45 Colt T7 Load Very Stout!

We have recently moved to Colorado and I am somewhat slowly building a new bench with that bloody 'honey-do' list and a degree of ingrained procrastination getting in the way of completion. But I dug out my 45 Colt Lee Loader, brass drop tube, some FFFg T7 and Hornady 255 grs RNFP bullets and made up twenty as a test in my new Rossi 92.

35 grs T7 FFFg, over powder card wad, dollop of lube (40/40/10/10 - beeswax/Crisco/Jojoba oil/oil soap), 255 gr swaged RNFP, Tula LPP.

According to Hodgdon, 15% less T7 should be used to achieve black powder equivalency. I shoot 26 grs T7 FFFg in paper cartridges in my 1858 Remington and Rogers and Spencer replicas and it is perhaps a little punchier than one needs for target shooting but allows the ball to be seated fairly long. The difference between 26/140grs and 35/ 255 grs is remarkable!

Sure, that metal butt plate doesn't help but I would compare it to a full load of 4198 and 320 grs CB in 444 Marlin. It was very stout. Didn't have the Chrony, so I didn't get a velocity. It was very, very thumpy.

Groups were good so no complaints but I need to know velocity. Suspect above 1500 fps.

Great news in other respects. Oil soap added to lube makes cleaning a treat. Cases very easy to wash.

On the

Guess it got cut off. I was getting to point that 35 grs T7 is equivalent to the original 40 grs FFFg black pwder in the balloon head case. I certainly would not have wanted to fire that from a hand gun! No wonder they had issues and backed it down. Definitely want the get a velocity read on it.

Good advice and observations, thank you. I will be shifting to FFg Old Eynsford and @32 -33 grs next load.

Thanks Driftwood for sharing experience. On lube dollop, I find groups consistent with smokeless "cowboy" loads, no keyholes, and super easy cleaning.