Using 45 Long Colt Brass to shoot Balls

[Come On Christmas]

Please no obvious one liners . . .

 

I am considering buying a Kirst Cartridge Converter for my new Remmie 1858 in 45 long Colt.

 

P.M. me how much 777 or black powder ya use. (please observe wire rulez.)

 

The guy shooting same on YouTube uses filler?

 

Lube?

 

How do ya seat the ball? What size ball? .450 .454 .457?

 

Do ya crimp to keep them seated or what?

 

Accuracy?

 

Shameless

[Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440]

Make yer life easier, get some short brass (Yeah, short brass, a novel idea, they call it Cowboy .45 Special) and use EPP-UG or Slim's Big Lube bullets. About the same weight as a round ball, but carries sufficient lube with no need for cookies, etc. The short case will slow the rounds down out of the super fast zone, and cut yer powder bill in half. Now, if ya wanna use subs like 777 or APP, use a regular 160 instead and ya can use plain smokeless bullets. There is a 130 out there also, but it's lighter than a round ball.

[Come On Christmas]

My rifle is a 44/40 Yellow Boy. The cartridges look too similar. Balls are cheap.

 

Wow! Look at this!

 

 

Shameless

[Doc Silverfinger, SASS#3444]

....Well, I have had NO experience with this in black powder, nor have I ever loaded a .45 Colt case with a round ball........

 

.......but.......

 

......I HAVE loaded .45 ACP cases with .454 pure lead roundballs, for my .45ACP revolvers.

 

I flood-coated the roundballs first with Lee Liquid Alox, and seated the roundballs to their halfway point in the case, ahead of a (small or minimum) charge of bullseye. I used a minimal crimp. At 50 feet, they were surprisingly very accurate-but grouped a bit low. You'd probably get similar results with the .45 Colt case, but since you're using BP, I might use a different lube. Results may vary.

Doc

[Come On Christmas]

Here is a guy shooting the cartridge I am speaking of -

 

[Three Foot Johnson]

I've experimented with round balls and Trail Boss in the .45 Colt, but got poor to mediocre results in everything except my three 1872 Open Tops. I use a .457" cast round ball and seat it almost flush with the case mouth (gotta be above the case mouth to be legal), then smear some solid stick grease around the mouth. No idea what the grease is, but it works. We used it at a plant I once worked at to lube the race of a large nodulizer drum - they're about 3" square and a foot or so long. These loads are exceptionally accurate and shoot to point of aim in my '72's. I can't tell you how much TB I use, but... if you bought a dozen eggs and used half of them to make a big omelette, how many would you have left? I've also had good luck with Cowboy .45 Special cases and a slightly compressed load of BP in these three guns with the same .457" round ball seated as above.

[Colorado Coffinmaker]

In years past, the round ball load was called a "Gallery Load" and was quite popular at shooting galleries. Today ....... not so much. As previously posted, rather than messing with round ball, I'd suggest short cases, ie: the Cowboy 45 Special and 160Gr bullets. The 160Gr bullet isn't far off from the weight of a round ball and has the advantage of carrying some lube. Since most 160s are smokeless lubed, they work well with the BP Subs rather than real BP.

With smokeless, you start at the minimum listed load and work either way. I do however, suggest magnum primers with reduced charges. I don't recommend fillers with BP or Subs. Just fill the case to the bottom of the bullet or ball.

 

Coffinmaker