45 Colt Gallery Load

[HEAD0001]

I am going to work up some Gallery loads for the 45 Colt. I want to use round balls for the load. I was thinking .454 would be the right size round ball. What do you guys think?? These will be used in a handgun and a rifle. Tom.

[awp101]

I know this has been covered several times in the past couple of years but the details escape me. Try a search for "cat sneeze loads" IIRC. Or mouse phart since I've heard that term used as well.

Something I've always wondered about these light loads using roundballs is how do you seat the ball? With an arbor press? By finger pressure? I have no idea...

[AJMD429]

Something I've always wondered about these light loads using roundballs is how do you seat the ball? With an arbor press? By finger pressure? I have no idea...

I've wondered that too. It seems like unless you had lots of powder in the case to support the ball, and crimpted over the equator of the ball, it would risk pushing into the case, unless maybe you crimp a roll-crimp right at the equator and manage to have the ball just right there. I only say that because I've seen a few round-ball loads where the ball got knocked down into the case, and wondered about pressures and uniformity with such a huge change in effective case volume.

[J Miller]

I put together a batch using Win 231 and .457" round balls. I forget the load right now but it was straight out of one of the Speer books.

Gallery loads w_IJ web.JPG

It was way too light and the primers backed out and locked up both of the revolvers I shot them through. They were fairly accurate to about 7 yds though. Past that they got erratic. They were moving so slow you could actually hear them hit the target at 25 yards then the backstop beyond that.

(Note:) After I found out the load was too light I took them back to the press and cranked in as much roll crimp as my dies could. That helped up the pressure enough to get them all shot up.

What I did to load them was to coat the balls with Lee LA lube then whey they were dry I powdered them with mica to remove the stickiness.
Cases were sized as normal and expanded and belled with a .454" RCBS Cowboy die expander. I seated the balls with my normal seating die, then did a gentle taper crimp that matched an original gallery load cartridge in my collection. After that I poured a bit more LLA right on top the balls for some extra lube.

I still have 50 of the balls left and eventually I'll load them up, but I"m using a hotter load next time.

Joe

[adirondakjack]

Here's yer gallery load for a .45 Colt revolver.


125 grain hollow based bullet in Cowboy .45 Special brass. Load it with 3.5 Grains trail boss to 535 fps, or load the same bullet upside down, as shown on the right, with 2.8 grains of bullseye for about the same velocity and a little tighter groups.

The short case gives the case capacity reduction needed to keep pressures up, and the light bullet (a round ball is around 147 grains), makes it a "big ole .22 short" in terms of how it shoots (to quote one of my CAS pards.)

Hand fed into a rifle, these loads are QUIETER than a primer popping in an empty case.

[HEAD0001]

I use the round balls in my 45-70 Gallery load. And they work very well. I just push the roundball in with my finger until the roundball is flush with the top of the case. Then I take a Redding profile crimp die and put an ever so slight crimp on top of the mouth of the case. And I use Red Dot powder for the load. They shoot very well out to 30 yards.

My main question is what size round ball is best for the 45 Colt??

I tried Puf-Lon in the 45-70 loads. But that stuff was unbelievably dirty burning. Then I also tried Dacron for a filler, and it worked OK. But in the end run I found no need for a filler at all. However I always raise the rifle in the air before firing to drain the powder to the bottom of the case. Tom.

[JReed]

I have loaded round ball in .45colt and shot them threw my 94 trapper. IIRC I used 6 grains of Unique wiht Win LP primes and Win cases. I used my standard RCBS seating die and roll crimped at the equator of the ball.



One thing I noted is these are such low pressure loads that the case didn't seal the chamber and smoke leaked back thru the action. When my boys fired these it was great fun to watch the balls sailing toward the 25 yard gongs.



P.S. I used .454 balls

[J Miller]

I have loaded round ball in .45colt and shot them threw my 94 trapper. IIRC I used 6 grains of Unique wiht Win LP primes and Win cases. I used my standard RCBS seating die and roll crimped at the equator of the ball.



One thing I noted is these are such low pressure loads that the case didn't seal the chamber and smoke leaked back thru the action. When my boys fired these it was great fun to watch the balls sailing toward the 25 yard gongs.



P.S. I used .454 balls

That's how I'm going to do it next time.

I wonder what those balls would do with a case load of black powder under them???

Joe

[JReed]

Joe they would probably work better. The velocity was by my guess around 350fps as I could see the ball travel from the muzzle to the 25 yard line. I had to aim a good bit above target to hit any thing.

[HEAD0001]

Here's yer gallery load for a .45 Colt revolver.


125 grain hollow based bullet in Cowboy .45 Special brass. Load it with 3.5 Grains trail boss to 535 fps, or load the same bullet upside down, as shown on the right, with 2.8 grains of bullseye for about the same velocity and a little tighter groups.

The short case gives the case capacity reduction needed to keep pressures up, and the light bullet (a round ball is around 147 grains), makes it a "big ole .22 short" in terms of how it shoots (to quote one of my CAS pards.)

Hand fed into a rifle, these loads are QUIETER than a primer popping in an empty case.

Whose mold is that?? Tom.

[awp101]

I wonder what those balls would do with a case load of black powder under them???

Joe

That's what I want to know!

[JReed]

I wonder what those balls would do with a case load of black powder under them???

Joe

That's what I want to know!

You would have to use a lube cookie as the ball has no way to carry a quantity of lube except for a thin film of Alox but I bet they would be a riot. I will have to load some up and give them a go.

[J Miller]

I wonder what those balls would do with a case load of black powder under them???

Joe

That's what I want to know!

You would have to use a lube cookie as the ball has no way to carry a quantity of lube except for a thin film of Alox but I bet they would be a riot. I will have to load some up and give them a go.

If you were to seat them deep like I did the first time you could fill the top of the case with Crisco or Bore Butter.
A lube cookie or wad would be better though.

Joe

[timkelley]

Could a feller load two of the HB Wadcutter in a fullsize case over eight, or so, grains of Unique? Seems to me that you could double your fun.

[J Miller]

Tom,

Those are adirondakjack's own bullets. He casts them and sells them on his web site.

timkelley,

Their combined weight would only be 250grs so I'll bet it would work.
I just might try it myself.

Joe

[Whit Spurzon]

I gave the Lee .454" rb a try in my Ruger New Vaquero and Marlin 1894.


25' out of the RNV

5 grains of Red Dot = just under 700 fps in the RNV and 800 fps in the Marlin.


It shoots very well in the Marlin but there is some blowback through the bolt.

At 25 yards the POI is 6+" low out of the RNV. The group in the bullseye is a standard 250 grain 900 fps load and the three shots below the paper are the 700 fps round ball load group using the same point of aim.


The Marlin shot them better and the point of impact out to 25 yards was pretty close to the Point of Aim. Next time I'd probably try to drive them a little faster to mitigate blowback. Never got around to further testing.

[Pete44ru]

I used the same blackpowder gallery loads, that were explained in an article a few years ago in GUNS OF THE OLD WEST.

Commercial .457" Speer RB over 35gr FFFg with a lube collar around the valley/edge of the seated RB.

The GOTOW article had RB gallery loads for both .45 Colt & the .45-70.

.