Driftwood Johnson
Member
I'm surprised you never have used fillers before. I use Cream of Wheat. For something like .45 Colt, I fill with 30 grains of powder and top off with Cream of Wheat and a grease cookie, such that you "hear the CRUNCH".
I did not say I have never used fillers. I said I used them a long time ago.
I was trying to reduce my 45 Colt loads for shooting in my 1858 Remingtons with their cartridge conversion cylinders.
The grip shape of the 1858 Remington is just different enough from the grip of a Colt that recoil with a full load of Black Powder under a 250 grain bullet was a little bit unpleasant.
And the frame where the loading lever pokes through is very thin. It concerned me running full power BP loads that might damage the frame at that weak spot.
So I experimented for a while putting a little bit of corn meal on top of my reduced powder charge in my BP 45s for the Remmie.
I also messed with lube cookies under the bullet at this time. I found that without a card between the bullet and the soft lube the lube would get glued to the base of the bullet. Then the bullet would fly like a lopsided dart, ruining accuracy. So I wound up putting in the powder, then a card to separate the lube from the powder, then the lube, then another card to separate the bullet from the lube. Way too much work! It was about this time that I discovered the Big Lube series of bullets. They carry so much soft lube on them that any of that extra stuff is not necessary. I just pour in the powder then seat the Big Lube bullet on top and compress it a little bit. So much simpler.
Fine tuning my BP loads for my Remmie also led to the development of the Big Lube J/P 45-200 bullet. I designed this bullet with the help of another Cowboy Shooter. At the time, only a 250 grain Big Lube bullet was available for 45 Colt. I designed the 200 grain bullet for loading into 45 Schofield cases. With their smaller powder capacity, only about 28.5 grains of Schuetzen FFg, and the lighter bullet, my BP Schofield loads became very comfortable to shoot in my pair of cartridge conversion Remmies.