

If you want to shoot 1MOA then pistol caliber rifles aren't the ticket.

I hvae shot my 66 44-40 out to 300 yards on a 36" target. Hit 10 out of 10 on a non-windy day.

We shoot 22 caliber silhouette out to 200 yards, the ram being about 9" wide and 7" tall.

I had a 73 in 30" 44-40 for long range. I only shoot black powder. I found the barrel fouled out real quick. Using a blow tube didn't work well.

Dont recall anyone saying they wanted 1MOA but......

 

the 44-40 is loads of fun out to 300 yards, and proper loads can replicate early 66' hit placements at 250 yards.

Will be interesting to see if anyone logs and shares such data with the 45 Colt cartridge or even 44 Magnum/Special loads.

Folks talk about it all the time but don't seem to like to share the target photos.

 

The late John Kort, black powder 44-40 to 300 meters

 

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7 hours ago, Savvy Jack said:

Dont recall anyone saying they wanted 1MOA but......

 

the 44-40 is loads of fun out to 300 yards, and proper loads can replicate early 66' hit placements at 250 yards.

Will be interesting to see if anyone logs and shares such data with the 45 Colt cartridge or even 44 Magnum/Special loads.

Folks talk about it all the time but don't seem to like to share the target photos.

 

The late John Kort, black powder 44-40 to 300 meters

 

 The old days I shot  a  7 TCU  contender  a lot of fun and did very well .So as I said earlier easy if you put the time in.

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Savvy Jack- I shot NRA silhouette in the 1980's with a Ruger SBH at 100 yards. I used Win. brass and primers, 27.3 gr of Win 296 and Hornady 200grJHP( not SASS legal). If I did my part it would shoot 4 inch groups at 100 yd, it was very loud and abusive to shoot, but oh so fun. I no longer have the paper targets to back this up, but I still have some of the ammo and still have the SBH.

 

Imis

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19 hours ago, Imis Twohofon,SASS # 46646 said:

Savvy Jack- I shot NRA silhouette in the 1980's with a Ruger SBH at 100 yards. I used Win. brass and primers, 27.3 gr of Win 296 and Hornady 200grJHP( not SASS legal). If I did my part it would shoot 4 inch groups at 100 yd, it was very loud and abusive to shoot, but oh so fun. I no longer have the paper targets to back this up, but I still have some of the ammo and still have the SBH.

 

Imis

 

Now we need some rifle reports

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Well, here is my first attempt at 100 yards. It didn't drop as much as I thought. Had to actually walk it down, as you can aee by the black dots. I was aiming for the 8" caldwell. 4 inch spread at 100 to start. Not great, but a work in progress. Il tweek it and take it to 200 next....I'll 20231221_143147.thumb.jpg.0465c9d1682baba75ad55edc7e5a72b5.jpgmake it!!!

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GREAT REPORT!

 

4" at 100 yards is good. the 44-40 doesn't get much better than that.....consistency speaks volumes!

 

Winchester Repeating Arms, December 20th, 1873 mailed news letter.

 

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Winchester's first announcement in their very own catalog was not offered until 1875. Of course the catalog was dominated by the introduction of the 73' rifle. There are no less than 62 testimonials and one 110 yard group by Doc Pardee, which should give a hint as to how many were received by their new owners by the end of 1874. Aside from Winchester's 1875 catalog, Winchester also placed adds in the 1875, August 21st, Forest & Stream publications. These adds actually took the place Remington's add, pushing Remington down to a smaller add. Included in one add are more long distance shooting targets to include Doc's 110 yard group. The 73' had already proven itself and in just a tad over a year, Winchester dropped the Forest & Stream ads (Nov 1876).

 

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110 yards

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My results using smokeless rifle powder Reloder 7

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