Reloading 45 Colt in a Henry X

G

GeauxTide

New member
I've recently purchased a Henry X and have begun the loading process. I'm using new WW Brass, full length sized in Lee dies (40 years old). Things were progressing smoothly until the seating operation. There was some variation in neck tension on Speer Gold Dot 454 Casull bullets, measuring .451. The inside diameter of the sized cases were a consistent .445, which should provide enough bullet pull to have low extreme spread.

I'm having a devil of a time getting the seat/crimp die set properly because I've only loaded the RCBS SAA from the 45 Colt. I've never loaded revolver cartridges in a rifle, so here's the question - It is necessary to crimp and still get good results?
 
You load .45 Colt for a rifle exactly the way you load it for a revolver. You crimp, not for velocity spread but to keep the bullet in place feeding through the tubular magazine. Same as you crimp for a revolver, but for the opposite reason. A revolver's recoil tries to send the bullet out of the case, the tube magazine system tries to push it in deeper.

The right crimp keeps the bullet where it belongs in both kinds of gun.

I use RCBS dies (don't care for LEE dies) with no problems. Any chance your LEE dies are set up to load .454" bullets??

And, to be clear, are you loading .45 Colt or .454 Casull?? same process applies to both, I'm just curious...
 
Thanks, 44AMP. They're 40 years old, so I'd suspect .454. After sizing, the inside diameter is .445. The bullets are designated for Casull and picked them up for hogs. I'll push them Tier2 and chose the heavy jacketed bullet, so I wouldn't shoot them in my revolver.
 
Bullets designated for the .454Casull would most likely be made to give proper controlled expansion at Casull speeds. Therefore, it should do well at .45 Colt CARBINE speeds.

Although I think a call to Speer to double check wouldn't hurt anything. They may not be making those bullets today (no idea) but pretty sure they would know a thing or two about them.
 
Your expander sounds too large. You should be loading .451 or .452 bullets. If the neck expander is .454 after the flair, it's too big. .454 is an old 45 Colt standard and sometimes seen in the cast bullet world but not common with jacketed bullets. Your set may be set up for larger lead cast bullet reloading and that's why you have poor neck tension when loading 454 Casull with jacketed bullets.
 
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