.45 Colt Loadings!

I have learned to like a Lyman 454424 cast of wheel weights over 11.5 gr. of AA#5 in mine. It is a good hard hitting load in the Ruger, the bullet drops at 263 gr. sized .454.

i have always loaded up 45 colt old style. very old style the original way. 35 grains goex 3f black powder followed by a 228 grain round nose lead cast. has worked very well for me. about a month ago i purchased some remington 45 colt express. thought id give it a try. amazingly i found that the recoil was much lighter. Bullets looked terrible too. The top of the lead bullets looked like they were dumped on top of each other. they were all mangled up. So after shooting a full cylinder of them. i went back to my bp rounds. Much stronger and accuracy is way better. So im stickin to what works. What the round was designed for

I agree but with a twist 777 lots of power!

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I am sure this has been discussed but hey it ain't like we are all THAT busy! A good friend of mine (true, no punchline) just picked up a Old Model Vaquero in .45 Colt. The old frame is said to be strong enough to take some stout +P level loadings. If this was .44 Special or .44 Mag I could advise him but I have no experience with the .45 Colt. What have you guys come up with that is a must try in his new to him revolver? Would also like to hear about some classic loadings that have worked well over the years. As always, thanks in advance, Bill

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8.5 grains of Unique with a 250 or 255 grain cast bullet is a classic load, the same bullet with 10 grains of Unique is a classic +P load. (I haven't gotten around to trying either yet)

My favorite load is 7.5 grains of Red Dot with a 230 grain cast bullet. This is hotter than a normal .45 Colt load, but not much hotter. I can shoot these all day. Red Dot is a great powder for .45 Colt, but if you go much higher than this with it the recoil gets pretty ferocious without giving you much better performance.

I also like 12 grains of Herco or WSF with 250-255 grain cast bullets. This is a big step up from the Red Dot load. I chronographed some of these once at right about 1300 fps.

Lately I've been shooting a lot using 16.5 grains of Blue Dot with 250 grain cast bullets. This is a pretty hot load, but the peak chamber pressure is probably lower than the Herco load.

It's also fun to shoot black powder in .45 Colt, especially at dusk when you can see all the fire as well as the smoke. Use as much FF or FFF powder as you can pack in the case and top with a 250-255 grain cast bullet.

11.5-12 grns of HS6 behind 250 grn accurate and stout can be shot in modern SAAs and clones.

This is my favorite caliber. I've over a hundred loads and have tried most of them. Send me a PM and I'll email you a spreadsheet with the loads.

Uncle Chan
SASS# 38695

I have 2 revolvers and 1 rifle in this caliber. I like 8 grs Unique over 250-255grain bullet. Or I like to use Trail Boss at 5.8 grs w/same bullet. I just got some 200 grain moulds and want to try that. Bob

The Lyman book has a section on "Ruger/Contender" .45 LC loads. Had a friend that hit a 3" orange sticky target multiple times at 50+ yards a few weeks ago. We were in the mid-range of the Ruger loads, 255 LSWC & Universal Clays.

You can make heavy thumper loads with H-110 or WW-296, but they're pretty brutal.

Lyman, Speer, and Hornady Reloading Manuals all have chapters on +P .45 Colt loads suitable for the large frame Ruger BH & Vaquero.

Getsum!

rcmodel

It's also fun to shoot black powder in .45 Colt, especially at dusk when you can see all the fire as well as the smoke. Use as much FF or FFF powder as you can pack in the case and top with a 250-255 grain cast bullet.

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zxcvbob,
What's the difference between FFg and FFFg powders? Are there any other "grades" of Black Powders or substitutes?

I know you are supposed to go by volume and not weight with black powder so what kind of measure do I need to use?

Thanks in advance for the information.

ok black powder. there are different grades of black powder. Bascially all black powder is the same that is in composition. What happens is when they make it the final part is grading it like grating cheese. the thinner the powder the more numbers. Fg powder is big clumps used for large large bore rifles and cannons. ffg is smaller in diameter and is used for rifles, shotguns. fffg is commonly used for revolvers smaller caliber rifles. ffffg is comonly only used to prime the flint tray for flint locks.

now for bpcr
black powder cartridge rifles. its common to use fffg. though you can use ffg for a slower burn fffg is the choice powder. Black powder is done by volume not weight. now i shoot cap and ball revolver. so i have shot just about every combination of loads in black powder. tripple 7, pyrodex are both black powder substitutes. tripple 7 is a hotter burning powder than REal black powder. When using tripple 7 its always recomended to reduce your load by 10%. However lets see here when i shoot my walker i have shot too many loads of up to 55 grains of triple 7 with a round ball in front of it. Thats is some mighty fun shooting. So the approximate that a case will hold is any where around 35 grains of powder. 35 grains is rather mild compared to shooting 55 grains. So its safe to shoot. Black powder is different than smoke less powder. smoke less powder you may load 11 grains by weight and then load a ball. Black powder you do not want any air in between the powder and the ball. For that reason i always go with the length of the bullet. coal. Meaning i will eyeball a bullet next to the case. Then load up the powder to that mark. Then press in the bullet to meet the powder. or if i want to do it quickly lately my choice of loads is using a 2.2 dipper. Lee dipper with goex 3f. behind a 228 lead cast round nose bullet. very easy and quick to load. Very nice recoil. just a blast to shoot.

Now as for the gun. Nothing beats a Walker.

Quick history. Colt walker is the biggest black powder revolver ever made. its 16 inches long weighs 4 1/2 lbs. a normal cap and ball revolver will shoot up to 30 grains of powder depending on caliber. A colt walker was designed to shoot 60 grains of powder. Though i have never been able to get more than 55 grains in. Shooting loads like that are just incredible. very very loud and powerfull. Every one wants to see what your shooting.

Ok pull the wedge out. Take out the cylinder. Put in my R&D cylinder. Now im shooting 45 Colt out of the same gun. Difference quicker loading. Drawbacks 35 grains of powder in a walker. So ya it might not be the newest style revolver on the block but you have the best of both worlds.

If you're going hunting or like recoil the +P loads are ok but for fun shooting, mild recoil and plenty of accuracy try a 200 gr lead rnfp over 5.5 gr of Trail Boss and a WW primer.
This is popular amoung the Cowboy Shooters.

that for sure is a steller load. in fact it is very close to a black powder load. in the way of the recoil. Trail boss is some fantastic stuff

Thank you scrat...

zxcvbob said:

8.5 grains of Unique with a 250 or 255 grain cast bullet is a classic load, the same bullet with 10 grains of Unique is a classic +P load. (I haven't gotten around to trying either yet)

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I have shot from 6.5-10gr Unique in my Ruger Blackhawk. I found that 9gr of Unique gave me the best results. Laser Cast 255gr LSWC.

I wanted something mild to plink at targets, so I load 6.6 gr. Unique under 255 gr. Lazer-Cast bullets. I tried the same load with 200 gr. bullets but the point of impact changed so much that I stick with the 255's. This load is easy on the gun and shooter as well. I found the 7.2 and 7.8 gr. load to be uncomfortable in my NewVaquero for just paper punching.

Opinions are like...

Like Wedge stated, I've also tried Unique from 6.5 grains to 10. 10 is not comfortable to shoot. In my 4 3/4" NM Blackhawk I have found 7 grains to be comfortable and accurate. Unique is a very versatile powder that I use in 38 spl. 45 colt, and 16 and 28 ga. shotshells.

In the long run, you'll have to play around and find what works best in your gun in your hands. Each of us likes something different about a certain load.

Isn't anyone using W231 for loading the .45 Colt? I like W231 and would think it would also be a good powder for this application, no? How about HS-6?

Isn't anyone using W231 for loading the .45 Colt?

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I just haven't gotten around to that one yet (and I have too many different powders already) There is load data available for it, but it seems like the powder would get lost in that big case and SD's would be poor -- dependant on the powder position in the case. (until you get up to the "Ruger" loads)

I have a friend that uses 231 for 9mm, .38SPL, and .45ACP, and I know he has a .45 Colt. I'll ask him if he's tried that combination.

scrat -

Colt walker is the biggest black powder revolver ever made. its 16 inches long weighs 4 1/2 lbs. a normal cap and ball revolver will shoot up to 30 grains of powder depending on caliber. A colt walker was designed to shoot 60 grains of powder.

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If i remember my history correctly the colt walker was called a 44 cal, although it used a 45 cal ball and had a 45 cal bore. Walker colts in their day were magnum class of handgun and by todays standards still would be. They also had a problem with guns blowing apart in a shooters hand due to the high loadings and possibly due to poor metallurgy of the time aswell, not to mention lack of a topstrap for added strength. But i'm sure the modern day replicas are much stronger. Something that has always had me wondering is why were .452 cal revolvers of that time classed as .44 cal. (mind you todays 44's are really 43 cal's) Maybe they used a 44 cal ball with patch in a 45 cal rifle at one time. Any thoughts?

I have been shooting the same load for years; 24 gr H110 250 gr XTP.

a) Uberti Cattleman 1215 fps, kicks hard. I should go lower.
b) Winchester 94, 16" barrel, 1536 fps, could go higher.
c) Ruger Blackhawk, shot it once, needs to have hammer and grips de burred.

Isn't anyone using W231 for loading the .45 Colt? I like W231 and would think it would also be a good powder for this application, no?

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I use Winchester 231 for 9mm, .357mag/.38spl, .44mag/.44spl and .45 ACP since it's ideal for those calibers. I use Trail Boss for .45 Colt (for my USFA Rodeos and Marlin 1894) but will be using H-110 for .45 Colt in my Ruger KRH-45-4 once it arrives (and also for the Marlin). W231 is a relatively fast powder compared to H-110 and W296 so it's not ideally suited for the .45 Colt. My Speer #11 manual has a number of loads listed for the .45 Colt using 231 but as has been mentioned, 10 grains of 231 or thereabouts doesn't have enough volume to give consistent results. Take a look at the attached powder burn rate chart from Vihtavuori.