Little Help---45 Colt

[HEAD0001]

I am looking for a gallery load I can shoot in my 45 Colt Low Wall. I will only be gong shooting at 50 yards off my front porch. I have a prretty good gallery load worked up for my 45-70. But I want to work one up for my 45 Colt. Anybody have a good Gallery load for a 45 Colt rifle?? The bullet will be a 255 grain-Keith style cast bullet from my RCBS mold. Thanks, Tom.

[O.S.O.K.]

I'd recommend a light charge of Red Dot, Bullseye, Universal Clays, Tightgroup or W231

Any of the cowboy action loads will work. 6.0 grians of W231 will give around 650 fps IIRC.

Why not try a round ball? If this is just for plinking, a round ball load would be just the ticket - again with a light charge of fast powder.

[HEAD0001]

OSOK-what size round ball would you recommend?? .454??

I use 4.0 grains of Red Dot for my 45-70 "gallery Load" with one round ball. It seems lke that load should work in a 45 Colt?? I am just looking for a little experience before I put a load together. Thanks, Tom.

[O.S.O.K.]

Yes, a .454" would be good - the bearing surface of the round balls is rather small and a little extra diameter in a swaged lead ball is good.

[adirondakjack]

Gallery load ya say? Start with the bullet of choice and Cowboy .45 Special brass (reduced case capacity means more consistent burn at popgun levels) and a starting .45 ACP "Bullseye load" using Bullseye, 700X, red dot, or trail boss. You can use anything from a 160 grainer to a 265 and get good results. I recently built a rolling block for just tjhis kinda play toy, and with 4 grains TB and a 265 soft lead (RCBS .455 Webley mold) bullet it's a very mild tack driver....

[HEAD0001]

I can not remember the last time I bought a round ball or a cast bullet for that matter. I went to the Midway site to see how much a box of 100 Hornady round balls cost. The price was $13?? Wow!! Can you believe that. $13?? that is ridiculos. I guess it is time to buy a .454 used mold. Anybody have one?? Tom.

[cassog]

I've been getting fairly good results at an indoor range using 12g 2400 behind a 250 g cast swc in my Uberti 1873. Not too much Oooomph and fairly accurate - certainly plenty accurate enough for gong shooting. Have also tried 7.5 g Unique behind the same head with similar results.
I also plan on trying some Trail Boss loads, but won't have the luxury of using .45 special brass as Adirondakjack Jack suggests, as I do want the rounds to cycle through the action. (You obviously won't have that problem). So I guess my starting load for Trail Boss is going to be a little bit higher than 4g.

Anyway, have fun, and let us all know how you get on. Especially if you come up with a good non-ball load. Again, balls are a no-no for me because of the action. I might give them a try if we were talking about a Win '94 maybe, using single-shot drop-and-lever technique, but the '73 is a bitch to try and load in this way.

Take care.

[Buck Elliott]

For roundball loads, I prefer the .457" diameter balls over the smaller sizes. They will swage down some, just loading them into a case. No, they don't work well in a '73, but they sure are fun in a SA revolver. I can shoot 'em in the shop with just a stack of newspapers for a backstop, when I load them over a CCI LP Magnum primer and NO powder...

Make NO mistake, such loads can still be VERY DANGEROUS to life and limb.

[Big Bore 94]

+1 for RCBS 457!

[Rusty]

I also found while loading some .311 RBs in my .30-30 that after you load the cases if you'll put about a drop of candle way on top of the ball it will act as a lube and help keep fouling problems to a minimum.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Gallery loads were the smallest lightest projectile available... Round Ball was the top choice.
A .454 round ball would be my starting place. 4 grains Unique. If you have real tight cylinder mouths you can remove the cylinder and with a fat wood dowel tap the RB through and then of course load it with the sized diameter touching the case. You can begin to reduce the Unique load .2 grains at a time until you stick a ball.. But less than 3 grains is real peaceful. BUT remember any 45 cal projectile will hurt whatever real bad.

[243dave]

With 255gr cast bullets I started at 5grs(book recommended starting load) and settled on 3gr of hodgdon's titegroup in my 45 trapper. I went as low as 2gr but was scared of eventually sticking a bullet in the 16" barrel. 3grs is very mild but penetrated better than expected on phonebooks and quiet too. Wish I had a chrony to give some numbers.... Dave

[adirondakjack]

FWIW in about a month I expect to bring to market a 120 grain HB .45 Bullet that will be the cat's meow for gallery loads, CAS, or just plinking. It's also VERY interesting on top a healthy load of Power Pistol out of a 1911 in ACP cases ;;)

[O.S.O.K.]

Since you're looking at casting... I suggest a Lee mold - they are very economical and work well for me.

Here's a two-cav 160 grain mold that would work well for your intended use...



or this would also be a good way to go - 200 rnfp - 6 holer:



These include the handles - or rather the two-cavs do - the 6 holers need handles to go with but they're very reasonbly priced too.

[HEAD0001]

Anybody know where I can get 100 pieces of that 45 Special brass?? Thanks, Tom.

[.45colt]

Yep Here Ya Go. .http://www.cowboy45special.com/

[Thunder50]

If you use a RB, get some Lee liquid alox and thin it about 3/1 mineral spirits/LLA. Just put them in a ziplock bag with a little LLA and coat the RB's and then let dry (in garage because of the smell) for a day or so. IIRC, I used to shoot RB's in my Ruger BH 45acp with 2gr. of bullseye. Was a great frog load, they didn't jump in the pond with one of those things thru them.

[uncowboy]

another vote for the 200Gr 6 hole mold.
I myself did this some time ago and I used Round balls. I cast a bunch of 454 round balls and rolled them in Lee's Alox and shot them with about 3.5Gr bullseye and I had great results . One bad thing was that My handguns didn't have enough front sight to sight them in. I was doing this to save lead and get a low report. Everything worked well with the rifle . A High wall would be just the ticket for Round ball. J.Michael

[KCSO]

Round ball .454 or .457 seated over 2 grains of B.E, in the case with a little grease smeared over the case mouth. Excellent 50 foot accuracy and litle noise or smoke.