[John in AR]

A question for those who load .45 Colt – have you found a load that gives light to moderate power, yet has enough chamber pressure to keep from sooting up the brass as this caliber tends to do? The problem is that the acceptable PSI range for this caliber is so low that even near the top of the spectrum it's still pretty low & allows blow-by and crud buildup. (I'm talking about normal .45Colt loads; not the Ruger/TC only loads.)

My initial thought was that the route to take to get max psi for a given energy level would be a heavy bullet with a fast powder (and running a few trial load combinations through quickload seems to confirm that), but figured I’d ask around. I’m leaning probably toward either Red Dot or Bullseye as I have some on hand. Any input would be appreciated; thanks in advance.

 

[Dorobuta]

This is very relevant to my interests. I'm yet to work up any loads for my .45 Colt.

 

[Garand]

My favorite load is a 250 grain grain LRNFP bullet pushed by 5.1 grains of Red Dot. It gives me a PF of 139. Going with a lighter load than this can give you unstable bullets and keyholing. I get slight case blackening but that comes off real easy in my tumbler full of corn cobb media.

 

[John in AR]

I'm planning on using 300-grain cast lead bullets. In the past I've used the same 230 and 200 grain cast bullets as in .45acp, but since my cast bullets aren't to any particular hardness and I figure that a lot of these loads will be run thru the 18" carbine, want to keep the velocity well down into their safe comfort range. If I were using commercially-made cast bullets, I wouldn't worry about it, but these are just my quick & dirty home-cast bullets and some batches may be softer than others. I do water-quench when casting which increases hardness and it's never been a problem yet, but just trying to be overly conservative with it.

Garand - the Quickload software actually recommended a similar load for getting decent pressure while not maxing out power. (Most of these will be just launched at steel, so max power isn't needed). Something like 4.2 grains of Red Dot because of the heavier 300-grain bullet, giving around 425-450 ft/lbs from the carbine and 275 or so from the short 4.75" revolvers. Not hunting load power, but these are just playing-around loads.

Is this the reason that some sass shooters use the shorter .45 Schofield or .45 Cowboy Special brass; the smaller case helping to alleviate the bow-by issues caused by the .45 Colt's low pressures with reduced loads?

 

[John in AR]

Fwiw, the info on 4.2gr of Red Dot behind a 300-grain cast bullet, loaded to nearly max oal. Still lowish pressure at less than 11k psi, but might be a good starting point. Not full power hunting loads, but more powerful than the typical cowboy-action loads.

Wish there was a better solution using Titegroup or Universal, as they're the bulk of my powder stores. Only have a pound & a quarter or so of Red Dot left.

 

[Garand]

The largest cast lead bullet I've used in .45 Colt is 255 grain, the largest in a .44 mag was an Oregon Laser Cast in 300 grain. I've taked to a couple of guys about .45 Special Cowboy brass and both mentioned it was faster to load at the loading table, faster to load "on the clock" and prevented double loads of powder being dropped in the cartridge case. I'm at a match today, I'm doing crap, 3 clean stages out of 6, good news my wife is having as bad a day as I am with misses and proceedurals! There is hope for tomorrow.

 

[Garand]

Wife is frustrated, I beat her overall time by 90 seconds! Quiet drive home.

 

[John in AR]

Harsh... Two ways you could play it, with probably very different responses/results:

A - Ask her if her levergun's action was hanging up a little bit, "like it looked like it was". Or
B - Ask her if some orthotic insoles in her cowgirl boots would help her to not be so slow.


If you go with "B", be sure to have a huge smile on your face when you say it... 😁

 

[Dorobuta]

B also lets you spend some time sleeping on the couch, hopefully it's comfortable.