Reloading 45 Colt for the first time. Questions

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Lots of good advise here! One thing I quickly learned, was the different lengths of all the different case stamps. The modern 45 Colt will shoot any length, but they should all be the same in order to crimp your bullet correctly. I ended up buying new Starline Brass. I still check the length and trim as required. I found differences as much as .040. I also suggest running your loads thru a Chronograph. Especially if your going to play with plus loads. A fun load for me is a 200gr coated lead bullet with 7.0 HP38 with a 915 fps average. A real fun load is a 250gr Hornady XTP with 23.0 gr of H110 with a 1300 fps average. I'm shooting a new Ruger Blackhawk with a 7.5 barrel. Your results may vary, But a big warning!! Do not run any plus loads thru a vintage fire arm!!!
 
LD-Ordie said:
Lots of good advise here! One thing I quickly learned, was the different lengths of all the different case stamps. The modern 45 Colt will shoot any length, but they should all be the same in order to crimp your bullet correctly. I ended up buying new Starline Brass. I still check the length and trim as required. I found differences as much as .040. I also suggest running your loads thru a Chronograph. Especially if your going to play with plus loads. A fun load for me is a 200gr coated lead bullet with 7.0 HP38 with a 915 fps average. A real fun load is a 250gr Hornady XTP with 23.0 gr of H110 with a 1300 fps average. I'm shooting a new Ruger Blackhawk with a 7.5 barrel. Your results may vary, But a big warning!! Do not run any plus loads thru a vintage fire arm!!!
Click to expand...
A basic case trimmer outfit from Hornady saves me from having to rely on the trim length uniformity of new brass. I bother trimming handgun brass in order to get a consistent crimp on revolver cartridges.
 
You guys are awesome, thank you! I've gotten them sized, primed, and now I'm flaring the cases. Going to make a dummy test without powder then going to start loading them! :eek:
 
Here is the crimp I put on the rounds, it is hard to see die to the lighting. Anyways below is a few reloads from today and two of the guns they will be coming out of. Thanks again guys and Merry Christmas!



 
I don't know what you're spending on the brass, but back when I was about to buy my Colt, it wasn't that much more to buy the ammo than all the sources I could find for new brass. That was at the height of the ammo dry run, though. I bought my ammo from Georgia Arms.

All the .45 Colt I've bought from Georgia Arms has been Starline brass. They use new brass in their loads.

They run about $27 for a pack of 50 in 250 gr, loaded to 725 fps. Canned heat will get you a 500 round can for $265. You can go with the 200 gr rounds and save another $5 or so. So what you get is a fair price on factory new loads which you can start shooting right away, secure in the knowledge that you'll have plenty of once-fired Starline brass as a result.

Just a thought!
 
LD-Ordie said:
One thing I quickly learned, was the different lengths of all the different case stamps. The modern 45 Colt will shoot any length, but they should all be the same in order to crimp your bullet correctly. I ended up buying new Starline Brass.
Click to expand...
Yep, but I just trimmed all my range brass instead of buying new. Starline is very consistent though, and eliminates the need to trim. I did do that for .32 Long & .32 Mag, since I rarely find it at the range.
 
Stopsign32v said:
I don't want to start high, thanks for this information. I haven't gotten that far, I just know a lot of people like 8gr.
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They do. The advice to start lower is good... 8-8.5 grains Unique isn't a powderpuff load and "will buck some" as noted above. Search my recent threads if you want to see an evaluation I did with these bullets and a bunch of different powders.
 
I think I have found my place to come for reloading help :thumbup: You guys are a ton of quick friendly help!
 
1KPerDay said:
They do. The advice to start lower is good... 8-8.5 grains Unique isn't a powderpuff load and "will buck some" as noted above. Search my recent threads if you want to see an evaluation I did with these bullets and a bunch of different powders.
Click to expand...

I'm doing that right now.
 
Those look pretty good. you might want to crimp a tad more so there's not a gap between the case mouth and the groove at the very top. They will probably be fine though. Nice pistols!
 
I loaded about 80 myself today. I used AA No 5 and Bullseye. 255 Grain bullets. I would have preferred Unique, but my dad wouldn't let me borrow a cup and Bullseye and Win 231 was all I could find in the local area. I used the No 5 because the pound was almost empty. Then started on the Bullseye. Will test them tomorrow. Not really looking to work up a load just yet. Will wait til spring. Trying some proven loads that others have published that are well within safe levels. Your loads certainly look good.
 
Tough to see at that angle, but it looks like it is seated OK, but not enough roll crimp to move the case mouth fully down into the crimp groove. It may well be all the crimp you need though.

265 Gr in .45 Colt.
Medium Roll Crimp on a .45 Colt 265 Gr SWC-HP Pic 1.JPG
 
So am I good to go with shooting these loads? I plan to head to the range day after tomorrow.
 
One potential issue I did not see covered: In a Ruger 45 NV, overall length does matter. Anything over 1.60" or so with the Missouri Bullet LSWC 255 grain bullets I use, will not fully seat in the cylinder and will rub the cartridge back against the recoil shield or jam when cycling the cylinder, even if only a few thousandths long. This can also cause the hand to break.

I found this out the hard way and with the LWSC bullet I use from MBC. I also found the crimp seems to work/fit well at 1.600 inches or several thousandths shorter.

Not sure what implications a "too" long cartridge has for the Uberti.
 
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For my Uberti 1873 Rifle, too long is a major pain in the butt. So I measure carefully. For a pistol not as sure. That's where dummy rounds come in handy.
 
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