If you are at all interested in history of the American West and are a fan of the Colt Single Action Army revolver you owe it to yourself to experience what it was like in the last half of the 19th Century to fire the original 45 Colt cartridge. For serious history buffs it is a near spiritual experience. It is also educational. You will quickly realize it is virtually impossible to fan a fully loaded 45 Colt quickly and hit much of anything but maybe the dirt berm.
And what you may ask was the original performance. Well it been documented that 40g of black powder, generally believed to be FFg, behind a 255g soft lead projectile will deliver as much as 910 fps from the original 7-1/2" barrel. But is that what it really was? And how about from the other two standard barrel lengths sold to civilians: 5-1/2"; and 4-3/4"?
Back in the 1980s and 1990s I was lucky enough to own 1st Generation Colts with all three of those barrel lengths. And although I was a CAS shooter I was more of a living historian and re-enactor than a competitor. While walking the isles at a gun show back then I came across a full box of 50 NOS balloon head 45 Colt cases. I bought them as quick as I could get my wallet out and went home with a mission to duplicate the original loading for the 45 Colt cartridge and chronograph them through my three factory standard barrel length SAAs.
I had a custom bullet mold that dropped .455" slugs of traditional design (RNFP) that weighed 255g using the 1-20 (tin to lead) alloy most catalogues gave as the factory choice. I sized them to .454" and lubed them with SPG lubricant. Then carefully seated them over full charges of GOEX FFg powder. Even with the greater capacity of the balloon cases (which I found to be about 4g more than modern brass) I had to resort to some tricks to get the 40 grain charge in there. I used a copper drop tube to settle the powder more consistently in the cases so I didn't have to crush it quite so much. A solid roll crimp and I was ready for the chronograph.
I started with the original 7-1/2" barrel. Five shots through the Sky-Screens of my Oehler M-33 gave me an average of 914 fps, 10 feet from the muzzle. The 5-1/2" gun (one of the Artillery Models with mixed numbers) delivered 885 fps. And my personal favorite, the 4-3/4" barrel gave me a reading of 863 fps. I kept loading these rounds, sharing the experience of shooting them with friends at the range. If I remember correctly I got 3-5 reloads but eventually the 50-60 year old brass started splitting and cracking.
Then the question became, how can I reproduce this performance level with modern brass. The simple answer was to switch powder granulation. In modern Winchester and W-W 45 Colt brass I loaded the same bullet over 36g of GOEX FFFg. That was based on the observed ~ 4g difference in capacity between the balloon head brass and the solid head. The chronograph told the tale and it was a good one. With modern brass I got 907 fps from my 7-1/2" Cavalry Colt, 888 fps with the 5-1/2" Artillery Model, and 867 fps with the civilian 4-3/4".
I had to sell those 1st Generation Colts to finance a start up business I ran for 10 years. Looking back it wasn't the smartest thing I ever did, but that's life. I'm back into BP cartridge guns after 25 years away from it. Now I'm shooting USFA late production black powder frame single actions, all in 45 Colt of course. I'm also using a better grade of powder than the old GOEX I used the first time. I find Olde Eynsford is cleaner burning and a bit more efficient than it's parent powder. Now I only load 35g of FFFg OE for close to the same performance I got from the 36 grain GOEX loads. And, since I can't cast my own bullets anymore I'm buying Big Lube 250g bullets of the correct 1-20 alloy. The last batch I weighed were 253g - that's pretty close too.
It's still a near spiritual experience, or at least one that puts a smile on my face every time I touch one off those fully loaded, black powder 45 Colt rounds. And make no mistake boys and girls, you need to be ready for a handful of recoil fun. These things kick like the proverbial mule...but in a good kind of way.
Dave
And what you may ask was the original performance. Well it been documented that 40g of black powder, generally believed to be FFg, behind a 255g soft lead projectile will deliver as much as 910 fps from the original 7-1/2" barrel. But is that what it really was? And how about from the other two standard barrel lengths sold to civilians: 5-1/2"; and 4-3/4"?
Back in the 1980s and 1990s I was lucky enough to own 1st Generation Colts with all three of those barrel lengths. And although I was a CAS shooter I was more of a living historian and re-enactor than a competitor. While walking the isles at a gun show back then I came across a full box of 50 NOS balloon head 45 Colt cases. I bought them as quick as I could get my wallet out and went home with a mission to duplicate the original loading for the 45 Colt cartridge and chronograph them through my three factory standard barrel length SAAs.
I had a custom bullet mold that dropped .455" slugs of traditional design (RNFP) that weighed 255g using the 1-20 (tin to lead) alloy most catalogues gave as the factory choice. I sized them to .454" and lubed them with SPG lubricant. Then carefully seated them over full charges of GOEX FFg powder. Even with the greater capacity of the balloon cases (which I found to be about 4g more than modern brass) I had to resort to some tricks to get the 40 grain charge in there. I used a copper drop tube to settle the powder more consistently in the cases so I didn't have to crush it quite so much. A solid roll crimp and I was ready for the chronograph.
I started with the original 7-1/2" barrel. Five shots through the Sky-Screens of my Oehler M-33 gave me an average of 914 fps, 10 feet from the muzzle. The 5-1/2" gun (one of the Artillery Models with mixed numbers) delivered 885 fps. And my personal favorite, the 4-3/4" barrel gave me a reading of 863 fps. I kept loading these rounds, sharing the experience of shooting them with friends at the range. If I remember correctly I got 3-5 reloads but eventually the 50-60 year old brass started splitting and cracking.
Then the question became, how can I reproduce this performance level with modern brass. The simple answer was to switch powder granulation. In modern Winchester and W-W 45 Colt brass I loaded the same bullet over 36g of GOEX FFFg. That was based on the observed ~ 4g difference in capacity between the balloon head brass and the solid head. The chronograph told the tale and it was a good one. With modern brass I got 907 fps from my 7-1/2" Cavalry Colt, 888 fps with the 5-1/2" Artillery Model, and 867 fps with the civilian 4-3/4".
I had to sell those 1st Generation Colts to finance a start up business I ran for 10 years. Looking back it wasn't the smartest thing I ever did, but that's life. I'm back into BP cartridge guns after 25 years away from it. Now I'm shooting USFA late production black powder frame single actions, all in 45 Colt of course. I'm also using a better grade of powder than the old GOEX I used the first time. I find Olde Eynsford is cleaner burning and a bit more efficient than it's parent powder. Now I only load 35g of FFFg OE for close to the same performance I got from the 36 grain GOEX loads. And, since I can't cast my own bullets anymore I'm buying Big Lube 250g bullets of the correct 1-20 alloy. The last batch I weighed were 253g - that's pretty close too.
It's still a near spiritual experience, or at least one that puts a smile on my face every time I touch one off those fully loaded, black powder 45 Colt rounds. And make no mistake boys and girls, you need to be ready for a handful of recoil fun. These things kick like the proverbial mule...but in a good kind of way.
Dave
