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Mild load for 45 Colt


Fort Reno Kid

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On 2/10/2022 at 12:47 PM, Shifty Bob said:

Is 250 the popular weight?

 

200 grain bullet is most common. I load 5.0 grains of red dot. The same load of bullseye would work fine.

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I'm pretty new to the 45 Colt. I avoided the caliber as I thought that I didn't need to load for yet another cowboy round. I gues I was wrong, found a '73 rifle I liked and so began my 45 Colt journey. The previous owner had a load with 250 grain bullets, so I decided to stick with those. He was using Bullseye, and I just went with trail Boss. The load worked well. Then i added a companion handgun. And i stayed with the 250 grain. My thinking is that a 250 grain bullet seats deeper into the case, reduces the powder chamber inside the cartridge and therefore it's easier to ignite small charges more consistently. 

 

I did fool with primers, but kept the charge of 5.5 grains of Trail Boss the same. 

 

Calibre

45 Colt

Date Loaded

2021-09-05

Powder

Trail Boss

Weight in Grains

5.5 Dillon

Bullet

LEE 452-255 RF

Weight in Grains

253 → 256

Primer

CCI 300 LP

Loaded OAL

1.540"

Case

45 COLT

Weight in Grains

110

Times Loaded

 

Number loaded

 

Firearm

 

Barrel clean/fouled

 

Velocity Av

682/687

Es

16.3/8

Sd

6.85/3

Shots

5>/5<

Comments

 

 

 

 

15 ºC, Newly cast bullets. I'm using up the last of the Lyman orange lube.

 

Those are velocities in a 4 5/8" handgun. It shoots to POA in an original Vaquero. A Fed 150 primer will work, velocities are similar, but the Es and Sd are about double. 

 

I just recently acquired another '73 SRC, and it came with some ammo. I tested these and they were fairly consistent as well. The powder charge varied somewhat in the previous owners handloads and so I checked several charge weights and settled on this load of 700X. 700X has some similarities to Bullseye. It doesn't meter great but decently enough for a cowboy load. 

 

Calibre

45 Colt

Date Loaded

2021-12-24

Powder

700X

Weight in Grains

 4.6 gr

Bullet

Bullet Barn RNFP (452)

Weight in Grains

250 ± 1 gr.

Primer

CCI 300 LP

Loaded OAL

1.57"

Case

¬¬ 45 COLT

Weight in Grains

113.5 avg

Times Loaded

 

Number loaded

 

Firearm

V516

Barrel clean/fouled

 

Velocity Av

736/737

Es

30/26.7

Sd

13.3/10.7

Shots

5>/5<

Comments

 

 

 

 

A bit faster than my Trail Boss loading, but a decent load.

 

Vaquero 516 is a 451 gun, the throats of the cylinder and the grooves of the barrel are 451.

               

 

 

 

Calibre

45 Colt

Date Loaded

2021-12-26

Powder

700X

Weight in Grains

 4.6 gr

Bullet

Bullet Barn RNFP (451) *

Weight in Grains

250 ± 1 gr.

Primer

CCI 300 LP

Loaded OAL

1.57"

Case

¬¬ 45 COLT

Weight in Grains

113.5 avg

Times Loaded

 

Number loaded

 

Firearm

V516

Barrel clean/fouled

 

Velocity Av

712/699.5

Es

34.30

Sd

14/12

Shots

5>/5<

Comments

 

 

 

 

* resized.

 

Cold and windy, -2ºC

 

I used the same bullet with both tests, except that I resized the second test to 451, from the 452 they come sized at. It kinda illustrates how small variations can change performance. Both the Trail Boss load and the 700X load are decent. the TB load is a bit more consistent, the 700X can vary somewhat. The handloads I got with the gun used Fed 150 primers and a bit less powder and they worked well. I also suspect a slight variation in powder lots. 700X has had issues with consistency, Hodgdon now has it made for them by Alliant in the USA. The original 700X was an IMR product made in Canada. My powder was Canadian powder, it was also a gunshow, opened container purchase. If you want to try 700X I'd suggest chrono testing to find what charge works best. Fortunately it is a powder than seems to be more available than other powders. Of course finding Trail Boss in a store is not likely. 

 

BB

 

 

 

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Howdy Pards

 

Just a quick addendum. At last Cowboy Match couple of weeks back I fired approx 60 rds of 45 Colt using my favorite load of 5gr of Titegroup and 250 gr bullet. Hands didn’t hurt but they knew they’d had a workout.

 

Much like watab kid’s comment above, I’m not about to exit the game and want to hang onto my 45’s. That said, I suspect some lighter powder loads and lighter bullets are in my future.

 

Thanks again to all the Pards who added comments and described their pet loads. Lots of useful info.

 

Happy Trails and Adios 

 

Fort Reno Kid 

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  • 2 months later...

I just do not understand asking others for suggestions on hand  loads.  I have a long shelf of reloading manuals, loading gear and components, and places to shoot.  I reload,  mark and test various combinations when the need arises.  I've only known a couple of folks whose handloads I would shoot, and few I would give mine to.  Strange to me!

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Simply put its quite nice to see what others actually use than rely on reloading manuals always. You know what works for one man may not work or even be the plan of the other man. You already stated what you would do let it be. Cowboy up and offer a lighter load that a man with arthritis could use to stay in the game.

 

I'm still working on my 45 colt and my 45 colt and C45S APP loads. Personally my smokeless load is for C45S and is 160 gr RFN over 4.0 grains of bullseye powder.

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If you want light recoil, try 15 grains of 3F Goex behind a round ball, a lubed Wonder-Wad in a 36. caliber 1851.  

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On 2/14/2022 at 1:06 PM, Possum Stu said:

My standard CAS load is a 200 grain RNFP over 5.5 grains of Trail Boss, with Federal Magnum primers. It's worked for me so far.

Same load here for my rifle, except I don't use magnum primers unless I have no choice. Once my Trailboss stash is gone, I will use various loads from existing on hand powders and look for one that might be available long term.

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On 2/4/2022 at 10:53 AM, Rip Snorter said:

Perception of recoil is pretty subjective, and I prefer to keep loads close to real world, but I just ran off a batch of 45 Colt based on the Cowboy loads in the old Laser-Cast Manual.  250gr. Bayou Bullet, 6.5 gr 231.  Pleasant to shoot and accurate enough for SASS.  Will be shooting more formally than plinking at little rocks on a cutbank when weather improves.

My dad used win 231 for his cowboy loads. 5.7 grains with a 200 grain pil. Works well also and reduces the recoil further but not so much as the spotters mistake you for a 38 shooter. I prefer wst at 5.2 grains as it saves a little powder per round and imo is just about equivalent to the 5.7 of 231. Never had any accuracy issues at cowboy distances out to about 15 yards. 

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23 hours ago, Griff said:

If you want light recoil, try 15 grains of 3F Goex behind a round ball, a lubed Wonder-Wad in a 36. caliber 1851.  

7.5" 44/40 with 165gr big lube bullet and 15 grains of 2f is my personal favorite. But then again I've never noticed recoil when there's smoke and flames involved lol

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im going to go on record saying this thread should be a sticky for any newcomer that has interest - i was there once , had no clue what i was going to do but knew i had to do it for me , i spought out help from friends that were reloaders [ some new folks dont have that source] and from friends i trusted on sites like this that i grew to trust over a long period of exposure [ some dont have that time to spend/waste] i also had the advantage of knowing sources for what i needed , what i wanted to serve my purpose [some dont] 

 

thanks to all the contributers most everything ive learned and come to know of rifle/pistol reloading for our game is confirmed here in this one thread or at least reinforced and added to , i think its a very valuable resource that should be preserved 

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Most older, arthritic .45 Colt shooters are fine with the rifle rounds but need a reduced recoil load for handguns.  My personal solution was to go to the Cowboy .45 Special case, (bless you Adirondack Jack!), and a 160 gr bullet.   It can be loaded to near .45acp velocities, or successfully downloaded to mild, easily handled pressures. 

Using Trail Boss, the minimum I could go and still achieve a 2" group at 7yds was 3.5gr.  (give or take -/+ 0.1gr for standard deviation).   It sounds like a pop-gun, but gets the job done.   I found that going below that, (I started at 3gr in my testing and worked up from there), the groups opened up and speeds were erratic.

 

Now Trail Boss has gone away and supplies have dried up.

 

So, I've experimented with Clays, using .45 Auto Rim data.  This seems to be much closer to what we want than the .45acp data.  

 

There is none of this experimentation is needed with BP or APP.  Just seat the bullet on the powder and done.

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On 2/4/2022 at 10:28 AM, Fort Reno Kid said:

Howdy Pards

 

Bit of background. Our Cowboy group got started in late 1980’s. Back then I shot 38-40, 44-40, 44 Special, and 45 Colt. Had my powder measure set for 8.5 grains of Unique and used that load for all of those cartridges.

 

Then … came advancing years and arthritic hands. That load seemed heavier than necessary. Still rotate among those cartridges but now my powder measure is set for 5 grains of Titegroup. Works well in all of ‘em.

 

Have been contemplating a lighter load in the event the arthritis worsens. Some of our “mature” shooters have switched to 38 Special with light loads but I prefer to stick with my 44’s and 45’s.

 

Between Cowboy matches I practice at an indoor range. Loaded a box of 45 Colt with 4 grains of Unique and the Lee 160 grain cast bullet. That’s pretty close to a 38 Special load.  Used a tight crimp to assist ignition. Had some trepidations about the light load but ignition was fine. Plenty of sturm and drang. Recoil, as you can imagine, was quite mild. Point of impact at cowboy-range distances not too different from the Titegroup load. I suspect that load would work even more efficiently in Schofield brass and particularly in 45 Cowboy Special brass.

 

Haven’t tried it yet in 44 Special and 44 Russian but believe it would work as well or better.

 

For now I’ll stick with my “old faithful” load of 5 grains of Titegroup and 250 grain bullet … BUT … it’s comforting to know a milder recoiling alternative is available should the need for it arise.

 

This might also be a good starting load for a new shooter. As confidence rose, the shooter could transition to a more traditional cowboy load.

 

Thot I’d share this experiment with the group in the hope it might provide perspective.

 

Adios

 

Fort Reno Kid 

Maybe you should have a different kind of powder measure, with which you can have inserts or apertures that store an optimal setting for each powder/cartridge. One-size-fits-all seems like a crude form of the reloading discipline. I get that targets are close and that recoil levels below book minimums are desired, but it seems like an element of science and attention to details should still be included.

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