Which powder for .45 Colt?

[Majes]

Hey kwhi43, before ya run off. How about the .45 BPM loaded in .460 S&W Magnum, I'd love to hear a lil of your experience with that in anything.

But I am wondering if the .460 S&W Magnum will digest in modern Conversions for the walker ?????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.45_Black_Powder_Magnum_(.45_BPM)

Back on topic, I say based on my limted experience, Trailboss.

 

[Skinny 1950]

I started re-loading a couple of months ago and have tried three different powders with .45Colt using a 200 grain round nose flat point cast bullet,Goex FFFG,Triple Seven FFFG and Unique smokeless.
I tried 23 grains (Weight) Goex FFFG and filled the rest of the space with .455 Nitro cards,this worked well and if I was going to do a lot of shooting I would stick with this.
Next I filled the case with Goex and with slight compression seated the bullet with no wads this provided a bit more recoil and lots of smoke and flames. Not sure if it is worth the extra powder.
The Triple Seven FFFG load was 23 grains (weight) with Nitro cards (wads) to fill the space and provide a bit of compression, this was a fairly mild load.
Next I tried smokeless.. Unique 6.7 grains no wads or filler with the same 200 grain bullet, this proved to be less powerful than factory loads but still a fair bit of recoil.
The Unique is a lot cleaner burning obviously but not as authentic for my Uberti 1873 SAA.
I forgot to mention that I used SPG Lube in both grooves of the bullet.
I use a felt tipped marker of different colors to mark the primers so I know what is in the cartridge.

 

[J-Bar]

If you are going to commit the sacrilege (!) of loading the .45 Colt with smokeless powder, consider using Titegroup. It was designed for small powder charges in large capacity cases. I like it better than Clays for mild loads.

 

[buttrap]

Old school but I tend to stick with Unique. 7.5 grains and a 255 hard cast slug. I get the fun idea but to me its like trying to make a 1970 mach 1 run on deisel vs walkers or dragoons where you can stuff in twice what you can get in a .45 army and notice it.

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

I started re-loading a couple of months ago and have tried three different powders with .45Colt using a 200 grain round nose flat point cast bullet,Goex FFFG,Triple Seven FFFG and Unique smokeless.
I tried 23 grains (Weight) Goex FFFG and filled the rest of the space with .455 Nitro cards,this worked well and if I was going to do a lot of shooting I would stick with this.
Next I filled the case with Goex and with slight compression seated the bullet with no wads this provided a bit more recoil and lots of smoke and flames. Not sure if it is worth the extra powder.
The Triple Seven FFFG load was 23 grains (weight) with Nitro cards (wads) to fill the space and provide a bit of compression, this was a fairly mild load.
Next I tried smokeless.. Unique 6.7 grains no wads or filler with the same 200 grain bullet, this proved to be less powerful than factory loads but still a fair bit of recoil.
The Unique is a lot cleaner burning obviously but not as authentic for my Uberti 1873 SAA.
I forgot to mention that I used SPG Lube in both grooves of the bullet.
I use a felt tipped marker of different colors to mark the primers so I know what is in the cartridge.

Howdy

Since you are a new reloader, please allow me to make a few suggestions.

Don't rely on the colors of your primers to know what is in your loads. Make out a label that says exactly what is in the loads and put it on the box of ammo. You may come back in a year or two and have no idea what the colored primer means.

Using wads with Black Powder is fine, but it is more work. It is up to you if you want to save powder using wads while adding to the work at the same time. If you want to try reduced loads in 45 Colt with Black Powder without adding wads, try the 45 Schofield case or the 45 Cowboy Special case. Both have less powder capacity than the 45 Colt case.

Never, never add wads to Smokeless loads. Stick to exactly what is published either in recognized published manuals, or what the powder manufacturer's on line data says.

 

[Skinny 1950]

Driftwood
"Since you are a new reloader, please allow me to make a few suggestions."
Thanks for the suggestions,I will write down the loading info for future reference. Do the 45 Schofield cases and the Cowboy Special cases need different dies to work??

 

[ClemBert]

On occasion when I reload .45 Colt with heathen smokeless powder I use Unique. 8 grains Unique and a 250 grain RNFP lead bullet. It is clearly cheaper than BP but not as much fun. The one thing I don't like about Unique is that it doesn't meter as well as other alternative heathen powders.

 

[jmstevens2]

[
"I'd like to convert it to .45 Colt, with a loading gate and ejector rod.
I wonder if anyone makes such a conversion for the ROA?"

Kirst makes .45 conversion cylinders for an ROA, as does Howell /R&D. I have the Kirst, because one firing pin makes more sense to me than 6. But both require removal of the cylinder for loading and unloading. With enough money you could probably find a gunsmith to fit a cylinder and install an ejector rod. But the Kirst conversion is plenty of fun as is.

Kirst will do the whole thing. I just got mine back.
http://www.kirstkonverter.com/rugerarmy.html
http://www.kirstkonverter.com/gunsmithing.html

 

[Driftwood Johnson]

Do the 45 Schofield cases and the Cowboy Special cases need different dies to work??

Well, yes and no.

First off, let's start with a photo. Left to right below the cartridges are 45 Colt, 45 Schofield, 45 Cowboy Special, 45 Auto Rim and 45 ACP. This gives you an idea of the relative sizes and powder capacity of these cartridges.



Let's talk about the 45 Schofield first. Off the top of my head I think I usually load the Schofield with 1.9CC of FFg, as opposed to 2.2CC for the 45 Colt. That translates to about 28 grains of FFg Schuetzen for the Schofield round vs about 33 grains of FFg Schuetzen for 45 Colt. You may notice the Schofield bullet is very stubby. It is a 200 grain Big Lube bullet that I designed. The production molds changed the design a bit and the bullets are not quite so stubby. Anyway, the 200 grain bullet saves a little bit of lead and recoils a bit less in a revolver than the 250 grain bullet in the 45 Colt round. If you look closely, you will see that the Schofield round has a larger diameter rim than the 45 Colt rim. .520 in diameter if I recall correctly, vs .512 for 45 Colt. That is because when the cartridge was originally designed for the S&W Schofield revolver a wider rim was needed to engage the S&W extractor mechanism. The upshot is you need a different shell holder or shell plate for the Schofield round, it will not fit in the 45 Colt shell holder the way most companies make them.

Because the round is shorter, the seating/crimp die has to be screwed further into the press in order to allow the shell to ride up far enough inside to seat and crimp properly. Some brands of dies will allow you to do this, however depending on the specifics of the die, the shell plate may bump into the bottom of the die before the shell is all the way in the die. The good news is I use a standard Hornady 45 Colt die set to load 45 Schofield. This set does allow me to screw the dies in as far as needed.

So different shell holder needed, but a standard 45 Colt die set may work. Or it may not, depending on the brand.

I buy 45 Schofield brass from Starline, I'm pretty sure they are the only source of it.



The 45 Cowboy Special is a very new design. It was designed by a Cowboy shooter a few years ago who wanted to put very light loads of Smokeless into a 45 case without having the usual problems associated with light loads in the huge 45 Colt case. The 45CS mimics the 45 ACP in most aspects. It can be loaded with a standard 45 ACP die set, and the same Smokeless data for 45 ACP can be used for 45CS. However, the rim is the same dimensions as a 45 Colt, so the round will chamber in any 45 Colt revolver. This means that a standard 45 Colt shell holder or shell plate is used when loading 45CS.

Here is everything you ever wanted to know about the 45 Cowboy Special:

http://www.cowboy45special.com/

 

[Jaymo]

I won't be getting the ROA.
When I was in the store the other day, they were talking about a $350.00 price point.
When I heard from them today, they said they'd sell it to me for $900.00.
"Because it's rare."
Really, rarer than my 1976 Liberty Edition? I HIGHLY doubt it.

For that much, it had BETTER be engraved and gold plated from the factory, with factory real ivory grips.

Considering I won't get kissed first, or even get dinner and a movie, I think I'll go back to my original plan of buying a Ruger Blackhawk .44 special, or a Vaquero .45 colt, or something in .44-40

 

[arcticap]

Don't give up so easily on the 5.5" SS ROA.
The average between the $350 and $900 price tags amounts to $625.

 

[Jaymo]

Well, this one is in very good shape, not new unfired, and does not come with the box/paperwork/nipple wrench. WAY overpriced.
I think the way they got their price was by looking at the one for sale on Gunbroker, by someone in Ohio who is including the box, paperwork, and nip wrench.

What year did Ruger start making the 5.5" ROA?

For $900, I could pick up another 5.5" Pietta NMA on sale from Cabelas, and send it to Kirst to have a gated Konverter installed, an ejector installed, AND and action job plus shipping.

The ROA is a great gun, but for $600-$900 it's way overpriced.