18" barrel in .45 cal. For deer?

[Razor62]

Hey folks, I'm beginning a build of a .45 cal. Underhammer rifle. The goal is to end up with a short, lightweight hunting gun for whitetails at ranges under 100 yards.
I snapped up a barrel on eBay. It's 24" long with a 1:28" ROT.
As I lay out the parts on my stock blank I'm becoming concerned that the final product will be heavier than I'd like. Muzzle heavy to be specific. This is not acceptable so I'm considering cutting it back to 18". Truth be told, this length will be more handy, more attractive and less heavy. Before I break out the hacksaw I want to be certain that I'll still be able to achieve the ballistics needed to make lethal shots on deer within that 100 yard limit.
What say the experts?

 

[dbowling]

I have a .50 rifle made from a T/C Black Diamond with a 12.5 in barrel and it is definitely lethal at any distance you can reasonably shoot, shoot 80-85 gr of 777 2f and a 240 gr xtp.. action also fits into a walnut pistol stock to be used as a muzzleloader pistol for hunting. At 55 yds it will put 3 shots into a group about the size of a .50 cent piece.
Here's a pic of it, its got lower rings on it now and rear sight is removed.
I also have a T/C Renegade in .54 that has a 19 in barrel total gun length that's 35 3/4 in. and its very accurate w/535 gr conical at 60 yds.
Never shot above guns at 100 yds because where I hunt 70 yds is a long shot but pretty sure they have plenty of energy left to do the job.
Also had a InvestArms 50 cal that had a bulged barrel that I cut down to about 20 in and it shot patched RB pretty decent at 55 yds.
I think if you shoot a conical out of it, it will be very lethal.

Hey folks, I'm beginning a build of a .45 cal. Underhammer rifle. The goal is to end up with a short, lightweight hunting gun for whitetails at ranges under 100 yards.
I snapped up a barrel on eBay. It's 24" long with a 1:28" ROT.
As I lay out the parts on my stock blank I'm becoming concerned that the final product will be heavier than I'd like. Muzzle heavy to be specific. This is not acceptable so I'm considering cutting it back to 18". Truth be told, this length will be more handy, more attractive and less heavy. Before I break out the hacksaw I want to be certain that I'll still be able to achieve the ballistics needed to make lethal shots on deer within that 100 yard limit.
What say the experts?

 

[Razor62]

dbowling, That's a really cool rifle! 12.5" is indeed a short barrel! I just cut mine down to 19" with a hacksaw, trued it up in my lathe and recrowned it. That oughta' make this rifle much more handy for my New England whitetail hunts.
Thanks for taking the time to post up your thoughts and photo. Very much appreciated.

 

[dbowling]

your welcome.. just wanted to say the gun pictured with the 12.5 in barrel balances almost perfect and it can be carried under my arm along my leg on a small leather sling I made for it as a pistol. It holds on target very well for such a short gun also.
please post up some pics of your gun and crown job. I did mine with a hacksaw, file/square and a countersink on cordless drill.

dbowling, That's a really cool rifle! 12.5" is indeed a short barrel! I just cut mine down to 19" with a hacksaw, trued it up in my lathe and recrowned it. That oughta' make this rifle much more handy for my New England whitetail hunts.
Thanks for taking the time to post up your thoughts and photo. Very much appreciated.

 

[Razor62]

I like that carry idea. Mine will be a little longer overall so it probably won't work out for me.
My build will be an underhammer design centered around the Pete Allen Underhammer Action. This will be my 2nd underhammer and my 3rd build using one of Allen's actions.
The goal is for a modern styled, lightweight hunting rifle. The barrel is an eBay find, .45 cal., Fluted version which began life as a Winchester Model 150, bolt action inline. I cut the barrel ahead of the bolt housing area exposing the threads for the removable breech plug. A stroke of luck surprised me with the fact that the threads were 5/8" X 18 which is a standard size for a breech plug. All I needed to do was to machine the rear of the barrel so that the breech plug would bottom out while lining up top dead center.
As I already mentioned, laying the parts out on the blank revealed that the rifle was going to be too heavy out front so I cut nearly 7" from the muzzle end.
Here are some pics to help explain the work as it's progressed so far:

 

[Idaholewis]

Looks good! Keep us updated on your progress with it :yeah:

 

[Razor62]

Thanks Idaholewis. I'm gonna' start a new thread on the build today in this forum. I'll post photos as the progress continues. Keep an eye out.