Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General .45LC for deer?

Just curious as to what folks' thoughts are in using a 1866 Uberti (or even an 1873, for that matter) lever action rifle (carbine) for deer hunting (whitetails).......assume the range to be 100 yards or less.
Thanks in advance for your input.

Those are low pressure guns and you wouldn't want to push heavy bullets too fast. At low velocity, it would be a short range deer gun, IMO.

I have a Marlin Cowboy .45 Colt that was slicked up by Rusty Marlin (Rob Zimmerman). I got tired of powder blow back with low pressure .45 Colt CAS loads. With low pressure loads, the .45 Colt case is too tough to expand and form a seal with the chamber. That may or may not be such a problem with the '73, as the round is fed straight into the chamber. With the Marlin and Winchester, the round is fed at an angle and the chamber has to have enough clearance to accommodate that.

So, I converted my CAS .45 Marlin Cowboy into a "'diller killer". I shoot cast and jacketed 300 gr. bullets at around 1,600 fps out of the 26" bbl. with max loads of H-4227. That's not far behind a 45-70, especially the Trapdoor types. And the cases DO expand with that load...! No blowback, it's all blasting down the tube...!

I've never killed a deer with it, but feel it would be deadly out to 125 yds., probably more if bullet drop could be accounted for. It's hard on 'dillers, that I know...

To summarize, the .45 Colt isn't a bad deer round, just too slow out of a '73 to be interesting, at least to me.

DF

I can't see any problems if you are shooting an accurate rifle and are using good hunting bullets.
I failed to mention the potential issues of those rifles not capable of accepting high pressure Colt loads. That could cause an issue.

45 Colt; 320 cast bullet; 1550 fps muzzle; M94 Winchester. Range greater than 150 yards. Bullet entered left shoulder- passed diagonally through and out the right hip. I would not be concerned about using a 255-270 grainer at 1000-1100 on deer with the 45 Colt.

It will fire factory 45 Colt just fine. If you haven't bought it yet, I think you would like the 1873 better and its strong enough for 44 magnum.

The toggle link design is great for speed, as in cowboy action shooting. It's not a strong design, per se. One could be rolled out in .44 mag but no one says how long it will last, fed steady doses of full house fodder.

The Marlin is much stronger and the 92 Winchester design, stronger yet. The John Moses Browning designed lever guns in that class are the strongest of all. You can buy an imported .454 '92 clone. I've not seen a Marlin .454.

I'll never own a toggle link .44 mag. Too many other more attractive options.

IMHO,

DF

Great bou them 45 long colts do a job don't they

Yeah, those big slugs do pack a wallop...

I sure like'em.

I had a .44 mag, three screw SBH line bored to .45 Colt and a Shilen barrel fitted. It'll go just about one hole at 25 yds. over a sand bag.

In my .45 Colt Marlin Cowboy and in the revolvers, I like a full house 4227 load. Great performance without worrying about pressure peaks like with some of the others.

If I had to work up a '73 .45 Colt load, I'd think about 4227. It's not that clean in a pistol, but is very forgiving regarding pressure spikes. And, to me it seems to have a less violent recoil. Hank Williams, Jr. is a big .45 Colt fan and reportedly has a wonderful SAA collection, including vintage 1st Gen. guns. He likes 4227.

The next question would be H or IMR? Since Hodgdon bought IMR, 4227 is now all IMR, the H went away. So, regardless where it's made, it's all IMR.

Back to the '73. I wouldn't go with mega heavy bullets, afraid I'd shake the screws out of one of those. Maybe I'm too conservative. 300+ gr. bullets are in a different class, IMHO, than 250's, etc. in the .45 Colt.

DF

And even 250s 'lolling' along at 1000 fps are nothing to sneeze at; definitely put a hurt on deer (and probably never seen again.)

You lose effective range when you drop the velocity too much.

DF

Well a quick look at a loading manual shows a mv of about 1100 fps for a 265 gr bullet is possible for the LC and a 100yd. velocity is still in excess of 900 fps. Given that a 45 auto pistol shoots a 230 gr bullet at about 750 fps at the muzzle you can think of it as asking would I expect to kill a deer with a hot loaded 1911 45 automatic at point blank range? IMHO yeah your 45LC should be good to 100 yds or so easily.

45ACP does not have the horsepower potential that the 45 Colt has. A 350 gr. Bullet cast of WW with 2% tin added and sized and lubed can be driven to 1200+ from a 7.5" Blackhawk. That power will break both shoulders of very large animals.

Agreed, the .45 Colt and .45 ACP are not in the same league...

DF

Maybe you should reread my comment. Basically I am saying that a 45LC is slightly hotter at 100yds as a 45 acp is at the muzzle.

OK.

Got it...

DF