Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General Point of impact difference between light and heavy loads?

Guys got the Rossi 20" in .45lc sitting at in waiting period jail at the gunshop and its time to order components.

I try to be a one load per gun guy but I keep reading more and more about using the .45lc with two loads, a cowboy plinker and a heavy load. For my woods load I know it will be something close to a 300gr cast at 1200fps. Most of the plink loads seem centered around 200-250gr cast at under 1000fps. How much of a difference will it make in point of impact at 50-75 yards?

Also should I get the bullets from the same manufacture? I recall something about using the same lube on all the bullets unless you clean between them but never knew if this was internet legend or not.

Most of my levers, 4 of them in different cartridges, do not vary windage wise using differnt loads.Even my .357 Rossi with 158 gr XTP vs 158 gr cast lead. Mostly all you a have to do is to remember where to put the silde under the rear sight for heavy.vs light loads. Mine is one notch.

All you can do is shoot both loads and find out. I have a Browning 92 in a .44 Mag that I shoot both hot and mild loads out of. Surprisingly, my hot loads hit about 3 inches lower at 50 yards than the light loads. The difference may be explained away as the difference between cast vs. jacketed bullet, or it perhaps the difference in recoil plays a part. All I know is that it is what it is.

As far as lube, it's not a bad idea to clean your gun when switching loads, but personally, I don't worry too much about it.

The only rifle I've ever tried to run different loads in is my .45-70, and it ain't even close. That particular rifle needs to be zeroed for each load.

Dispersion is vertical with changes in bullet weights, and horizontal to a smaller degree if bullet weight is the same, but another brand is substituted.

Two 300 grain loadings I have tried were usable, being only about 2" apart at 100 yards. I've yet to shoot a deer beyond 50 yards with it, so the 1" error could be tolerated, but I don't like to. Maybe in a pinch, but not if I can avoid it.

If it was just me I would probably pick a 300gr LBT cast style and run one load at one speed. My kids have been begging for a "cowboy" gun for a while and with limited funds grabbing another one is out of the question so some 200gr cast pushed pretty slow will be the answer for that. Thanks again for the info.

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I shoot 8 gr. of Unique under a LaserCast bullet for a light load. It's accurate and fun to shoot. The point of impact is not the same as the heavy load but a slight sight adjustment is all that is required.

I have noticed on a couple of rifles that the longer 300 grain pills can be a touch long, and I have seen a few rifles have feeding problems with the 44 and 45's. I had an 1894 Marlin that had that problem.

I really like the 255 grain bullets in my 45 Colt rifles. I load them with 2400 powder, and with a good heavy crimp.

Try the 255's. They are a great all around bullet for hunting and practice shooting.

POI can be tricky in shorter rifles with some recoil. Especially since recoil is involved. Sometimes the heavier slower bullet will actually shoot high because of recoil.

So there really is only one way to know about the POI. And that is to actually shoot the different loads. There really is no rule of thumb. Especially in rifles.

As far as a lube is concerned. I normally try to keep things as consistent as possible. But lube is not nearly as critical as shooting jacketed and cast bullets. That is where I had most of my problems. Tom.

The load traveling supersonic will hit a bit lower than the subsonic load; possibly 3" or so. It has to do with bullet bow shockwave forces.

Loading to 1200 will not be as accurate since the bullet will decelerate into transonic speeds which causes "severe instability."

Do yourself a favor and load both to just under supersonic. That will give you more uniform POIs along with better accuracy. I load my 357 using 158gr bullets to 1040fps even though I could go much faster.