Q:

New mold for the Ranger 45

I just got a used Saeco 4 cavity .454 SWC mold off of Ebay. I belonged to a gentleman in Montana who found that .454 was too big for his 1950 S7W Target revolver.

I washed it thoroughly twice, even though it was not oiled too much, and cast some bullets of 20-1.

They cast out at 274 grains, I am assuming they are close to .454 as they did give a small amount of resistance going through my .4535 sizing die.

I shot them on low power and got 5 shots from a 3200 fill that went from 700 to 785 and back down to 700, this gave me a nice round group of around 2 inches at 35 yards and perhaps 2 inches high. I am using a red dot scope with a 3 MOA dot so that is about as precise as I can hold with this set up.

I tried high power and got 875 FPS/466 FPE and they grouped the same size groups if filled each shot, or tethered. Two shot groups are 875, 830 and some stringing.

Shooting tethered at 100 yards with the red dot gave me fist sized groups, MOA of deer, hog, elk and bear. I am sure with one of the Leupold 4.5×14’s the group would be much tighter.

Good thing is, at 35 yards I am almost right on, on low power and I am on at 100 yards on high power and the same poi as the 408 grain bullets at 100 yards.

Regards,

Roachcreek

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Thanks maw,
Let me know if u need some hp’s

I’ll vouch for R. Porters 300 plus grain slugs they shoot accurate as hell!!

Hey Rc,
I think its time to get a 457 barrel to get the true potential from that gun. I have a lot of bullets and they all shoot very accurate.

Yeah, that’s the reason for asking as I knew you had posted once that 300 grn bullets hadn’t shot too well in the past.

I just received my Accurate mould and have two new styles in this block. I not only have the 46-375B, also 46-380A and 45-360M. The 45-360M I had the bore riding section of the nose increased in diameter to 0.447″. All should drop at 0.454″ nominal so they can be sized to 0.4535″.

Can’t wait to try them. I bought a used craftsman compressor for 50 bucks which need a pressure switch to only find that I could by the damned thing new for 99. What a pisser. I’m going to supply that booster with a air compressor as it uses too much air from my regulated tank.

JD

JD,

I was a little worried when I weighed them and they came out at 274 grains. Reason was that I have never gotten a 300 grain bullet to shoot well in the past, and at 274 grains it was a little close to 300 grains.

I had tried some 300 grain Oregon Trail bullets when I first got the Ranger and they did not shoot well at all.

The mold is a little hard to cast with, the fill is 1100 grains of lead, so I find it best to pour three cavities and then refill the ladle and our the 4th cavity.

RC

Roachcreek,

Those are good groups I would think using a dot sight. Your groups at 100 yds are inside the 3 MOA dot. Do you think these bullets are shooting as well as the 300 grn bullets you’ve tried in the past?

JD

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