Enjoyed a few rounds from my Ruger Old Army conversion cyl.

[Tallbald]

A wonderful friend and I went for a range session late last week. I hadn't finished making the BP paper cartridges for my ROA's as I had hoped, so I grabbed a box of factory Cowboy load .45 Colt ammo and a conversion cylinder.The box of 50 rounds was price marked at $20 if that shows how long I've had the cartridges! Loaded it up and touched off a round. I hate to say it for fear of sounding like a wimp, but I had forgotten how much "thump" the Cowboy rounds have! Recoil was greater than I recalled, and I thought "those fellas and gals back in the 1880's were pretty well heeled even with these loads we think of as wimpy by today's standards".
Last year I bought .45 Colt dies and a bag of Starline cases. Plan this winter to do a lot of reloading and restocking. I love the belching smoke and flame of BP and the substitutes, so I'll be looking for Triple 7 loads I can assemble too. Love the versatility of my Old Army's and the conversion cylinders, but nothing takes the place of reloading on the fly with loose powder and ball.
Don

 

[Patocazador]

Trail Boss and Blackhorn 209 make good light to medium loads if you don't want to deal with cleaning right away after using black powder or the phony ones.

 

[Armored farmer]

^^^and unique

 

[Quint]

Can someone give me a good load , using smokeless powder, for loading 45 LC cases for use in a ROA. The rounds would only be used on a firing range, so I really don't want "hot" loads. I just obtained a R&D converter for the ROA and would like to use smokless rather than BP or BP subs.

 

[ClemBert]

Can someone give me a good load , using smokeless powder, for loading 45 LC cases for use in a ROA. The rounds would only be used on a firing range, so I really don't want "hot" loads. I just obtained a R&D converter for the ROA and would like to use smokless rather than BP or BP subs.

Why men hunt and....

Boo, boo, booo....just kiddin'....kind of....



I load with 8 grains of Unique behind a 250 grain RNFP lead bullet....but for BP 35 grains FFFg and a PRS 250 BigLube.

 

[Quint]

Clembert,
Thanks for the info. None of the stores in this area have any Unique powder !!! They say the distributors have depleted their supply. I bought some Trail Boss and plan to try a load of 5.1 grains under a 250 grain cast bullet made by Xtreme. The stores hope to have Unique before summer.

 

[ClemBert]

As I recall you an back down the Unique load down to around 6.5 grains if you want less pop. Take a look at the cartridge reloading forum for options.

 

[Patocazador]

Clembert,
Thanks for the info. None of the stores in this area have any Unique powder !!! They say the distributors have depleted their supply. I bought some Trail Boss and plan to try a load of 5.1 grains under a 250 grain cast bullet made by Xtreme. The stores hope to have Unique before summer.

Unique is .. ah .. unique. You can load so many different calibers with it. I've used it for .32 auto, .380, 9mm, .38 spl, .357. 44 spl, .44 mag. and .45 Colt. The only drawback with it is it's a flake powder and doesn't meter well through a powder measure.

 

[JeffG]

^^^ You can't go wrong with Unique.

 

[dickydalton]

Clembert,
Thanks for the info. None of the stores in this area have any Unique powder !!! They say the distributors have depleted their supply. I bought some Trail Boss and plan to try a load of 5.1 grains under a 250 grain cast bullet made by Xtreme. The stores hope to have Unique before summer.

6 grains of Trail Boss works well under a 250 grain bullet for me.

 

[whughett]

I load 5.8 grains of Trail Boss over a 230 grain cast round nose,

 

[robhof]

^^^ You can't go wrong with Unique.

If you weigh your charges, no, but as stated above, the powder doesn't seem to drop consistent at least in my powder measures, I weigh all my loads with it if I want best accuracy, just dropped and weighed I've found as much as 2 gr. deviation. I haven't had that problem with any of my rifle powders or even my B/P subs through the same measures...

 

[ClemBert]

If you weigh your charges, no, but as stated above, the powder doesn't seem to drop consistent at least in my powder measures, I weigh all my loads with it if I want best accuracy, just dropped and weighed I've found as much as 2 gr. deviation. I haven't had that problem with any of my rifle powders or even my B/P subs through the same measures...

^^^^^^^ Yup, weigh that Unique charge!

 

[Quint]

Thanks for all your suggestions. I loaded 5.6 grains of Trail Boss under 250 grain RNFP lead bullets. The point of impact is about 12 inches high at 25 yards and I can't adjust the sights any lower on my ROA. It gives a good group, about 2 inches, just 12 inches high.I'm going to load some rounds using different weights of Trail Boss to see if that will change the POI. Next I will try a different weight bullet to try and find something this ROA likes.