41 Long colt sizing tolerance

[Cakeman]

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to reload my Colt Army Special in 41 long colt for 6 months now. I've now finally loaded boolits for this firearm and I am using a 195gr heel boolit sized to .406 as per Harryo's website. The loaded cartridges load nicely in the cylinder but they do not fit the bore. I believe my bore to be around .401 in diameter.

I understand that heel based boolits are supposed to be slightly larger than the bore but is it safe for me to shoot these .406 boolits in my .401 bore?

Thanks.

[Outpost75]

Absolutely. With smokeless powder the heel doesn't upset as well as it does with black, so the driving band above the heel must fit the cylinder throats and be somewhat larger than groove diameter. Harry O knows his stuff.

[Cakeman]

Well that's good to hear, so the .005 difference is not enough up to cause the gun to blow up or anything untoward?

I've never knowingly shot a firearm where the boolit was bigger than the chamber/barrel.

[Outpost75]

Well that's good to hear, so the .005 difference is not enough up to cause the gun to blow up or anything untoward?

I've never knowingly shot a firearm where the boolit was bigger than the chamber/barrel.

Not a problem as long as the bullet is not excessively hard and the load is of normal pressure. You have to remember that chambers in the .41 Long Colt are bored straight through and have no ball seat like later revolvers and the bullets must fit the cylinder throats if you are to have any hope for normal accuracy.

[Cakeman]

Thank you for your reply. I am using a 99/1 recipe of Lead and Tin using 3.5 grains of bullseye so that should be pretty safe.

Given they also fit the cylinder nicely I'm hoping it will shoot great now.

Thanks for the reassurance :)

[DougGuy]

My avatar is a Uberti Old West model, 45 Colt, it came to me with .4565" throats and a .451" groove diameter. I shoot 454190 sized .456" cast from 50/50+2% with SPG lube over 9.0gr Herco and it loves it. Very accurate, fun to shoot, you wouldn't know it was swaging the boolits down .005" when fired. You should have no issues with your 41 if the boolits are fairly snug in the chambers, or at least have a bit of a drag fit.

[Cakeman]

Thanks Doug,

That's great to hear. Can't wait to give the girl a spin, I'm hoping to get some really good results accuracy wise unlike most traditional 41 loads.

[AntiqueSledMan]

Hello Cakeman,

I think if your using pure lead it will be fine.
I know Hoof Hearted has a conversion for loading
a .386 inside lube bullet through a .375 bore.
He states using pure lead is fine.

AntiqueSledMan.

[Wayne Smith]

That will be safe. You are a little light on your load, 4.5gr Unique with the 200gr Lee special order HB heeled boolit key holed at 25yds. I'm using 4.5 BE behind that boolit and getting round holes. I'm shooting a Uberti Lightening.

You are loading a heeled boolit so you don't need to rely on bumping it up, no need for pure lead.