Shooting The 45 Colt

[HEAD0001]

I have a pretty good 45 Colt load worked up(thanks to some of you guys). Now I am going to buy a revolver to follow up with my Low Wall.

So I have a simple question. How many guys have shot 45 Colt cartridges through a 454 Casull cylinder??

I realize FA says not to do this. And I understand what they are saying. But what I would like to know about is the accuracy. Does the accuracy suffer if you shoot the 45 Colt cartridge in the 454 chamber?? I would think that it would. But I actually have no idea. I have never done it before.

I talked to a factory guy today about the short cylinder BFR revolver. And I am considering one of those revolvers. Only problem is they do not chamber their short cylinder revolver in 45 Colt. Only 454 Casull. This is the reason for the above question. Tom.

[adirondakjack]

Accuracy will be effected SLIGHTLY, but not a lot. The big issue is they need to be cleaned hospital clean of any carbon ring left from .45 colt before returning to the longer and higher pressure .454s. Failure to do so WILL result in higher than normal pressures with the .454s. Since some folks don't know polished lead from clean, they put the warning in their literature.

[jd45]

Well, jack enlightened me even before I had a chance to post. You see, I was thinking the longer distance the bullet travels freely from leaving the case mouth to being engaged by the rifling, the liklier the deterioration in accuracy. However, since jack used the term, "slightly", that's my enlightenment. BTW, how about letting us in on that load you worked up? I, for one, am dyin to know it so I can try it out myself. Thanx, jd45

[TedH]

I noticed more than a slight deterioration in accuracy in my 454 when shooting 45 Colts. Of course mine wasn't a FA, it was a Taurus so the overall accuracy probably didn't compare either. I ended up finding a good 45 Colt duplicate load in 454 brass.

[HEAD0001]

Well, jack enlightened me even before I had a chance to post. You see, I was thinking the longer distance the bullet travels freely from leaving the case mouth to being engaged by the rifling, the liklier the deterioration in accuracy. However, since jack used the term, "slightly", that's my enlightenment. BTW, how about letting us in on that load you worked up? I, for one, am dyin to know it so I can try it out myself. Thanx, jd45

No real special load. Just 20.0 grains of 2400 with an RCBS 255 Keith Stlye bullet. The real trick I got from the guys here was to apply the heavier crimp.

I do not think I will be shooting any 454's out of the revolver. I have tons of 45 Colt components. And the 45 Colt will kill any deer or ground hog I could ever run into. Tom.

[Kansas Ed]

Actually, it's not a "carbon" ring, but lead and copper build up which makes the FA revolvers different. Also note that basic chamber diameters are different from the 45LC and the 454 cylinders. The 454 is held to tighter tolerances and are slightly smaller diameter than standard 45LC chambers. Dependant upon your 45LC dies, you may not be able to chamber 45LC ammo in your 454 chambers. But this is less of an issue than the buildup at the throat/chamber transition. I've had to run chamber reamers in probably hundreds of 454 FA chambers to clean out the build up on revolvers when the owners disregarded the recommendations of FA. The first indication is that it gets tough to chamber std 454 ammo in your cylinder. But you stated that you already know the warnings so i won't dwell any more on that.

If you want 45LC loads...just down load the 454 brass to 45LC velocity specs. I would suggest that you use a chrony, and start at 45LC Ruger/TC loads in the 454 brass. Work your way from there. I don't know what the BFR chamber specs are, but part of the issue with 454 FA revolvers shooting LC brass is that the chambers are different diameter. I really wouldn't expect giving up a whole lot of accuracy over 454 brass, but the cleaning issues would be the debilitating variable for me personally.

Ed

Addendum: I don't load my (wifes) 454 with anything other than full house factory spec loads. If I want to shoot 45LC I use one of the 45LC handguns.

[adirondakjack]

.454 case diameter is .478, whereas .45 colt is .480. If ya really had to, simply size the .45 colts with a .454 sizer. The short round in a long chamber hysteria is overdone. Folks have been shooting .44 special and .38 special in .44 manglem and .357 respectively forever. I routinely shoot ACP length Cowboy .45 Special out of LONG COLT chambers, and it's NOT that big a deal. Ya do have to clean em, but that's why God gave us tornado brushes and Hoppes.

[Kansas Ed]

.454 case diameter is .478, whereas .45 colt is .480. If ya really had to, simply size the .45 colts with a .454 sizer. The short round in a long chamber hysteria is overdone. Folks have been shooting .44 special and .38 special in .44 manglem and .357 respectively forever. I routinely shoot ACP length Cowboy .45 Special out of LONG COLT chambers, and it's NOT that big a deal. Ya do have to clean em, but that's why God gave us tornado brushes and Hoppes.

Good luck with that theory, but as someone who did the machine work for FA reworks and standard production for 7 or 8 years, my experience with FA revolvers begs to differ. We couldn't "clean" the scrubbed metal out easily, so always opted to run chamber reamers back in to clean the mess. I won't speak to other makes as the only other thing that was produced in 454 at that time was the Taurus, and the lockwork on the initial run failed. They (Taurus) were back to the drawing board when I left FA.

Ed

[HEAD0001]

If I leave my Low Wall as a 45 Colt then I do not have much interest in buying a bunch of 454 components. I have a ton of 45 Colt componenents. So if I buy an FA then I wil buy only the 45 Colt revolver. And if I buy the BFR I will only shoot the 45 Colt cartridges in the revolver. So I am not real worried about being able to shoot 454 down the road. I am really only concerned about the accuracy of the 45 Colt in the 454 cylinder??

I wish BFR offered a 45 Colt in their short cylinder. But for BFR it is not an option.

The reason I am considering the BFR is because I keep hearing so many good things about their revolvers. And the fact that they are ready to go out of the box. I also like the idea of the straight Ruger BH. But Alot of guys tell me the BH 45 Colt needs some work out of the box to get it up to snuff. And my past experiences with Ruger SBH's in the 44 magnum reinforce that. Tom.

[adirondakjack]

If I wanted a superb working gun in .45 Colt, I'd go with John Linebaugh's "small" gun, a 6 shot .45 made from a .44, so chambers are minimized, etc. Sure, they command big money, but if that's what ya want...

OTOH a common, garden variety, boring as battleship grey paint Ruger BH is no slouch. Most will shoot better than the man can hold (unless ya bring a concrete bench and ransom rest into the field), will handle 32K loads (a 300 grain lead bullet at 1300 fps, or 250 jacketed at the same speed), and will likely only need a little "triggernometry" (mostly a spring thing, and a little honing stone love) to be a darned good gun for a whole pile less money. My 7 1/2" BH is NOT for sale