Shot my Colt SAA today loaded with black powder.

[jphendren]

Took out the Colt SAA in .45 Colt today and fired 45 rounds of .45 Colt loaded with black powder. My first impression is that the black powder rounds have noticebly more recoil than their smokeless counterparts. My gun has the black rubber grips with the checkering, my palms feel like they have been sanded off

Anyways, the SAA handled the fouling just fine and didn't bind up at all. It was starting to have more drage than when it was clean but still functioned fine. Gun shot to point of aim with lots of cool smoke.

Anyways, it was a lot of fun and if any of you have an SAA you should give it a try as black powder was what the SAA was designed for. The only downside is that cleaning is a bit of a chore, definitely not as easy as cleaning my Colt 1860.

 

[sixgun MAK]

Shooting cowboy guns was meant to be done with blackpowder

 

[scrat]

Wow looks like a lot of us went shooting today.

 

[Dienekes]

I still have about 10-15 rounds of BP .45 Colt rounds that I loaded up in 1976. Fired off 5 of them last year (fairly spectacular & fun) and will repeat each 5 years.

Don't mind cleaning up the gun but the brass is a bit of a nuisance.

 

[English Bob]

+1 That's what they work best with.....that new smokeless stuff is rubbish and will never catch on!

Did you have a lube cookie in the case? I often found that adding a cookie enabled me to keep on shooting with no binding problems.....you just have to have less powder that's all.

 

[flibuste]

What lube in 45 Colt BP cartridge ?

What do you use : lube pill, cornmeal, crisco , in addition to black powder to lubricate barrel ?

And how do you clean the empty brass after ?

Thanks

 

[BullRunBear]

I just had my second session with 45 LC blackpowder loads in a stainless New model Vaquero. Used 25 grs. 3F Goex (measured with a Lee dipper and weighed the first one as a check), a Wonder Wad over the powder, a 255 gr. LSWC and large pistol primer. The case can hold more but it was a starting point. This load shot to point of aim (well, as good as I can shoot it) and the recoil was lighter than my smokeless loads. Very pleasant. Even my tiny wife had no discomfort with the recoil and she is sensitive to such things.

To clean the brass, I just soak them in a solution of Simple Green cleaner and very hot water. This is the same stuff I use to clean the gun. After 30 minutes I use an old 45 caliber bore brush to do the insides, rinse in clean hot water and lay them out on newspaper to dry. The next day I clean out the primer pocket with a little Lee hand tool while listening to a book-on-tape. You can tumble the cases once they are dry if you want but I'm not sure that is necessary.

This is my first attempt with BP cartridges and I am hooked. Fun, ain't it.

Regards, Jeff

 

[English Bob]

What do you use : lube pill, cornmeal, crisco , in addition to black powder to lubricate barrel ?

And how do you clean the empty brass after ?

Thanks

To make the lube pill/grease cookie I bought a lube ribbon extruder from Lee Shave which extrudes a 1/8" ribbon which you simply press the mouth of the case into and hey presto job done.

Over the powder I place a thin wax disc cut from beeswax sheets which I pre-cut with a wad-punch. This is pressed down onto the powder then in goes the lube as described followed by a card wad of .030 thickness.

I have used SPG, Lyman BP Gold, La Graisse Bleu and a mix of 50/50 Bore butter - beeswax all seemed to keep the fouling soft and virtually eliminate binding up. The 50/50 miw works very well for the cookies. I have actually used 'wonderwads' before and just added extra Wonderlube 1000 or Bore butter to them but they do take up quite a bit of space in the case. They do work very well though if you can live with the lower power of the load.

The beeswax disc is in there to stop the lube migrating into the powder, which can happen especially when it's hot weather.

To clean the cases afterwards I bought a rotary tumbler which uses ceramic media and water to which I add a capful of RCBS Sidewinder Cleaning Liquid. I place the fired case directly into water after depriming them on the range. This starts them soaking and then pop them into the tumbler when I get back home. I find the tumbler is the finest time saver I have ever used and the case come out looking better than new, even the inside cets cleaned. I tend to leave them in for two hours and then dry them in a tepid oven or just in a warm room.

Bought the tumbler in the UK for about fifty quid, it's the same thing they use for polishing stones but it works well on cases. RCBS sell one called the Sidewinder and the Thumler B1 Tumbler as sold by Buffalo Arms is also meant to be a very good machine.

What BullRunBear is doing with his brush is also a very good idea, Buffalo Arms even sell a dedicated brush for this purpose and it is a very good step to take and aids accuracy and prolongs case life.

Hope this helps.

 

[sundance44s]

Smokeless Powders ...Just a passing fad ! not to mention boreing !

 

[jphendren]

I used a Goex Black Dawg lead bullet lubed with two rings of SPG. I measured the driving band of the bullet and just filled the case up with powder so that the bullet would slightly compress the powder. In my case it took about 33.5gr of Swiss FFFg in a W-W case. I used WLP primers. My SAA never really had any binding issues after 45 of these; after about 35 or so it started to get a little bit sticky so I just wiped off the front of the cylinder with a sock and everything was back to normal.

Recoil was fairly stout in my 5.5" SAA, it felt stronger than any modern smokeless .45 Colt cartridges that I have fired. I may have to try some filler to reduce the charge or maybe use some of my .45 S&W cases that I have as they have reduced powder capacity compared to .45 Colts.

What is the best way to clean an SAA after black powder? I removed the cylinder and base pin and put them in a plastic tub of hot dish soapy water which worked well, however the barrel doesn't come off of an SAA like it does on a percussion Colt. Do you dunk the whole barrel/frame/action in water too? I am scared of rusting the action's internals.

 

[English Bob]

Well what your doing there will work pretty well but it would be a good idea to strip it down once a year depending on how much shooting you do. The advantage with the cartridge of course is most of the mess gets blown up the barrel as opposed to into the action as it does with cap and ball revolvers.

The barrel would be best cleaned with a good BP solvent, there are some real good ones out there now and will avoid having to dunk it in hot soapy water. You could do this by the way but then a good drying with an air line is a nice way to blow any water away before giving it a good covering with oil.

 

[barman]

You need to completely strip down your SAA at least once in a while, for THE big clean-up.
You shouldn't feel afraid of doing so as the mechanism is really simple and well designed.
All the small parts can be cleaned up either with BP solvent or soapy water, and after that, you can dry them with a blow dryer. Don't forget to oil everything once the parts are really dry.