Smoke in the eyes when shooting a 45 Colt Rifle: Understanding blow-by.

[Griff]

Being lazy, I bought an annealing machine... and it works.  Does it eliminate blowby in 45 Colt cases?  I'm gonna say yep, maybe... some...  I don't know, all I did wasI loaded up some BP rounds and shot them.  As soon as I opened the lever to extract the fired round it sucked great gobs of smoke back onto the carrier in the mortise, just like they did before annealing.

 

BP or smokeless, blowby has been with me since my 1st 45 Colt rifle in 1987.  It's a condition one either accepts, or futilely fights against.  If you're sensitive to it, hate to give to ya straight up, but... it ain't going away.  Pick cleaner burning powders, heavier loads, bullets, anneal...  even appealing to the reloading gods, it's going to be present in some fashion.  Wearing shooting glasses that fit helps the most, shooting with the wind at your back is a great mitigating factor.  Or pick another cartridge.  

 

Do a chamber cast, maybe yours is over, overly large.   Then suggestions might actually fit the problem, vs pointing out that every one shooting a 45 Colt rifle has blowby issues.  Whether they consider it a problem is up to the individual, I choose not to make it a problem.  

[Eyesa Horg]

Just switching from Trailboss powder to Clays made a huge difference in my Marlin. TB really crapped it up in one match. Can do several matches with Clays. Just my experience, haven't tried heavier bullets yet or annealing for smokeless yet as it's just the nature of the beast and I like the looks of a large bore.

[Von Dutch, SASS # 7995]

On 10/29/2023 at 11:35 AM, Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 said:

 

Well, I've got a couple that do spray gas and dirt back in your face.  So, I size my .45 Colt cases with a dual-sizing ring Redding die.   It tightens the mouth but does minimal sizing on the lower 2/3 of the case.   Thus, it fills the chamber a lot better and I can run 200 grain bullets sized .452 without the blow-back.

 

That same sizing die solves a Marlin 1894 gas blow-by problems for a couple of shooters that I recommended to.

 

good luck, GJ 

That Redding Die works great! it cut my blow-back by at least 60% with a 160 gr bullet and it helps to stop over working the brass! I have 45 colt brass with 16 loads on it and so far no splits, and it really cut way down on the force needed on my Dillon 650. I don't know why they stop making it ? I have the die set in 45acp 40s&w and 357 also.

[Eyesa Horg]

On 10/29/2023 at 2:35 PM, Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 said:

 

Well, I've got a couple that do spray gas and dirt back in your face.  So, I size my .45 Colt cases with a dual-sizing ring Redding die.   It tightens the mouth but does minimal sizing on the lower 2/3 of the case.   Thus, it fills the chamber a lot better and I can run 200 grain bullets sized .452 without the blow-back.

 

That same sizing die solves a Marlin 1894 gas blow-by problems for a couple of shooters that I recommended to.

 

good luck, GJ 

Do you by any chance know a part number or what Redding actually calls that die? Thanks GJ

I looked at their site and didn't seem to find it! ID10T probably.

[Garrison Joe, SASS #60708]

They may no longer be making the .45 Colt Dual Ring Carbide Sizing die.  Midway for example shows all the individual sizer dies for all the pistol calibers are discontinued.   I'd look on Ebay to see if there are some used dies there.  I see several loading equipment sites that are showing a dual ring sizer in .45 Auto, .44 Special and .40 S&W sets.

 

Like:

https://www.precisionreloading.com/cart.php#!q=dual ring

 

I got mine 5 years ago and have written about it at least 3 times on here.  Perhaps a flood of requests to Redding and they might again make them?

 

The other way to get a tight neck and a "loose" larger diameter body might be to use two sizer dies.   A carbide sizer to size the top third of the case, and a steel sizer that can be reamed/honed out to set the rest of the body to a larger diameter.  Yes, it would be a pain. 

 

good luck with a search, GJ

 

 

 

["Big Boston"]

19 hours ago, Garrison Joe, SASS #60708 said:

 

The other way to get a tight neck and a "loose" larger diameter body might be to use two sizer dies.   A carbide sizer to size the top third of the case, and a steel sizer that can be reamed/honed out to set the rest of the body to a larger diameter.  Yes, it would be a pain. 

 

good luck with a search, GJ

 

 

 

 

I have tried the two die setup, just about exactly like you described. It does improve the symptoms. I just backed out my LEE Carbide sizer to size a wee bit more neck than I needed to hold the bullet. To make it decap I swapped in a Universal pin so it would reach down far enough. In the last stage I used a LEE FCD, (Factory Crimp Die) The FCD doesn't size the body much, just enough for it to be at or a bit under SAAMI Max Cartridge. I used that setup until I found a Redding Dual Carbide. The RDC is just an easier and a bit more fool proof way to go, BUT, in reality the two die set-up worked a bit better as I could control the neck for different bullets. I went with the RDC because I like my ammo to rattle a bit in my handguns. With ammo right at SAAMI Max, they were loose, but not quite rattle loose. The blow by was marginally greater, but well within reason. The advantage of not having seperate rifle and handgun ammo outweighs the slight increase in blow by. 

 

There were several comments about the rather dirty burning properties of Trail Boss. My experience was similar. 

 

BB