Hello all,
New guy here. I recently purchased an Uberti 1873 Winchester Sporting Rifle (24.25" barrel) in .45LC. I have been reloading bottleneck rifle cartridges for about ten years, but am new to reloading straight wall cartridges and new to reloading with lead bullets. This is also my first rifle chambered in .45LC. I initially experimented with 250 grain Hornady XTP bullets, .452 diameter, and got some decent groups out of the rifle using Titegroup (5.9-6 grains) and Unique (8.5 and 9.0 grains) powders. I then decided to try loading some lead bullets over Unique, and experimented with different charges ranging from 8 grains to 8.8 grains. The bullets used were Meister 250 grain RNFP I purchased from Midway. They were also .452 diameter, but the grouping (if it can even be called that) was absolutely terrible (like pie plate size at 50 yards terrible). I did clean all of the copper out of the bore before switching from jacketed to lead bullets, but am puzzled why the jacketed bullets performed well while lead bullets of the same diameter did not. So my question is whether anyone on here has experienced the same issue? My initial thought is to maybe try some .454 diameter lead bullets, but I thought I would turn to some folks more experienced with these guns for some advice.
Thanks in advance.
Jay