Dixie Cub 45 Cal

[Horace]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to loads for the above gun in round ball?

 

[Horace]

Let me amend that to include any Pedersoli 45 rifle of a similar design.

 

[arcticap]

I have a Pedersoli .45 cal., 26 inch barrel, 1 in 48 inch twist lightweight barrel (13/16" flats). Mine likes .440 ball with a Wonderlubed .015 patch behind about 40 grains of Pyrodex Pistol out to 50 yards for general target shooting. I didn't find mine to require a tighter .445 ball or much more powder than that.

 

[Horace]

That is about what i am currently doing, but I would like to step it up for hunting and do not know how high to go. I obviously can tell when the accuracy starts to go but do not want to damage the gun (or me).

 

[2172]

Mule, my old CVA Mtn Rifle shoots well at targets at 100yds with a .440 ball, .15 ticking wonder lubed, and 60 gr of fffg..Hank

 

[arcticap]

If I was going to hunt deer here in New England with a .45 in the mid to late December M.L. season, I'd probably use a TC Maxiball with a wonder wad bore button with a moderately heavy load. Even some of the does here can get rather large and I don't think you would hurt yourself or the rifle with that type of loading. I have the exact same size Pedersoli barrel in .50 caliber which even has a thinner barrel wall and is lighter in weight that can easily handle heavier loadings. You shouldn't feel too much recoil with 70-75 grains of powder especially if you're wearing a jacket to help pad your shoulder. But I guess what you end up using would depend somewhat on your preference of projectile, the size of the deer that you are hunting in your area and the relative accuracy of your experimental hunting loads for the distance you plan on reaching out to. If there wasn't any snow on the ground to help in tracking down a wounded deer, I would want a hit to produce as much of a blood trail as possible by maximizing penetration. :imo:

 

[Horace]

Thanks for the info. My gun does not like mazi balls but prefers RB's I think I will still use the overpowder wad and try 70-80 grains of powder and see what happens. If you don't hear from me again, you will know what happened.