black powder for 45 Colt SAA

[Magwa45]

I have inherited a Single Action Army old enough to be black powder only. My father bought some manufactured black powder cartridges for this piece. But I want to do some reloading. It is really nice, matching serial numbers, but where do you find good load data for .45 Colt black powder cartridges? Thanks!

 

[wittzo]

According to Goex (http://www.goexpowder.com/load-chart.html) they have 40 grains of BP with a 255 grain bullet. I don't know what revolver they were using as their base load, but it was probably a newly manufactured pistol. They were also probably using a drop tube because it's hard to fit that much powder in a .45 Colt casing.

You can create a milder load with a lighter bullet and/or less powder as long as you've got something to fill the gap between the bullet and the powder, like a 200 grain bullet with 25 or 30 grains of BP and Black Dawg filler, cream of wheat, cous cous, corn meal, or a dry felt wad between them. Some people use an over powder wad made of waxed milk carton paper or card stock to separate the powder from the filler or the powder from the bullet.

Another option is to use .45 Schofield casings, sort of like when people shoot .38 Special in .357 Magnum pistols for lighter recoil.

 

[Oyeboten]

Well too, you might want to measure your Cylinder end-Chamber diameters, and Barrel Bore.

Older .45 Colt Revolver ran quite a bit larger Bullets than modern ones.

Checking yours will allow you to decide or elect appropriate Bullet diamaters.

BP Cartries are quite easy and fun to do one's self if you have a Loading Press or old Ideal Tong outfit and Dies right for the actual Diameter ( that's the hard part! All the dies I can find are too small for the old Diameter Revolvers).

Or use Hollow base Bullets...


Always compress the Black Powder Charge well...if you use filler on top, compress it all well regardless...usually one compreses in the act of seating the Bullet.

So work out where the Bullet base needs to be for a correct Crimp, and, fill the Case so the volume anticipates a good compression of the Powder ( and or filler also).

 

[ClemBert]

Yeah, most likely you'll want .454 bullets not .452 bullets like most modern 45 Colt revolvers use. Take some measurements and do some checking before buying bullets.

 

[44-henry]

If you have a nice 1st generation Colt you might want to consider not shooting it. I love shooting antique guns as much as the next guy, but I have made a habit of not shooting the more valuable ones for risk of causing additional wear and tear that can devalue them.

Another consideration is that a lot of black powder loads are really not that light. I can easily get 1000 fps out of a 7 1/2" barrel Uberti 1873 in 45 Colt with a 37 grain charge of 3fg and 250 grain bullet. Long and short of it is that even black powder loads can cause a lot of wear and tear on a gun over time.