Hello gents, just spent a good while reading through this thread and there is alot of useful info here, a tip of my hat to all of you for that.
So last December I acquired a used but not abused Uberti '76 Centennial in 45-60. Like Two Horses above accuracy is leaving alot to be desired. My load is shortened Starline 45-70 brass, 26gr of AA5744 and a 300gr coated cast bullet from Chey-Cast. Either this rifle throws wicked curve balls, or it really doesn't like the Chey-Cast bullet. I am not looking to push this hard, 1300-1400fps with the 300gr is all I'm after.
Yesterday I went to the range with my chronograph and fired off about 20rds of this load. At 50yds I couldn't hit paper. I moved the target in to 25yds and STILL didn't hit paper. A couple shots searching for paper using Kentucky windage and elevation I found it was shooting a bit low, but a mile wide to the left. I drifted both the front and rear sights about as far as possible and managed to get it shooting roughly to the center at 25yds. Moved out to 50yds and while elevation was pretty even, I had a 10" horizontal string. Yeah, you could call it "minute of deer" but that would be only qualified at short range, like 50yds and in. I'd like to do better. I had two other rifles I was shooting yesterday and my chrony was malfunctioning, I believe sunlight was interfering with the sensors as I was getting some crazy readings about half the time, registering very low. Recoil and POI did not jive at all with readings. Anyway,nthe readings I got that I trusted to be accurate told me that my rounds were running 1325-1400fps which is right where I'm looking to be. That's the good part.
Tha bad part is the shotgun patterns it's throwing. I'm reluctant to condemn the AA5744 powder as it shoots incredibly accurate in both my 45-70 and 45-90 regardless of charge levels. This brings me to suspect first and foremost that my rifle just doesn't like the bullet I'm using. I have a pretty good stash of Hornady 325gr FTX I may try, but for what I'm doing with this '76 I would kind of prefer to stick with cast. I am very new to cast, this is the first and only firearm I have loaded cast for. I do not cast my own, the state I live in banned the use of lead wheelweights some time ago, so the cheap source of material being rare where I live is kind of an obstacle to the prospect of casting my own.
All of that said, the bottom line is this: can anyone recommend a 300gr commercial cast bullet that shoots well from their Uberti?
Thanks in advance for any incoming advice. 🙂