45-270 SAA

[maxcactus]

I'm interested in purchasing an RCBS 45-270 SAA mold for use in my various sixguns after reading so many folks positive reviews of same (Brian Pearce, our own JT, et. al).

Could those of you who have and/or regularly use this mold please comment on your experience with same? It seems other inviduals have had less-than-stellar results with slugs cast from this mold and I'm wondering if there is a common aspect in casting or sizing bullet from this mold that they might be overlooking?

Thank you kindly,
Max.

P.S. If someone has a large bucketload of these projectiles sitting around gathing dust, I would be willing to pay for a sample 100 or so sized .452. Please PM me an offer.

[kooz]

The 270SAA has been very hit or miss for me, a couple of my guns did well with it, but the bullet seems to be very load sensitive, I find myself rarely using it anymore. The RCBS 45-255-SWC is a much better bullet in my opinion, it shoots better at long range and is accurate in all my guns and it doesn't seem to care what kind of powder charge its sitting on. The 255swc weighs 268gr cast from WWs.

[boxhead]

Montana Bullet Works sells them if you want a hundred. I buy mine from them. Properly sized, I have found it to be a great bullet in all of my 45's. Interesting how folks experience varies. Clearly shows the need to work the load to the gun.

[Fowler]

I have found with my mould that it is very persnickity about casting good bullets. It took some tinkering and I now know how to get 95% good bullets, but they are slow casting. I am going to send it back one of these days but I have not done so yet. That said I have found a couple of very solid loads that I have had good success with. 7.5gr of Titegroup (975fps or so) seems to be very accurate in all of the 45 colts I have tried it in so far but I will admit to not trying it for accuracy beyond 50 yards yet.

I like the bullet but I will admit to wanting to like it more than I do. If the mold cast easier I might like it more. It just seems to be a perfect bullet for weight and profile, but it has been a bit of a struggle.

[firstshirt]

I tried some in a trio of Ruger Vaqueros, and wasn't terribly impressed. They weren't bad, mind you, just not as good as I thought they should have been. A friend gave me some Lee 300 gr. WFNs, and after I shot them, I bought a six-cavity mold, and that's all I've used in the .45 Colt for the last four or five years.

[Frank V]

I regularly use the 45-270-SAA. It's my bullet of choice if I'm hunting even if a rifle is my primary weapon. It will certainly be found in my cylinder when I'm bowhunting & carrying my .45. It's accurate, easy to cast, & heavy 275 out of wheel weights, it has a wide deep lube groove, I like it a lot & use it quite a bit. It has a very wide meplate & seems to hit with real authority. I like mine. Frank

[johniv]

Like mine, as a utility boolit for the .45 Colt I think it cant be beat. That being said I must admit that I dont shoot it at long range, or look for match grade accuracy, I shoot it in an old Blackhawk, and expect results an 25 to 50 yd. Just my .02
John

[shorty500]

have never used the scovill designed RCBS version although the gun press seems very impressed with it. my main reason for not trying it is that i cast my own slugs and depise cast iron blocks so i only use aluminum molds.
with that said i do use two very similar slugs cast from NEI molds. both drop in the 280-285 grain range with WW metal. they have proven accurate from spitting distance to around 300yards. have used them both alot in .45Colt and .454Casull chambered revolvers including the S&W M25/M625, Ruger Blackhawks/Redhawk/SuperRedhawk, a Taurus Judge and Freedom Arms models. have done limited testing in .45ACP, .45AutoRim and .45WinMag chambered revolvers with good results.
Now some are already questioning as to WHY??? TWO MOLDS?? the first is NEI mold #317,its listed as a .451-275-PB. It has a short crimp to meplat dimension that lets it chamber in old short cylinder S&W Model 1955 and early Model 25-5's plus the FreedomArms Model97.
the second mold is NEI #325 and is refered to in the catalog as a .454-270-PBK. It has a crimp to meplat dimension that is basically identical to the RCBS version.

[38 WCF]

I bought two molds with the idea of casting one while the other cooled off. I liked the bullet for general use, problem was I had a hard time getting either mold to cast a bullet without fins around the edges. I finally sold them and had mountain molds make me a 3 cavity copy that cast real well. These are the only RCBS molds that have ever given me any trouble.

[kywindage]

The mold I have for that bullets casts very easily and I favor it over the Lyman 452424. It is very accurate from my Ruger Bisley Accusport with the "Scovill load" of 16.5 grains of 2400, and also a slightly heavier deer load of 21 grains of H4227 and a magnum primer. Cast from wheel weights the resulting bullets weigh 281 grains.

[Deleted]

i have had good luck with mine,the bullets size up nice and i get as good accuracy as i can shoot.my bullets weigh about 273 to 275 grains when lubed.i used ww and 2% tin.I have heard some bad reports, but mostly favorable.

[subsonic]

I sent my mould back to RCBS 2x before I got one that would cast round (not oval) bullets.

I ended up selling the one that would cast round bullets to someone on this forum because I was tired of messing with it. Even round, it was no where near as accurate in my gun as anything shaped like a WFN/WLN.

[zeus]

Jul 9, 2009 10:15:23 GMT -5 subsonic said:

I sent my mould back to RCBS 2x before I got one that would cast round (not oval) bullets.

I ended up selling the one that would cast round bullets to someone on this forum because I was tired of messing with it. Even round, it was no where near as accurate in my gun as anything shaped like a WFN/WLN.

I think I may own that mold Glad it is the round one and not the oval one although with my shooting, the oval may be really helpful

[subsonic]

Yep, that's the one. Couldn't remember who bought it.

To be honest, by the time I got that last mould, my patience was gone and I did very little playing with it before deciding I had spent more money than an LBT Mould would have cost on powder and primers... it is possible that it will work well for you with some combination, but it did not work well in my gun over 20gr of 2400 - 2.5" groups at 25yds compared to 1.5" with any WFN I tried.

[zeus]

Jul 20, 2009 10:12:39 GMT -5 subsonic said:

Yep, that's the one. Couldn't remember who bought it.

To be honest, by the time I got that last mould, my patience was gone and I did very little playing with it before deciding I had spent more money than an LBT Mould would have cost on powder and primers... it is possible that it will work well for you with some combination, but it did not work well in my gun over 20gr of 2400 - 2.5" groups at 25yds compared to 1.5" with any WFN I tried.

It shoots great in my FA 83. I've only tried the one load with it but to be honest, its probably not a fair assessment yet as that gun has shot everything I've ever fed it VERY well. That is one gun that was just built right, even for a FA