What size of bullet mold to get for the Uberti Henry rifle?

[Four Sixes]

Howdy ,

I have a question to ask regarding what diameter bullet mold I should get for my cowboy action pistol and rifle.

I shot my Ubreti 1858 Remington cap and ball on Sat using the .454 diameter ball...on bench rest, I could put holes right next to each other at 25 yrs and the grouping was excellent First time I could do that...I was using a wrong size ball (.451 and .452). I also have a .45LC conversion cylinder for it that I use to shoot the CAS event.

My question is, if I am going to cast my lead bullet for .45LC, should I use the .454 or .452 diameter? Since I also use the same .45LC in my Ubreti 1860 Henry, Ruger vaquero and Colt SAA pistols, will there be problem if I use .454 diameter bullet in all of them?

Any advice or suggestions. Thanks.

4-sixes

[Sgt.Jake]

  4 Sixes    For all but two of my 45 colt chambered guns I lubesize all bullets at .454 dia, no problems. I have a pair of R&D conversions and the cylinders will not chamber a .454 ,so they get bullets of .452 dia., good luck   Adios  Sgt. Jake

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

The original 19th Century standard for groove diameter for the 45 Colt was .454. However, when Colt reintroduced the Single Action Army in 1956 groove diameter was changed to .451 in order to match the groove diameter for 45ACP. The correct lead bullet diameter for any modern firearm chambered for 45 Colt is .452, or .001 over groove diameter.

HOWEVER....................revolvers can be a bit more troublesome. Many revolvers come with oversized chamber throats. If chamber throats are too big, for instance up around .455 or so in diameter, even though the correct bullet for the barrel would be .452, a bullet that diameter can allow hot gasses to squirt past the bullet, softening the lead which can cause leading in the bore. A bullet that is undersized for the chamber throats can also allow the bullet to tip slightly before entering the forcing cone, affecting accuracy. Many shooters report better accuracy in 45 Colt revolvers with the larger .454 diameter bullets. But if your chamber throats are not oversized, there is nothing to be gained from shooting an oversized bullet.

A simple way to determine the proper diameter bullets for your 45 Colt cartridge revolvers is to remove the cylinder, point it down at the grounds, and drop a bullet into the chambers. The proper sized bullet for your chambetr throats will just barely hang up in the cylinder. It will be possible to shove it through the chamber throat with light pressure. If it falls right through, the bullet is too small, try a larger one. If it takes a lot of effort to shove it through, the bullet is too large. Try this with .452 and .454 bullets in every chamber, the chambers will tell you which size is better. If you wind up needing the larger bullet, pressure will not increase too much as long as the loads are mild.

The correct diameter bullet for your rifle will be .452, however if your pistols need .454, you can probably get away with .454 in your rifle too. The only difficulty would be if your rifle chamber is too tight to allow a cartridge with a .454 bullet to seat. That is the story with R&D conversion cylinders, they are very tight and they may not allow cartridges using .454 bullets to fully chamber.

For what it's worth, I have a whole pile of 45 Colt revolvers, and I always use .452 bullets, even though they are a little bit loose in my Colts.

Don't be confused by the fact that you were using .454 balls in your percussion revolver, that is an entirely different matter, since the proper procedure with a C&B revolver is to use an oversized lead ball so that a small amount of lead gets shaved off when seating the ball, for a good seal in the chamber.

[Four Sixes]

Thank you very much Driftwood and Sgt Jake for the information. I will check out the chamber to see if they fit the .454 or .452 javascript:void(0);

4-sixes

[Deadguy]

I use .454" DD-ROA bullets in my Henry, and they work great.  In fact, you can use those bullets in your Henry AND your Remington if you like.

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

As has been mentioned by at least two of us, R&D conversion cylinders for the 1858 Remmie have very tight chambers and may not allow a round with a .454 bullet to chamber. Mine won't.