457122 sized to .452 in Blackhawk?

[Gray Fox]

Has anyone taken the Lyman 457122, sized it down to .452/.454 and shot it in a Blackhawk? Mine are right at 340 grain with lube. The Hodgon manual of '97 I have shows a load of 6.8 of Universal at 805 fps from a 7" barrel with the SSK 340grain boolit. By Backhawk is a '75, 7.5" bbl with recessed cartridge rims. Any Comment or ideas please.

[longhorn]

IIRC, Elmer Keith was doing something like this when he managed to blow the loading gate off a Colt SAA. There's an article in some fairly recent Gun Digest or Handloader's Digest about loading a "quiet" .454 that talks about an extremely heavy boolit--I'll try to find it. Isn't loading data pretty common for 325gr in the .45LC? How much of the grease grooves will you obliterate with sizing that much? Will sizing that much throw the bullet out of round?

[Dale53]

First of all, there IS loading data for that heavy a bullet. No problem there. The next step is to use a "push through" sizer (an intermediate size before final sizing would certainly help minimize any unwanted distortion) like a Lee or a Star.

Do a few, then shoot them. If they shoot well, you're home free. If they don't, then it was a bad idea:veryconfu.

Frankly, I believe it will work fine. Use a slow burning powder (H110 or Win 296) and use good data (Hodgdon's online data is where I would look - it has specific information on heavy bullets in the "Ruger only" section).

Keep us posted.

Dale53

[yondering]

I do it on a regular basis, and have posted about it here before. This is my most accurate 45 Colt boolit! In your Blackhawk, start with 21gr H110 and a Win LP primer, seat to crimp in the top lube groove. (My load is 23gr H110. Use at your own risk.)

My mold has 3 round lube grooves, not sure if some of them had square grooves? The driving bands are narrow enough that sizing down does no damage and leaves more than enough lube capacity.

I size down in one step, and lube in a Lyman 45 with Speed Green, in the two bottom lube grooves. I use the top lube groove as a crimp groove.
If you cast these soft, it's best to size them in a push through, to avoid distorting the hollow point.

Since these have a narrow hollow point, I like to open them up while lubing in the Lyman 45 by using a pointed top punch. Mine came with my Mihec 45-200-HP mold, but would be easy to make using a cordless drill and a bench grinder.

It's the two boolits on the right. These are softnose, with a pure lead nose and WDWW bases. You can see the joint line at the top of the upper lube groove.
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/zthang43/molds/IMG_6768.jpg

[frank505]

I've also shot them some, haven't shot any game animals yet. Did shoot a jack once, recovered some of the bullet in the jack and the rest in the ground. J.O. the deal on video too.
The bullet was cast with a pure lead nose and WW base as if casting a hollow point isnt hard enough. It is an excellent long range bullet too. My load is 19 grains of WC 820 and WW gold primer.

[geargnasher]

I routinely shoot a Lee 457-340-rfn in my New Vaquero using WW alloy with a little tin. I have improved the technique for sizing somewhat, now I run it through the 4500 and a .454" die right after casting, then through a Lee push-through .452" sizer. The lube in the grooves keeps the grooves from swaging down too much in the second stage. By far the most accurate boolit for that gun, and I have shot 6 different designs through it. If you wanted/needed to heat treat the boolits you could boil the lube off first and relube with a .452" H&I.

At the low velocities and pressures I load this boolit for I have also had great luck with LLA/JPW tumble lube between sizings and as a final lube.

Gear