anyone here had any luck with the hornady LE out of a ruger bisley .45LC?

hipoint · Oct 13, 2013

Title pretty much says it all... I started to get into handloading, bought all my stuff and started learning before I realized 2 things... It will take alot of trial and error to get all the variables worked out, and I don't have a good "dry" (as in not ridiculously humid) place to do it at. Sadly I just gave up and sold my setup, maybe one day when I can afford to have a climate controlled area to store things in, I can get back into it...

back to the question, though... I'm in search of my holy grail... a rifle/revolver chambered in the same caliber, that will shoot the same load accurately. Not looking for sub MOA stuff here, 3 inches out of the rifle would make me ecstatic at 100 yards and the same round doing something minute of deer out of a revolver... So, this is just another one of the things I'm wondering about. I can pick up a 7.5 inch ruger bisley .45lc from a friend, not sure I really need it since I have a really nice blackhawk .41 but it would be much easier for me to find a rifle in that chambering... I'm still toying with the idea of a T/C encore or H&R handi rifle with a .41 mag barrel, but the single shot is holding me back a bit.

Just curious if anyone has done some testing with the .45lc leverevolution out of a pistol, (surely there are plenty), and possibly some of you cowboy action shooters who use the same factory loading in your pistols and rifles... I understand the need for 2 loads, but that would negate the purpose of having matching calibers to me, and I'm just hoping to run across my "holy grail" one day. Some kind of factory ammo that I can use well out of a rifle and well out of a pistol... Any recommendations? I don't want to go .357, but I haven't completely ruled that out either.

Oh, and this will be used on pest control of deer on the farm, not exactly "hunting" but I do eat what I shoot here.

buck460XVR · Oct 13, 2013

While the leverevolution bullets perform just fine outta revolvers, they certainly aren't don't give any improved performance over other quality, less expensive bullets. FME, even in handgun caliber carbines, there is little or no advantage in performance to justify their added cost.

hipoint · Oct 13, 2013

that's what I always imagined. I did buy some once for a rossi circuit judge rifle that I had, but that rifle was the worst machine I've ever owned, and I've owned a ford tempo haha...

My other option (the sensible one) is to suck it up and use a rifle for rifle work and a pistol for pistol work, which is really ideal, but I haven't stopped looking for what I desire.

I've been through quite a few pistol caliber carbines, none of them have impressed me or even performed near acceptible for 100 yard hunting groups. In one of my previous similar threads, it was brought up that the BC of pistol bullets just aren't good enough, but on a good day I can use my blackhawk and outshoot any PCC i've owned at a hundred yards (if I could do that reliably, I'd give up my search). I'm sure it's not just operator error, I'm not a bad shot at all. I'm thinking it may be that I'm buying these on the used market and not shooting them first, so I keep buying someone else's lemon...

hipoint · Oct 13, 2013

just for kicks I started a facebook post about the magnum research .30/30 revolver. haha, looks like a cool machine, but I can't see it being any better than a .44, .41, or other big bore handgun.

buck460XVR · Oct 13, 2013

I have handgun caliber carbines that do indeed give me 3'' or better groups @ 100 yards. A alternative to levers are the Ruger 77/44 and 77/357s. If a bullet is good enough to give accuracy outta revolver @ 100 yards, it certainly has the potential for accuracy outta a carbine at that range. Bullet BC has little to do with accuracy to or under 100 yards.

hipoint · Oct 13, 2013

that's what keeps perplexing me... my best guess is that I have just bought other folk's lemons...

I've been leaning towards the 77/44, but I do like the increased capacity of a levergun. May have to give up my affinity for the .41 mag though... can't seem to find a carbine in that at all.

I'll be shooting them before I buy another one though.

Lawdawg45 · Oct 17, 2013

If you've read my posts over time, you might get the impression that I don't like Hornaday products........and you would be correct.

At one point my Henry rifle, 1911, J Frame, and Vaquero's were all loaded with their Leverevolution/XTP's and they were decent rounds, not much recoil (especially out of the pistol) and at very short ranges they were effective on Deer, but my first failure was on a Deer/car collision where my .45 acp failed to penetrate the Deer's skull at point blank range, then a friend with a chrono debunked all of Hornaday's published ballistics, and finally we discovered that the only round they sell that would meet the minimum FBI criteria for penetration was their Critical Duty round. The thing that bothers me so much about this company is their marketing strategy, they would have you believe that you'd need a federal permit to buy their duty rounds, when they pale in comparison to Speer, Winchester, or Corbon.

LD

98Redline · Oct 17, 2013

I would think that something in the 44Mag, 45 colt, 480Ruger range would work quite nicely for what you are looking to do.

There are several rifles that shoot 44mag, and I know of at least one that shoots 480 Ruger.

Any of those calibers are capable of very good accuracy out of a revolver or a rifle, out to about 100-120 yards, which is really the effective range of the above calibers anyway.

Rather than look for something that appears ballistically superior (i.e. Hornady LEVERevolution), look at shooting heavy for caliber bullets. In my experience, these have always given much better accuracy over a lighter bullet that is shaped more like a rifle round.

To take thinkgs to the next level, consider a trigger job on your revolver and possibly some firelapping. Those completed there is a definate possibility to have an accurate revolver and rifle platform in the same caliber that in theory could both be very accurate out to 100 or so yards.

For proof of that, here is a 100 yard group shot from my Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter (44 mag). This is after both of the operations I mentioned above.
Discarding the fouling shot (still oil in the bore), the 4 shot group measures 2.35"

anyone here had any luck with the hornady LE out of a ruger bisley .45LC?

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