I tried really hard to make a 45 Colt shoot Pistol Cartridge matches and Long Range matches, but it just isn't doing the job. In short - I shoot better than the gun does (finally!). I know many of you are using one gun for both matches. I'm curious what the "best" cartridge for both matches might be.

Yes, the 45 can take down Rams, but driving them fast causes leading and there goes accuracy.

What are you using?

Michael

I occasionally use a 357mag for both CLA & PCCLA. Here's a whole discussion thread on it:
http://www.steelchickens.com/forums/vie ... f=7&t=7547

And an earlier discussion about using 357mag for CLA... this one has some specific load info, some of which I am still using today (13.6g Lilgun with a 200/205g LeadHead boolit): http://www.steelchickens.com/forums/vie ... f=7&t=5838


- Tim

Snake,
A 357 with a 24" barrel is the choice but at the prices these are bringing you may as well pick up a cheap marlin 336 in 30-30. 30-30's shoot flat, hit hard and are easy to load for. And, OMG, there's a lot of them out there.

I sometimes use my .45 Colt Marlin cowboy for both matches. For the big rams I use a RCBS 300 grain cast bullet(weighs around 325 with my soft alloy) in front of 6.5 grains of HP-38 for about 1000 fps at the muzzle. It shoots clean and accurate and takes down every ram I hit. It does drop a good bit, so you have to be careful with the zero. It has proven to be a soft shooting and effective combo though.