Trying to Reloading (Help)

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GhostyDan

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I'm new to reloading and am trying to start reloading for .45 Colt. I have a RCBS Rock Chucker, RCBS cowboy dies for .45 Colt, and some large pistol primers. I cant find a good powder to use. Also,could someone show me a recipe to follow. Any suggestions or useful links would be very helpful.

Thanks
 
What do you mean that you can't find a good powder to use? Do you mean nobody has it in stock locally or you don't know which powders are appropriate for the cartridge?
 
A fun shooting powder that is really forgiving if you are learning to reload for the 45Colt is Trail Boss. It was made for CASS, to be like black powder but in smokeless. It's recoil is light and it's fun to shoot. I load it for our old 45c handgun, and my wife loves to shoot it because it has such a light recoil. Great for plinking, but, for a beginner in reloading, it's a good powder to start with.
 
1st & foremost any reloader should have at bare minimum 2 or 3 reloading manuals.
Reloading without a couple of manuals is just plain NOT very smart.

Lyman's 49th Reloading Handbook is IMHO the best of the lot.
It has a great how-to section & the widest array of reloading data.

If you can't afford it, or just don't want to spend the money, check with your local library.
That's how I started.

Asking for data on the internet, well... the posters here are all well meaning, but we're also human
Which means we can make mistakes.

Please stay safe!
 
From what I've seen of store shelves, there's no room to be picky. Get your loadbook and get anything you can lay hand on powder-wise. If smokeless is no go, then try 3F Goex. Lots of pistol powders will work well with .45 Colt.
 
Also,could someone show me a recipe to follow.
Click to expand...


Loading manuals have dozens of them.
Not trying to sound like a prick amigo, but if you don't own a manual, you don't need to load yet. Get at least one manual first. I like both the Lyman 49th and the Speer manuals. Both are great. The internet is good for referencing, but there's still no way I would recommend anyone load without a hard copy of a manual. It's just very convenient and needs to be on or near everyone's bench.
Read them and look at the recipes and find a powder in stock that goes along with it.
I like Unique for the .45 Colt. Very versatile if you start loading other calibers too. Of course, you may not be able to find it right now.
 
FWIW, I started with Unique and 255gr rn-FP lead bullets 35 years ago, I now use either Unique or IMR Trail Boss and Hornady 255gr FP Cowboy bullets. Hornady will have data as will Hodgdon's for IMR Trail Boss and and Alliant for Unique. If you're not prepared to do a little homework and be damn careful with hand loading, please don't...your heirs and assigns will thank me for this advice.

FH
 
The way things are right now, I don't think you're going to have a lot of options as far as powder selection goes. There are several that will work well in that cartridge, it's really a matter of what is available to YOU. If you have nothing on hand, take a good reloading manual, copy the .45 Colt loads, and take the load data shopping with you while looking for powder. In this craziness, you're going to be limited to what you can find in stock someplace.
Things will get better, but right now powder is scarce in many areas.
 
Welcome to reloading and thanks for asking our advice.

GhostyDan said:
I'm new to reloading and am trying to start reloading for .45 Colt. I have a RCBS Rock Chucker, RCBS cowboy dies for .45 Colt, and some large pistol primers. I cant find a good powder to use. Also,could someone show me a recipe to follow. Any suggestions or useful links would be very helpful.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Trail Boss is my number one choice for the novice loader to begin learning with.

Once you learn the mechanics of handling and assembling the metal parts (brass, bullets and primers) the finer points of powder handling are next. TB is a forgiving powder. Not that you can afford to be sloppy, but any major mistakes will be readily apparent when you charge a case with powder (too much or too little) and every edge in safety is valuable.

For load data, get a couple of loading manuals. The early chapters describe the loading process and the latter half of the manuals have load recipes. Also, check out the "One Book, One Caliber" books from Loadbooks USA. About $10 and FILLED with load recipes from all the major publishers (but no process descriptions like other manuals, just recipes).

Lost Sheep
 
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Definitely read the stickies in the reloading section here and obtain at least one reloading manual and read it.
 
As said in #6 and #10 (and #15): You NEED a manual.

I started reloading last year. I read two manuals, cover to cover, before I even opened the press. They're fun to read, not painful.

Go get a manual or three. Read them. Learn to do this stuff right. This ain't like setting up a new computer. It's not hard, but a mistake has BIG consequences.
 
yep, read, read, read. My favorites include Lyman's 49th Reloading Handbook, Hornady Handbook 8th, and although dated, I can't say enough about Ken Waters' "Pet Loads", very informative and entertaining. All can be found at Amazon.

Hope this helps
Mike
 
Thanks for the help guys. I have 2 books the 5th and 9th edition of The ABCs of Reloading. I guess Ill get back to reading. Just for future refrence where do you get your powder? Its very expencive to order from places like midway.
 
Just for future refrence where do you get your powder? Its very expencive to order from places like midway.
Click to expand...
These days, wherever you can find it. Check local gun stores, Cabelas, Wholesale Sports, Wal-mart, if you are blessed to have one locally that actually offers firearms and reloading components for sale. Once you get more experience and have a better idea of what you like, (and avaliability returns to normal) you can order in bulk online from places like Powdervalleyinc.com; Grafs or Midsouth Shooters Supply. Other places are Wideners.com and natchezss.com. Fortunately, there are lots of different powders that should work fine in the .45 Colt. You should be able to find one of them somewhere locally or at a gunshow.
 
I usually buy powder from the local stores around here. And let me tell you, they're more expensive than Midway for sure, but I usually just buy a pound or two at a time, so if you take in the hazmat fee, it's cheaper locally.

If you have the budget to spend a couple hundred dollars at a time on powder, ordering online from Powder Valley or Weidners or somewhere like that will save you quite a bit of money. Primers are the same way. I pay $35-$40/1k locally, but online you can save money, if you can buy in bulk.

Also, ABCs of Reloading is a great book, but it doesn't take the place of a load manual. They will have dozens of recipes with several different powders and bullet weights for each caliber.

Good luck and happy loading.
 
Load data:

For $10, you can get one of the "One Book, One Caliber" books. It has no information about how to load, but it has copies of the load data from many different manuals, all for just that one cartridge.

A nice things about the book is that it is nice size (about 5" x 8") and bound so it lays flat on your loading bench open to whatever page you like.

Lost Sheep
 
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