Idaho45guy
09-18-2016, 03:31 AM
First post here and I have tried searching the forums but looks like I could spend weeks reading all of the excellent posts filled with decades of experience. Just a quick search didn't reveal an answer and I am chomping at the bit to order more molds, so, here goes... And I apologize for the long post, but I thought some background would be helpful...
My dad is an expert on all things rifle, but has a certain disdain for pistols and rather than admit to me that he doesn't know much about reloading for them, chooses to avoid my questions.
My dad is a very experienced reloader/caster. He casts bullets as a subcontractor for a major supplier of competition bullets. Does around 40k bullets per year for them. I have, over the past few months, helped him out with a couple of orders and have cast a few thousand bullets myself. I found it to be actually pretty fun. So I am pretty good at getting the lead to the right temps, getting the molds heated, avoiding frosting, avoiding voids, etc.
My dad gave me a Cimarron Arms 1873 Peacemaker Cavalry model in .45 Colt for Christmas last year. Beautiful gun! He had wanted to get into CAS so he bought the pistol, a few hundred bullets from Midway, developed a soft shooting load (6grs of Trail Boss) and got the gun dialed in. He's never been a pistol aficionado and quickly found he didn't enjoy it, so he gave me the pistol and 200rds of reloads. I fell in love with the single-action and the .45 Colt.
About a month ago, I bought a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley stainless with a 5.5" barrel in .45 Colt to use for plinking and as my trail gun while riding horses, hunting, fishing, etc.
I planned to buy a mold for the heavier 300gr bullets and make my own "bear" loads. I bought the Lee C452-300-RF double cavity mold based on some recommendations from reloaders on another site.
176870
So, I took my new Ruger out to the range and shot three different loads through it. The first two were commercial loads; HPR and Ultramax offerings in 250gr flavors. The third was my dad's reload. All three were soft shooting and seemed to do fine at the defensive 7yd line, but when I shot from the 25yd line, the differences were amazing. The commercial loads turned in decent 2" to 2.5" 5-shot groups. The reloads turned in amazing 1.25" and 1.5" groups. When unloading the pistol, I noticed that the fired cases had a large amount of black soot on the outside of them on one side. The commercial stuff was pretty bad, and the reloads were noticeably less so.
What is causing the excess soot on the cartridge cases? Is it some sort of indication that the bullet may be too small of a diameter? The reason I ask is because I can't find any information as to the specific bullet diameter used in the HPR and Ultramax ammo, but the bullets my dad used in his reloads are 250gr .455 diameter. I suspect the commercial loads use a more standard .451 or .452 diameter.
Which leads to the main question: How do I tell which bullet diameter will be optimal in my particular pistol? Just because it shot amazingly well with .455 diameter bullets, does that mean if I use .452 bullets that it will not perform as well? And what is causing that blackening of the cases?
My two .45 Colts:
176871
My dad is an expert on all things rifle, but has a certain disdain for pistols and rather than admit to me that he doesn't know much about reloading for them, chooses to avoid my questions.
My dad is a very experienced reloader/caster. He casts bullets as a subcontractor for a major supplier of competition bullets. Does around 40k bullets per year for them. I have, over the past few months, helped him out with a couple of orders and have cast a few thousand bullets myself. I found it to be actually pretty fun. So I am pretty good at getting the lead to the right temps, getting the molds heated, avoiding frosting, avoiding voids, etc.
My dad gave me a Cimarron Arms 1873 Peacemaker Cavalry model in .45 Colt for Christmas last year. Beautiful gun! He had wanted to get into CAS so he bought the pistol, a few hundred bullets from Midway, developed a soft shooting load (6grs of Trail Boss) and got the gun dialed in. He's never been a pistol aficionado and quickly found he didn't enjoy it, so he gave me the pistol and 200rds of reloads. I fell in love with the single-action and the .45 Colt.
About a month ago, I bought a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley stainless with a 5.5" barrel in .45 Colt to use for plinking and as my trail gun while riding horses, hunting, fishing, etc.
I planned to buy a mold for the heavier 300gr bullets and make my own "bear" loads. I bought the Lee C452-300-RF double cavity mold based on some recommendations from reloaders on another site.
176870
So, I took my new Ruger out to the range and shot three different loads through it. The first two were commercial loads; HPR and Ultramax offerings in 250gr flavors. The third was my dad's reload. All three were soft shooting and seemed to do fine at the defensive 7yd line, but when I shot from the 25yd line, the differences were amazing. The commercial loads turned in decent 2" to 2.5" 5-shot groups. The reloads turned in amazing 1.25" and 1.5" groups. When unloading the pistol, I noticed that the fired cases had a large amount of black soot on the outside of them on one side. The commercial stuff was pretty bad, and the reloads were noticeably less so.
What is causing the excess soot on the cartridge cases? Is it some sort of indication that the bullet may be too small of a diameter? The reason I ask is because I can't find any information as to the specific bullet diameter used in the HPR and Ultramax ammo, but the bullets my dad used in his reloads are 250gr .455 diameter. I suspect the commercial loads use a more standard .451 or .452 diameter.
Which leads to the main question: How do I tell which bullet diameter will be optimal in my particular pistol? Just because it shot amazingly well with .455 diameter bullets, does that mean if I use .452 bullets that it will not perform as well? And what is causing that blackening of the cases?
My two .45 Colts:
176871