Deer hunting with Henry .45 Colt

[bdbrown66]

Good morning. New guy here; stumbled across the forum and decided to hang out for a bit.

Long-time shooter, but relatively late to the levergun arena. Henry got my attention when they came out with the .45-70 with color case hardened receiver, and I parted from my cash. Since then, I have also added a .45 Colt in CCH, and then a .45 Colt in plain blue. Don't know if I'll get anything else, but for now I'm set.

I've used the .45-70 to hunt a friend's farm up in Ohio. I've killed several does there, the last one being DRT at 180 yards. Last year, I decided to work up a load and use the .45 Colt CCH to hunt with here in Kentucky. The property I hunt on is hilly and wooded, and nearly all shots are 100 yards or less. The Colt did the job quite well; I took a doe at about 60 yards, and this buck at about 30. Both were one-shot kills; the doe ran about 50 yards, and the buck made it 30 or so. Being convinced that the Colt is great for this area, I bought the plain blued steel model, just because the CCH was too pretty to get banged up climbing in and out of tree stands, atv's, etc.

Anyway, here are some pics of the results. For those who haven't used the .45 Colt in this capacity, you should give it a try if your conditions are suitable. My load for this was using Accurate #9 powder and 250gr Hornady XTP, at about 1700 fps from the muzzle. A fairly strong load, but it's easy to shoot.

IMG_20191110_194037.jpg

The heart from the doe. Took the top right off; it's amazing that she went 50 yards, dead before she took the first step.

jrbCLnj.jpg

[gamekeeper]

Welcome to the fire, we love photos with leveractions in them. Good shooting with the .45. . . . .

[.45colt]

Welcome, You are in the right place. nearly 20 years ago I was doing the same thing with the Colt. I pushed it pretty hard in a rifle for a few years and one day after shooting a bunch of 320 grain lead bullets pretty fast a light went on in My head . it was plain to Me I needed a 45-70. If You haven't seen this it's from the articles listing on the leverguns home page. http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/ ... vergun.htm

[Pisgah]

My .45 is a Rossi Model 92, 24" octagon barrel. The terrain I hunt is very similar to yours, and I could make a pretty good argument that this rifle and cartridge are ideal for deer in this environment.

[bdbrown66]

Welcome to the fire, we love photos with leveractions in them. Good shooting with the .45. . . . .

Thanks!

Mods: We need a "like" button on this forum.

[bdbrown66]

Welcome, You are in the right place. nearly 20 years ago I was doing the same thing with the Colt. I pushed it pretty hard in a rifle for a few years and one day after shooting a bunch of 320 grain lead bullets pretty fast a light went on in My head . it was plain to Me I needed a 45-70. If You haven't seen this it's from the articles listing on the leverguns home page. http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/ ... vergun.htm

Oh, I read that article and others, like the one from John Linebaugh, when I was deciding to purchase a .45 Colt, and then when I was working on reloads for it. Obviously, not interested in blowing up a firearm and/or my body parts, but the Colt cartridge in strong modern platforms can be easily taken well beyond the anemic loads of the past.

BTW, I was born and raised in Ohio, lived there until I moved to KY back in 2003. Whereabouts are you?

[bdbrown66]

My .45 is a Rossi Model 92, 24" octagon barrel. The terrain I hunt is very similar to yours, and I could make a pretty good argument that this rifle and cartridge are ideal for deer in this environment.

Yes, sir. It would do just fine in that setting.

[.45colt]

Brian, we are up in Ashtabula county one mile from Lake Erie.

[piller]

I need to get a .45 Colt rifle. It would go well with my Ruger Blackhawk in the same caliber. The .45 Colt is a great caliber for many things. It is not a .45-70, but it does not need to be. That shot on the doe is proof that it is a fine cartridge. I have seen animals run 30 yards when they are only moving on adrenalin. I have also seen a deer fall over dead once when the shot didn't hit anything vital. I think it was just surprise and shock.

Nice pictures.

[OldWin]

Welcome to the fire!
If you hang around here long enough, you will be able to justify a levergun in .32ACP.

[jeepnik]

Welcome to the fire. Not really surprise the doe went that far. Animals including humans have done amazing things even after they've received a mortal wound. Some folks and animals just don't give up.

[TomF]

My favorite levergun is the Marlin 45 Colt. I have taken a bobcat, turkey, wtd, and over a half-dozen axis deer with it. All but the bobcat succumbed to a LEE 452255 and Unique. Accurate.

[Griff]

and Welcome to THE Forum!

I have 6 rifles chambered in .45 Colt, along with 2 Colt SAAs and 2 replicas. To say I'm enamored with the cartridge is an understatement! The rifle include a Rossi 1892 w/20" octagon, 2 Uberti 1873, one 24-¼" octagon, one w/a 18" ½-octagon, a Marlin 1894 with cut down Octagon 17" bbl, a Uberti 1860, and a Miroku 1885 w/a 20" ¼ round/octagon bbl. While I use them mostly for cowboy action shooting, and use light for caliber lead bullets along with light charges, I have used the 24-¼" Uberti to hunt javelina here in TX. 80 yards and DRT. That was using that a Hornady bullet made for 45 Colt velocities, pushed around 1300 fps from the rifle. That slow moving heavy 240 HP knocked the little boar over, he got partially to his fore legs, and fell, not to move again.

The 1885 I shot in a competition, on steel targets at around 35 yards... 5 shots, they counted me for 4 misses! Yet, the steel clanged all 5 times! All in the same exact place... That was a 225 cast of WWs, over a load of 30 grains of Goex, with a waxed card wad. The boolit was from a RCBS 45-225-CAV mold and lubed with SPG. I've used the same load out of my Ubertis (all 3) and find that they just as accurate. While everyone else shoots in CAS for speed, I still shoot for precision, attempting hits on hat brims, feet, or, any other part of the target that presents a challenge to accuracy! Yes, I love my 45 Colts!

[3leggedturtle]

Wekcone to the best Enabler's Forumn on the web. I think the .45 Colt in a rifle is more useful and versatile than a 45/70.! Tho it takes 2nd place to the 30/30 What are your companion handguns to your rifles? Todd/3leg

[hondo1892]

Welcome to the crowd. I live and hunt in Casey county and a hundred yard shot is long distance shooting for me. I usually use a lever rifle for my hunting or a muzzleloader because of short distance. I find that lever rifle are just plain fun to shoot compared to bolts or semiauto rifles. Used to own a .45 colt rifle but sold them off and have a .44 magnum now in a Winchester 1892.

[AJMD429]

44 Mag has been my go-to whitetail gun for twenty years now, and it is about the same ballistics.

Thanks for sharing, and welcome to the fire....!

[bdbrown66]

Brian, we are up in Ashtabula county one mile from Lake Erie.

I haven't been there, but I know exactly where it is. Urban Meyer territory.

[bdbrown66]

I need to get a .45 Colt rifle. It would go well with my Ruger Blackhawk in the same caliber. The .45 Colt is a great caliber for many things. It is not a .45-70, but it does not need to be. That shot on the doe is proof that it is a fine cartridge. I have seen animals run 30 yards when they are only moving on adrenalin. I have also seen a deer fall over dead once when the shot didn't hit anything vital. I think it was just surprise and shock.

Nice pictures.

Thank you! I plan to use it again this fall. Handy gun in these woods.

[bdbrown66]

and Welcome to THE Forum!

I have 6 rifles chambered in .45 Colt, along with 2 Colt SAAs and 2 replicas. To say I'm enamored with the cartridge is an understatement! The rifle include a Rossi 1892 w/20" octagon, 2 Uberti 1873, one 24-¼" octagon, one w/a 18" ½-octagon, a Marlin 1894 with cut down Octagon 17" bbl, a Uberti 1860, and a Miroku 1885 w/a 20" ¼ round/octagon bbl. While I use them mostly for cowboy action shooting, and use light for caliber lead bullets along with light charges, I have used the 24-¼" Uberti to hunt javelina here in TX. 80 yards and DRT. That was using that a Hornady bullet made for 45 Colt velocities, pushed around 1300 fps from the rifle. That slow moving heavy 240 HP knocked the little boar over, he got partially to his fore legs, and fell, not to move again.

The 1885 I shot in a competition, on steel targets at around 35 yards... 5 shots, they counted me for 4 misses! Yet, the steel clanged all 5 times! All in the same exact place... That was a 225 cast of WWs, over a load of 30 grains of Goex, with a waxed card wad. The boolit was from a RCBS 45-225-CAV mold and lubed with SPG. I've used the same load out of my Ubertis (all 3) and find that they just as accurate. While everyone else shoots in CAS for speed, I still shoot for precision, attempting hits on hat brims, feet, or, any other part of the target that presents a challenge to accuracy! Yes, I love my 45 Colts!

Sounds like fun. I have shot competitively in the past, but never any kind of CAS shooting. These days, my eyes are bad enough that every one of my rifles wears a scope. Open sights are almost worthless for me.

[bdbrown66]

Wekcone to the best Enabler's Forumn on the web. I think the .45 Colt in a rifle is more useful and versatile than a 45/70.! Tho it takes 2nd place to the 30/30 What are your companion handguns to your rifles? Todd/3leg

I don't have any companion handguns for these. I used to have a Ruger Blackhawk in .357, but I sold it to buy something else (might have been the .45 Colt rifle).

[bdbrown66]

Welcome to the crowd. I live and hunt in Casey county and a hundred yard shot is long distance shooting for me. I usually use a lever rifle for my hunting or a muzzleloader because of short distance. I find that lever rifle are just plain fun to shoot compared to bolts or semiauto rifles. Used to own a .45 colt rifle but sold them off and have a .44 magnum now in a Winchester 1892.

One of my hunting partners has a Henry in .44 mag. He's killed 4 deer with it on our hunting property. One of the things I like about shooting the Colt is that I can shoot a lot of ammo without actually burning a lot of powder, and with carbide dies it speeds up the reloading process.

[bdbrown66]

44 Mag has been my go-to whitetail gun for twenty years now, and it is about the same ballistics.

Thanks for sharing, and welcome to the fire....!

Yes, .44 mag and .45 Colt are in the same territory, if you are reloading the Colt beyond the light factory stuff.

[6pt-sika]

“ Being convinced that the Colt is great for this area, I bought the plain blued steel model, just because the CCH was too pretty to get banged up climbing in and out of tree stands, atv's, etc. ”. While I don’t disagree about beating up the guns if I buys it I uses it plain and simple . I don’t hunt hard anymore but usually when I head to a treestand I have a rifle and a shotgun and very rarely do they get marked in anyway . I will admit when I took my little 28 gauge Parker out in hopes of plunking a deer with a home cast slug I had the gun in a sock until I had it situated up in the tree . And granted I usually go from my ATV about 100-200 yards to my treestand . One gun goes up the tree with me and the other gets pulled up by a rope . Anyway I treat my firearms better than I treat most people .

[bdbrown66]

“ Being convinced that the Colt is great for this area, I bought the plain blued steel model, just because the CCH was too pretty to get banged up climbing in and out of tree stands, atv's, etc. ”. While I don’t disagree about beating up the guns if I buys it I uses it plain and simple . I don’t hunt hard anymore but usually when I head to a treestand I have a rifle and a shotgun and very rarely do they get marked in anyway . I will admit when I took my little 28 gauge Parker out in hopes of plunking a deer with a home cast slug I had the gun in a sock until I had it situated up in the tree . And granted I usually go from my ATV about 100-200 yards to my treestand . One gun goes up the tree with me and the other gets pulled up by a rope . Anyway I treat my firearms better than I treat most people .

Like you, I take good care of all of my firearms. But accidents can and do happen. This particular one has a serial number of <100, for the 45 Colt CCH model. I felt that was worthy of some special care for future value. I'll still shoot it, but I'm not gonna bang it around.

[Rube Burrows]

I very much enjoy hunting with my .45 Colt. I find that my Rossi 92 in .45 Colt is one of the most handy rifles I own. Its light and very packable in the North Alabama Hills that I hunt. Also great for maneuvering around in the South Louisiana Swamps that I also hunt which are thick and sometimes hard to get through.

I have taken several deer and a hog with the .45 Colt. My 92 happens to be very accurate and I would not hesitate to use it on most game in my area at 100 yards and less.

[6pt-sika]

You know I just realized I’ve not killed a deer with a leveraction since the 17/18 season . In the 18/19 season I killed a couple with a Ruger #3 in 444 shooting cast but I don’t really count a #1 or #3 as a leveraction . Last season was the first in quite a few years I didn’t kill any with cast bullet , buckshot or a shotgun cast slug . Gonna need to remedy that a bit this coming year .