Loading 45 Colt black powder cartridge- need some help

[Griffen]

Folks, I need some help to understand the black powder 45 Colt metallic cartridge loading specifics. I have been loading smokeless powder cartridges for many years, but never black powder. I have made some paper cartridges for my 1860 Army cap and ball revolver and that worked well. I want to load some original 45 Colt (or as close as possible) for my 1858 Remington conversion revolver.

I have read a lot here on THR about no air space, wadding, compression of powder, etc., but need some specifics as I have great respect for the hand loading process and safety. I want to use Starline 45 Colt brass, Remington 2 1/2 or Winchester WLP primers, and 250 gr RNFP lead projectiles.

There are a lot of anecdotal comments about loading 45 Colt in black powder, but I am looking for specifics that mimic the original loading. I know there are some variances in my components from original, but in this time it is what I have in hand and I have to stick with the listed components.

Comments and suggestions are welcome; thanks in advance for your comments and sharing experiences.

 

[Griffen]

BTW, Olde Enynsford FFFG powder.

 

[damoc]

Im no expert but here are a couple of my videos on reloading the 45 colt with BP.

 

[damoc]

And here.

 

[damoc]

Out of my 1858 Rem I was hoping to get about 800 FPS subs like 777 were to hot but real BP hits about that.

 

[damoc]

another one

 

[DocRock]

30-35 grs FFFg (Good powder Olde Eynsford), compress slightly (1/10”), check against bullet base where it would be seated at crimp, if there is space left, use a wad to make up the space. Seat bullet. Crimp. Enjoy.

You don’t mention bullet alloy, size, or lube.

You want a soft lead bullet with black powder as the pressures are low and you need a soft bullet to obturate. 20:1 alloy is the hardest you can really use. Below BHN 10, preferably 6-8. They should be sized to fill cylinder throats at least, preferably .001” over. And they need a soft, black powder lube: SPG Lube if you are buying, 45/45/10 beeswax/Crisco/Olive oil (for example) if you are making. Plenty of good soft lube is important.

Enjoy.

 

[Zygodactyl]

The original load for the SAA was 40 gr of black powder. A few years later the Military load was reduced to match the Scofield round.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

You will have a little bit of trouble mimicking the original Black Powder 45 Colt load with modern brass because modern Solid Head brass does not have quite as much powder capacity as the old copper, folded rim, Benet primed cartridges did, or the old Balloon Head cases did.

The two cases that have been sectioned in this photo are an old Balloon Head case on the left and a modern Solid Head case on the right. You can see how the older case could hold more powder than the modern case can.






The original loading in 1873 was 40 grains of powder under a 250 grain bullet. This is what they looked like. You can see from the cutaway photo why they were called 'folded rim'. The priming was internal, sandwiched between the rear of the case and an anvil plate pressed into position inside the case. There were two flash holes that allowed the flame from the priming compound through the anvil plate to ignite the main powder charge. These cases had the largest powder capacity and were the only ones that could actually contain 40 grains of powder without compressing the dickens out of it.






The Balloon Head cases pictured above would only hold about 37-38 grains of Black Powder.


I use a 250 grain Big Lube bullet in my 45 Colt rounds, but because the powder capacity is so much less I only put around 33.5 grains of powder into each case before seating the bullet.

Not saying you cannot stuff 40 grains into modern cases, but you will be compressing the powder a lot more than was originally done.

Loading Black Powder into cartridges is actually less fussy than loading smokeless. As long as the powder is slightly compressed, that's all you have to do. Unlike Smokeless, where an extra grain or two with some powders might turn a cartridge into a bomb, Black Powder has much less energy than Smokeless. So a grain or two or three more or less really will not matter.

I have a Remington 1858 with a 45 Colt conversion cylinder, and I can tell you that I don't really care to shoot full house 45 Colt Black Powder rounds in it. The grip shape is just different enough from a Colt that I find it uncomfortable with a 45 Colt stuffed full of powder. I prefer to shoot 45 Schofields with about 28 grains of powder under a 200 grain bullet in my Remington.










I prefer to reserve my full power 45 Colt Black Powder rounds for my Colts, the recoil is more comfortable with a Colt.






Anyway, all you have to do is pour in enough powder so that when the bullet is seated it will compress the powder by between 1/16" and 1/8". That's all there is to it. You can weigh the powder if you want, but unlike Smokeless, not all Black Powder weighs the same.

I made this chart up years ago. It shows the actual weight for a few of my favorite charges of Black Powder with reference to Lee Dippers. Notice Elephant, which is not made any more, weighed the most, Goex the least, and Schuetzen about in the middle. It really does not matter how many grains you put in, just pour in enough so that when the bullet is seated it will compress the powder by between 1/16" and 1/8". That's all there is to it.






Here is a little trick I used to use years ago. I made a little ruler with a small stick. I placed the stick so its end was at the crimp groove of a bullet, and made a mark at the base of the bullet.






Placing the stick in a case with the mark even with the case mouth I poured in enough powder so the base of the stick was covered by about 1/16" of powder. Simple, that's all there is to it. By the way, those are my wife's long fingernails, not mine.






Or you can scribe a line on the outside of the case with your calipers representing where the base of the bullet is when it is seated. Then you simply eyeball the powder charge to make sure it is slightly above the scribed line on the outside of the case.






Here is what goes into my 45 Colt loads. 2.2CC of Schuetzen FFg under a 250 grain Big Lube bullet. This charge gets compressed about 1/16" when the bullet is seated. You can see on my chart it is about 33.3 grains.






Any Large Pistol primer will be fine, I usually use Federals, but I have used Winchesters in the past. I have no experience with those Remington primers. Contrary to common belief, magnum primers are not needed for Black Powder. BP ignites more easily than Smokeless and magnum primers are not needed.

I also have no experience with Olde Enynsford but I can tell you that all other things being equal, you will see between 60fps and 100fps more velocity when using FFFg instead of FFg. I used to use FFFg in my 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, and 44 Russian ammo, reserving my FFg for 12 gauge shotgun, but I stopped stocking two different granulations years ago and only stock FFg Schuetzen these days for everything, including 45-70.

You will want to be a bit careful about what type of bullets you use. BP wants a soft, gooey bullet lube. Generally speaking, modern hard bullet lube on modern hard cast bullets tends to create hard caked fouling in the bore that becomes difficult to remove, and ruins accuracy pretty quickly. It can also tend to cause the cylinder to bind up more quickly. You have probably noticed that your 1858 Remington binds up pretty quickly with BP fouling because the cylinder lacks a bushing on the front to shield the cylinder pin from fouling blasted out of the barrel cylinder gap.

I used to pan lube regular hard cast bullets years ago with a mixture of about 50/50 Crisco/beeswax. But the skimpy lube grooves on modern bullets did not carry enough lube. It was OK for pistols, but in a rifle length barrel the bore became starved for lube about 6 inches from the muzzle and had to be swabbed out to restore accuracy. I tried all the standard tricks, lube cookies, wads, lube on top of the bullet. Way too much work.

That's why I went to the Big Lube bullets years ago. They have huge lube grooves and carry enough soft, gooey bullet lube to keep a rifle barrel lubed its entire length, and keep a revolver rolling without the cylinder binding. On the left is one of my 44-40 rounds and on the right is one of my 45 Colt rounds. Next to each is the Big Lube bullet I use with them. I have stripped the lube out of one bullet to show how huge the lube groove is.






Here are the bullets I use for BP. The four on the left are all Big Lube bullets for 38-40, 44-40, 45 Schofield, and 45 Colt. The big 405 grain 45-70 bullet is more of a traditioinal design, and all way on the right is one of my old pan lubed 45 Colt bullets. Notice how skimpy the lube groove is.







Anyway, that's all there is to it. Don't sweat the last grain or two. Pour in enough powder to be compressed about 1/16" to 1/8" and seat your bullet. Did I mention that's all there is to it?

 

[treedoc1]

Here's what that recipe looks like pistol and rifle. 2.2 cc dipper 250 gr big lube

 

[Griffen]

Thanks for all the info; it is a great help. The only bullets I have used and have on hand are Magnus 902’s that only have the small hard lube for smokeless cartridges. I’ll look for the Big Lube bullets.

The Magnus bullets are a .452 diameter 250gr cowboy load bullet. I don’t know the hardness spec and the lube ring is much smaller that the Big Lube bullet and seems to be a hard wax of some sort. They shoot very well through all my pistols and rifles. The accuracy of the smokeless load in my Winchester 92 SRC is excellent and I was shocked at how accurate they were at 50 yards with my Uberti 1858 Remington conversion.

I recently picked up an 1860 Army cap and ball and really enjoyed the black powder loads in it with paper cartridges and thought I would give a go at making black powder metallics for the 1858 and see how that worked.

Thanks again to everyone for the wealth of information.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

You will not find Big Lube bullets on the shelf anywhere.

You can buy a mold from Big Lube.

http://www.biglube.com/

I used to cast my own from pure lead, or lead with a small amount of tin added. Too much lead in my blood now, so I buy my Big Lube bullets from:

http://www.whyteleatherworks.com/BigLube.html

 

[.38 Special]

Not much to add to @Driftwood Johnson's post. The process really is that simple. I load enough that I bought a Lyman BP measure, so once I use the dowel trick to determine my charge, I weigh it and then set the measure. I am another fan of the Big Lube bullets so bought some molds right away. I use pure lead in mine.

 

[whughett]

For fun, fire and smoke fill your case brim full of the powder of your choice. Tap it lightly to settle the powder, start your 250 grain bullet and seat to the crimp groove roll crimp.
For more serious target work measure your bullets base to crimp groove note that depth on your case and fill to that Mark plus a 1/16 to 1/8 for compression.
For instance, I load 28 grains, by weight, of 3F, a card cut from a wax milk carton, a 1/8 wool felt wad lubed 50/50 bees wax and crisco, and a 230 grain round nose bullet seated and crimped .
I use the same load for a 200 grain round nose flat point, RNFP, bullet
I cast and use bullets from primarily range back stop lead, sized and tumble lubed with liquid Alox. Never paid much attention to lead alloy as I have no way of testing it. But then again I’m just paper punching.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

As has been mentioned you can't get the original powder charge in modern day brass. Plain and simple cut to the chase.

Prep and prime your brass as normal. Charge case using a 2.2cc Lee dipper or around 34-36 grains of powder depending on brand but essentially fill the case to within about 1/8 inch from the top. Seat either a 200 grain 200J/P big lube or the 250 grain PRS big lube bullet.

Just seat the bullet compressing the powder with the bullet, no need to get all fancy with separate compression stems on these pistol caliber loads, I shoot hundreds a year in CAS done just this way.

Use 2f or 3f powder, I normally use 2f. 3f will give you a little more velocity especially the 3f Olde E or Swiss.

 

[J-Bar]

Put the bullets you have on paper towels on a shallow cookie sheet, put them in the oven at 150-200 degrees for a few minutes to melt the lube off the bullets. After cooling dip the base of the bullet in melted beeswax/Crisco up over the lube groove. I use long handled surgical forceps to hold the bullet for dipping, then place the coated bullet on waxed paper to allow the lube to set. Allow the lube covering the base to stay on there. It acts like the “cookie” or wad some folks put between powder and bullet. Load ‘em into the charged cases and shoot’em. You will get a little lube in your dies but it cleans out easily. It’s worked for me for over 20 years. Regular (not Big Lube) bullets shoot just dandy this way.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

I can *Easily* stuff 40 grains of 3FG Goex in a starline case. But i dont. I use 35 grains 3f Goex with a nice lee factory crimp and thats plenty hot enough for me. Ive used starline cases and still do but finally bought some winchester cases and there is a noticeable difference. I love Starline but these Winchester's are darn good cases

 

[Jimster]

Now you guys are talking my language!

 

[PapaG]

Howdy

You will have a little bit of trouble mimicking the original Black Powder 45 Colt load with modern brass because modern Solid Head brass does not have quite as much powder capacity as the old copper, folded rim, Benet primed cartridges did, or the old Balloon Head cases did.

The two cases that have been sectioned in this photo are an old Balloon Head case on the left and a modern Solid Head case on the right. You can see how the older case could hold more powder than the modern case can.

View attachment 988187




The original loading in 1873 was 40 grains of powder under a 250 grain bullet. This is what they looked like. You can see from the cutaway photo why they were called 'folded rim'. The priming was internal, sandwiched between the rear of the case and an anvil plate pressed into position inside the case. There were two flash holes that allowed the flame from the priming compound through the anvil plate to ignite the main powder charge. These cases had the largest powder capacity and were the only ones that could actually contain 40 grains of powder without compressing the dickens out of it.

View attachment 988188

Anybody that feels The need to add to this needs his head examined. Great job, D.


The Balloon Head cases pictured above would only hold about 37-38 grains of Black Powder.


I use a 250 grain Big Lube bullet in my 45 Colt rounds, but because the powder capacity is so much less I only put around 33.5 grains of powder into each case before seating the bullet.

Not saying you cannot stuff 40 grains into modern cases, but you will be compressing the powder a lot more than was originally done.

Loading Black Powder into cartridges is actually less fussy than loading smokeless. As long as the powder is slightly compressed, that's all you have to do. Unlike Smokeless, where an extra grain or two with some powders might turn a cartridge into a bomb, Black Powder has much less energy than Smokeless. So a grain or two or three more or less really will not matter.

I have a Remington 1858 with a 45 Colt conversion cylinder, and I can tell you that I don't really care to shoot full house 45 Colt Black Powder rounds in it. The grip shape is just different enough from a Colt that I find it uncomfortable with a 45 Colt stuffed full of powder. I prefer to shoot 45 Schofields with about 28 grains of powder under a 200 grain bullet in my Remington.

View attachment 988189



View attachment 988190




I prefer to reserve my full power 45 Colt Black Powder rounds for my Colts, the recoil is more comfortable with a Colt.

View attachment 988191




Anyway, all you have to do is pour in enough powder so that when the bullet is seated it will compress the powder by between 1/16" and 1/8". That's all there is to it. You can weigh the powder if you want, but unlike Smokeless, not all Black Powder weighs the same.

I made this chart up years ago. It shows the actual weight for a few of my favorite charges of Black Powder with reference to Lee Dippers. Notice Elephant, which is not made any more, weighed the most, Goex the least, and Schuetzen about in the middle. It really does not matter how many grains you put in, just pour in enough so that when the bullet is seated it will compress the powder by between 1/16" and 1/8". That's all there is to it.

View attachment 988192




Here is a little trick I used to use years ago. I made a little ruler with a small stick. I placed the stick so its end was at the crimp groove of a bullet, and made a mark at the base of the bullet.

View attachment 988193




Placing the stick in a case with the mark even with the case mouth I poured in enough powder so the base of the stick was covered by about 1/16" of powder. Simple, that's all there is to it. By the way, those are my wife's long fingernails, not mine.

View attachment 988194




Or you can scribe a line on the outside of the case with your calipers representing where the base of the bullet is when it is seated. Then you simply eyeball the powder charge to make sure it is slightly above the scribed line on the outside of the case.

View attachment 988195




Here is what goes into my 45 Colt loads. 2.2CC of Schuetzen FFg under a 250 grain Big Lube bullet. This charge gets compressed about 1/16" when the bullet is seated. You can see on my chart it is about 33.3 grains.

View attachment 988196




Any Large Pistol primer will be fine, I usually use Federals, but I have used Winchesters in the past. I have no experience with those Remington primers. Contrary to common belief, magnum primers are not needed for Black Powder. BP ignites more easily than Smokeless and magnum primers are not needed.

I also have no experience with Olde Enynsford but I can tell you that all other things being equal, you will see between 60fps and 100fps more velocity when using FFFg instead of FFg. I used to use FFFg in my 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, and 44 Russian ammo, reserving my FFg for 12 gauge shotgun, but I stopped stocking two different granulations years ago and only stock FFg Schuetzen these days for everything, including 45-70.

You will want to be a bit careful about what type of bullets you use. BP wants a soft, gooey bullet lube. Generally speaking, modern hard bullet lube on modern hard cast bullets tends to create hard caked fouling in the bore that becomes difficult to remove, and ruins accuracy pretty quickly. It can also tend to cause the cylinder to bind up more quickly. You have probably noticed that your 1858 Remington binds up pretty quickly with BP fouling because the cylinder lacks a bushing on the front to shield the cylinder pin from fouling blasted out of the barrel cylinder gap.

I used to pan lube regular hard cast bullets years ago with a mixture of about 50/50 Crisco/beeswax. But the skimpy lube grooves on modern bullets did not carry enough lube. It was OK for pistols, but in a rifle length barrel the bore became starved for lube about 6 inches from the muzzle and had to be swabbed out to restore accuracy. I tried all the standard tricks, lube cookies, wads, lube on top of the bullet. Way too much work.

That's why I went to the Big Lube bullets years ago. They have huge lube grooves and carry enough soft, gooey bullet lube to keep a rifle barrel lubed its entire length, and keep a revolver rolling without the cylinder binding. On the left is one of my 44-40 rounds and on the right is one of my 45 Colt rounds. Next to each is the Big Lube bullet I use with them. I have stripped the lube out of one bullet to show how huge the lube groove is.

View attachment 988197




Here are the bullets I use for BP. The four on the left are all Big Lube bullets for 38-40, 44-40, 45 Schofield, and 45 Colt. The big 405 grain 45-70 bullet is more of a traditioinal design, and all way on the right is one of my old pan lubed 45 Colt bullets. Notice how skimpy the lube groove is.

View attachment 988198





Anyway, that's all there is to it. Don't sweat the last grain or two. Pour in enough powder to be compressed about 1/16" to 1/8" and seat your bullet. Did I mention that's all there is to it?

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

I can *Easily* stuff 40 grains of 3FG Goex in a starline case. But i dont. I use 35 grains 3f Goex with a nice lee factory crimp and thats plenty hot enough for me. Ive used starline cases and still do but finally bought some winchester cases and there is a noticeable difference. I love Starline but these Winchester's are darn good cases

Are you talking weight or volume because you cannot "easily" fit 40 grains by volume because 40 grains actually spills over the case. You can only put in a lesser amount, compress then add more and compress the hell out of it in order to get the bullet in. I know a few including myself who have experimented and doing that gets very little extra velocity over a crony compared to the more modern standard load of around 35 grains.

So little difference it's certainly not worth the hassle and certainly misleading to say it's easy since it takes a couple more extra steps and a compression stem which many people don't have.

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

Are you talking weight or volume because you cannot "easily" fit 40 grains by volume because 40 grains actually spills over the case. You can only put in a lesser amount, compress then add more and compress the hell out of it in order to get the bullet in. I know a few including myself who have experimented and doing that gets very little extra velocity over a crony compared to the more modern standard load of around 35 grains.

So little difference it's certainly not worth the hassle and certainly misleading to say it's easy since it takes a couple more extra steps and a compression stem which many people don't have.

40 grains by volume.
Maybe our cases are different because like i said earlier i can *easily* fit 40 grains of 3Fby volume into a starline case. Telling me i cant easily fit 40 grains in a case is ridiculous and childish. Its like saying im lien'. Just because something may not work for you doesnt mean its the same for everybody. Btw i dont have a compression stem either. A youtuber named plowboys ghost shows 40 grains easily fits into the same starline cases I use.

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

40 grains by volume.
Maybe our cases are different because like i said earlier i can *easily* fit 40 grains of 3Fby volume into a starline case. Telling me i cant easily fit 40 grains in a case is ridiculous and childish. Its like saying im lien'. Just because something may not work for you doesnt mean its the same for everybody. Btw i dont have a compression stem either. A youtuber named plowboys ghost shows 40 grains easily fits into the same starline cases I use.

I literally just took a 45 Colt Starline case and 40 grains of 3f Goex, 3f KIK, and 3f Schutzen measured and it overflows the case so nothing has changed since I last tried it years ago. I'm certain my Starline cases are no different and I tried it with two different powder measures including one that looks just like the one in the video you are referring too so I call BS on anybody including a youtuber named blowboys. Now I don't know what kind of brass he was using but it does not fit in a Starline case. I am including a pic to show. I tapped it to settle just like he mentioned and when you remove the funnel it's still heaped and powder spills over. No way you are going to just seat a bullet without making a mess.

As Driftwood said we are not saying it can't be done but you have to really stuff to get 40 grains in under a 250 grain bullet and as I mentioned I've actually cronied the loads and there is very little difference between doing that and using around 35 grains.

40 Grains In 45colt

• Cowhide Cliff
• Mar 30, 2021

 

[Blackpowderwarrior]

I appreciaye your response and i dont know how it forsnt fit for you or others. I use a regular black powder volume measure and 40 fits fine for me. 3f Goex.

 

[DocRock]

I appreciaye your response and i dont know how it forsnt fit for you or others. I use a regular black powder volume measure and 40 fits fine for me. 3f Goex.

If so, your measure is wrong.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Again

Lets all step back from the keyboards for a moment and take a deep breath.

Remember I posted this earlier? It shows that not all Black Powder weighs the same. A small sample I made up years ago, using the standard volume measurements in Cubic Centimeters from the Lee Dipper Set.






There is no such thing as Grains/Volume. I have had this argument over and over again on this forum as well as many others. My chart proves it. Any specific volume of Black Powder will vary in weight depending on manufacturer, granulation, and even lot number. I know lots of guys are going to get upset about this, but despite what has been written for years and years, there is no such thing as Grains/Volume. Grains are a measurement of weight, or mass. It is part of the Avoirdupois system that we have been using in this country and Europe for hundreds of years. There are exactly 7000 grains to a pound. Period.


In the interest of science, I just conducted a little experiment. I took a standard Black Powder measure and set it to 40 grains. It might be a little bit difficult to see, but it is set at the 40 grains hashmark. I filled the measure with Schuetzen FFg, which is the standard Black Powder I use for everything, then I dumped it in a powder scale and weighed it. You can see the result. The weight was 39.7 grains. I was actually surprised how close this was to 40 grains of actual weight.






Then I poured the 39.7 grains into a standard Starline 45 Colt case. I did not tap, shake, or stir the case, I just poured it in carefully, directly from the brass scale pan into the case mouth. it is a bit difficult to see in this lighting, but it actually all fit into the case. It filled the case to maybe 3/32" or so from the top.






Then I repeated the experiment, with a new '40 grain' charge from the brass BP measure. This time it weighed a bit more, 41.0 grains. Yes, it filled the 45 case up a bit more, than the previous charge, because there was actually more powder there. Then I gently tapped the case to settle the powder a bit in the case. This photo shows the result, the actual 41.0 grains of Schuetzen FFg after tapping and settling settled down to a little bit lower in the case, maybe 1/8" from the top.






Conclusions:

1. Black Powder measures of this sort are not very accurate. I suspect if I had kept the measure set at 40 grains, and weighed a whole bunch of charges I would have seen significant variation in charge weights. This would be dependent on how consistent I could be with the measure, always trickling the powder into it at the same rate, being consistent in whether or not I tapped it, and most important, this is the type of BP measure that one 'shaves off' the excess powder by closing the pour spout. Being consistent in leveling off the powder in the measure would be important to keeping the charges consistent.

2. Using Schuetzen FFg, it is indeed possible to pour 40 grains into the case. This did surprise me. But I stand by what I said earlier that I would have to compress the dickens out of this charge in order to seat a bullet.

Here is a photo of my standard 45 Colt Black Powder load. 2.2CCs of powder. Notice how much lower the charge of powder is in the case compared to the '40 grain' charge above. This is the way I like to load 45 Colt, the bullet will compress the powder somewhere between 1/16" - 1/8" when it is seated. I would be compressing the charge shown above much more than that in order to seat my favorite 45 Colt bullet, the Big Lube PRS 250 grain bullet.







3. I only did this experiment with the powder I have on hand, Schuetzen FFg. All bets are off with other powders. Refer back to my chart. Elephant FFg (which is no longer made) weighed significantly more than Schuetzen or Goex. If I weighed 40 grains of Elephant FFg (which I cannot do because I don't have any more) and poured it into a modern 45 Colt case, my guess is it would overflow. If I portioned it out with the Black Powder measure, it would probably fit exactly as my charge of Schuetzen did, because I would be measuring the powder by volume, not by weight. The same with other brands and granulations of powder. I don't have anything else on hand to experiment with, so the experiment has to end here.



4. There is absolutely nothing wrong with measuring Black Powder by volume. This is my set up for loading Black Powder cartridges. I have a Lyman Black Powder measure mounted on my Hornady Lock and Load AP progressive press.






Here is a view of the interior of the Lyman BP measure, showing the metering rotor inside.






Here is one of the rotors.





I buy old Lyman smokeless powder measures cheap when I find them on the white elephant table at gun shows and use the rotors from them for my BP measure. They are no different than the rotors that came with the Lyman BP measure. I keep different rotors set for the standard charges I use in my Black Powder cartridges. That way when changing cartridges I am loading, I can quickly pop one rotor out and pop a different one in and it is already preset to measure out the charge I want. Yes, the rotor labeled 45 Colt, 44-40 is set to measure out 2.2CC of powder. I use the same charge in both cartridges.






Measuring Black Powder by volume with a powder measure like this is no different than using a standard Smokeless powder measure, they both measure the powder by volume.

However, I never, ever use the term Grains/Volume when I refer to loading Black Powder. I either quote the actual weight in grains, or use a standard, internationally recognized volume measurement, such as Cubic Centimeters. Yes, the world changed to Milliliters years ago, but a Milliliter is exactly the same as a Cubic Centimeter, Lee just has not caught up with the rest of the world yet. In order to make my BP charges as consistent as possible, I strive to throw the handle on the BP measure with the same amount of force for every charge. The mechanics of a BP measure like my Lyman BP measure make consistency easier to achieve, charge to charge than with a BP measure like this:






Yes, I said earlier that it does not really matter with Black Powder if charges vary a grain or two or three. Guys shooting BPCR (Black Powder Cartridge Rifle) competitions will dispute that, they will make every effort to be sure the exact same amount of powder goes into every cartridge. But for my usual BP cartridges that I shoot in CAS, I don't worry too much if there is a slight variation from cartridge to cartridge.


5. If I had poured the powder into the case using a drop tube, it probably would have settled down lower than pouring it directly into the case mouth. I only use my drop tube for my 45-70 loads, because I want them to be a bit more consistent. Powder falling 2 feet through a drop tube will pack more densely and more consistently than it will when poured directly into the case mouth. Gravity does that. So if I wanted to go to the trouble to use a drop tube to get 40 grains of powder into a 45 Colt case, it probably would work. (The SAA is only in the photo to give a sense of scale. That is a 45-70 case sitting at the bottom of the drop tube.)






I am too lazy to take the trouble to use a drop tube with all my Black Powder cartridges. 45-70 is a different story, I take more time with them and use the drop tube. Everything else, 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 44-40, 44 Russian, and 38-40 gets loaded on my Hornady progressive press. The Lyman BP powder measure dumps the powder directly into the case mouth. This photo shows how full a 45 Colt case is with 2.2CC of powder dropped from the Lyman powder measure. Just the right amount for the amount of compression I want.