Howdy
I have been loading 45 Schofield with Black Powder for years.
Bear with me while I go through the back story.
I was already loading 45 Colt and 44-40 with Black Powder, but I wanted to load some Schofields for my 1858 Remington New Model Army with its 45 Colt cartridge conversion. Although I shoot full power 45 Colt rounds in my Colts all the time, the grip shape of the Remington is just different enough from a Colt that it is uncomfortable to shoot with full house 45 Colt ammo loaded with 250 grain bullets.
Also, the walls of the frame of the Remington are very thin where the ram for the loading lever goes through the frame. I did not feel like subjecting the frame to the pounding that recoil causes with a full house 45 Colt Black Powder load
I had been using the Big Lube bullets in my 45 Colt and 44-40 BP ammo at the time, but the only 45 Colt bullet available in the Big Lube line was the 250 grain PRS bullet.
So I sat down at my CAD station at work and designed a new 200 grain Big Lube bullet. I was doing this in conjunction with another CAS shooter named Peterson, so the new design was dubbed the JP 45-200.
The very first 45 Colt and 45 Schofield cartridges were loaded into copper cases with an internal priming system called Benet Priming. I won't go into all that right now, but in this photo, the two cartridges in the center are original copper cased, Benet primed rounds. The one on the left is a 45 Colt, the one on the right is a 45 Schofileld. The two cartridges on the outside are my Black Powder reloads, the one on the far left being a 45 Colt with a 250 grain PRS Big Lube bullet, the one on the far right is one of my 45 Schofield Black Powder loads with the JP 45-200 Big Lube bullet.
Historically, the Schofield round was loaded with a 230 grain bullet, and about 28 grains of FFg Black Powder. I was not interested in completely duplicating the original 45 Schofield round with the 230 grain bullet, I wanted something significantly lighter, that would produce significantly less recoil in my Remington. That is why I designed a 200 grain bullet rather than a 230 grain bullet.
Here is what goes into one of my 45 Schofield Black Powder rounds. I use Starline brass, and my loading notebook says I am putting approximately 28.5 grains of Schuetzen FFg powder inside. Primers don't really matter, I usually use Federal Large Pistol primers because they are the easiest to ignite with revolvers that have tuned hammer springs.
A side note about Big Lube bullets: After years of messing about with different bullet designs for Black Powder cartridges, and years of messing around with various combinations of Black Powder lubes, wads, lube cookies, and everything else imaginable, when I discovered the Big Lube family of bullets I stopped messing around with all that other stuff. They are called Big Lube, because they all have in common a huge lube groove, capable of carrying lots of Black Powder compatible bullet lube. With regular hard cast bullet lube, Black Powder fouling tends to create hard, baked on fouling in the bore which quickly destroys accuracy, and is difficult to remove. When lubed with a good BP compatible bullet lube, such as SPG or many others, many rounds can be fired without needing to swab out the barrel or worry about hard fouling building up. This photo shows, left to right, a Big Lube 180 grain 38-40 bullet, the 200 grain 44 Caliber Mav-Dutchaman, which I use mostly in rifles, the J/P 45-200, and the 250 grain 45 PRS. The big bullet is a 405 grain bullet I use for 45-70. It is not a Big Lube bullet, it is a conventional BP bullet with many small lube grooves filled with SPG lube. The bullet on the far right is one of my old pan lubed 250 grain hard cast 45 bullets. Notice how skimpy the lube groove is. My experience with these was I needed to add wads and lube cookies or I would get fouling building up because the skimpy lube groove did not carry enough lube to keep the bore greased its entire length.
By the way, I do not get any money or kick backs from my J/P 45-200 design. It was offered up to the BP cartridge community for free.
If you want to learn more about Big Lube Bullets, go here:
http://www.biglube.com/
I used to cast my own Big Lube bullets, these days I buy them from Whyte Leather Works. You will notice that the current version of the J/P 45-200 is not quite so squat as mine. Mine was the original version. I had Lee make up molds for me from my drawings.
http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/BigLube.html
A couple of more comments. Not all Black Powder weighs the same, it actually varies in weight by manufacturer. So 28.5 grains of Brand X FFg may take up a different amount of space than 28.5 grains of Brand Y FFg. This will affect the amount of compression one gets when the bullet is seated. I stated before that I load my Schofield rounds with 28.5 grains of Schuetzen FFg. That gives me the amount of compression I want when I seat the bullet, somewhere between 1/16" - 1/8". Bullet design also has an effect on how much compression one will get. Some bullets extend further into the case than others, so obviously there will be a different amount of compression when using different bullets, even though the brass and powder charge remains the same.
The easiest way to determine the correct amount of powder for any given cartridge and bullet is to pour in enough so that when the bullet is seated, it will compress the bullet by between 1/16" -1/8".
Here is a little trick. Make yourself a little ruler. I used a small piece of hardwood dowel, but anything will suffice. Place the end of the ruler even with the crimp groove and make a mark at the bottom of the bullet.
Then. holding the mark even with the mouth of the case, pour in enough powder so that the bottom of the ruler is buried by the magic 1/16" - 1/8" of powder. No wisecracks, those are my lovely wife's long fingernails and fingers so I could take the photo.
Here is an alternative technique.Set your calipers to measure the distance from the crimp groove to the base of the bullet.
Then scratch a mark onto a case, showing where the base of the bullet will wind up when seated. Then put enough powder into the case to come a little bit above the base of the bullet. You could even use the depth probe on your calipers the same way. Either method, will determine the correct amount of powder for that specific bullet. This really is not rocket science, Black Powder is very forgiving about how much is the correct amount. Eyeballing the load in the case will work too.
P.S. Yes, I compress the powder directly with the base of the bullet. No, I do not put a card wad or anything else between the bottom of the bullet and the powder charge. Completely unnecessary for normal shooting. Long distance precision shooting with 45-70 is a different story. For my 45-70 loads I use a drop tube and a compression die and put .030 card wad between the bullet and the powder. Completely unnecessary for pistol rounds such as 45 Colt or 45 Schofield.
P.P.S: Be aware that 45 Schofield rim diameter is larger than 45 Colt. Standard rim diameter for 45 Colt is .512. Standard rim diameter for 45 Schofield is .520. Depending on the brand of shell holder you are using, you may or may not need a different shell holder for 45 Schofield than 45 Colt.
P.P.P.S: I load 45 Schofield on my Hornady Lock and Load AP progressive press with a Black Powder compatible powder measure from Lyman. I use a standard set of 45 Colt dies that I keep permanently set for 45 Schofield, so I don't have to reset the dies when changing cartridges.
