45 Colt BP

I don't know why it took me so long to shoot Goex in my Ruger Vaquero.
Shoot muzzleloaders and black powder shotshells all the time.
I swear never to shoot that filthy smokeless or j words in a 45 Colt again.
A little extra work cleaning a six shooter, really no big deal. I'm hooked now

Not sure about your Vaquero, but a coat of lard (or Crisco) on the cylinder pin of my 1858 Remington (C&B and CCC) helps keep things running smooth.
What charge are you playing with?

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Originally Posted by challenger_i

Not sure about your Vaquero, but a coat of lard (or Crisco) on the cylinder pin of my 1858 Remington (C&B and CCC) helps keep things running smooth.
What charge are you playing with?

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Ya, I slicked up the base pin with bore butter first. Using a 454190 cast with soft lead and homemade lube.
Added 2.20cc scoop of 2f Goex . It is 32.4 grains so the chart shows.

A decent load, I like it. 40gr ffg and a 255gr slug (Army spec load) will get your attention! :)

I loaded 45 Colt with 22 grains of Jim Shocky Gold powder and 250grain cast bullet with a 71/2 inch barrel that cronographed between 636 and 670 FPS.

I have tried black (fffg), forty grains of it, in the .45 Colt. It’s a healthy load, but strangely has a softer recoil than equivalent smokeless loads. Go figure.

40 grains of Goex 3f and a 255 gr bullet yields around 850 fps from my 5.5 in "new" model vaquero. Just a touch over 1000fps from my winchester 94 trapper.

Loaded Bpcr cartridge for years , just tried 31.5 gr of oe2f with 250 grain lead bullet
Kind of stout for a 45 colt vaquero pistol. Question, can there be air space in this cartridge
Or is that a no no. 31.5 grains gave me about 1/8” compression. No card wad.

Anybody use bigger boolits with bp. Like 260-330 grain, like to know how they work, pressure spikes or anything. A vaquero could certainly handle then but my little conversion might come apart. Curiosity killed the cat.

.45 Colt single shot rifles offer unique flexibility for loading black.
You can use a bore rider design boolit to preserve your powder space or depending upon the type of action muzzle load your boolits with heavier charges.

This is a heavy bore rider for smokeless loads to take advantage of the single shots fast twist. At the upper left is the initial design concept. Something similar could work well with black if it had less length inside the case and a deeper lube groove.
https://i.imgur.com/29sKfYR.jpg

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Originally Posted by Gobeyond

Anybody use bigger boolits with bp. Like 260-330 grain, like to know how they work, pressure spikes or anything. A vaquero could certainly handle then but my little conversion might come apart. Curiosity killed the cat.

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Use caution. Elmer Keith blew up a couple of SAAs with heavy bullet black powder loads. There’s a Youtube video about this subject, the channel is Everything Black Powder. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by scattershot

Use caution. Elmer Keith blew up a couple of SAAs with heavy bullet black powder loads. There’s a Youtube video about this subject, the channel is Everything Black Powder. Good luck!

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Elmer wrote about that one. A 300 grain rifle bullet, probably a bullet pulled from the 45-90, and a case full of blackpowder. The case head split (he was using what today we call balloon head cases), blew off the loading gate and sliced his hand. Had the case held, it would have just been a shot.

Kevin

FYI:

I've pressure tested GOEX 4fg and Cartridge in the 45 Colt under the 454190 bullet cast of 20-1 and weighing 255 gr. In W-W cases a charge by weight of 35 gr was a slightly compressed load and is all I tested. The psi runs 12,500 and 13,500 psi. The 4fg ran the lowest psi.

Larry, it almost seems counterintuitive that the FFFFg gave the lowest pressures. I am surprised.

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Originally Posted by Abert Rim

Larry, it almost seems counterintuitive that the FFFFg gave the lowest pressures. I am surprised.

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I was too! However, thinking about it, 40 gr by weight of either does not equal the same volume. Thus, the 40 gr of BP will contain only so much energy especially given the same case volume after some compression. I think the pressure would have been reversed had i load "by volume" as it would have taken a bit more 4fg to equal the same volume as the Cartridge BP powder.

Larry, I think your analysis is correct.

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Originally Posted by Larry Gibson

I was too! However, thinking about it, 40 gr by weight of either does not equal the same volume. Thus, the 40 gr of BP will contain only so much energy especially given the same case volume after some compression. I think the pressure would have been reversed had i load "by volume" as it would have taken a bit more 4fg to equal the same volume as the Cartridge BP powder.

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interesting!! I am thinking maybe you get slower initial ignition with the FFFFG due to it being compressed more like a solid plug (less air space between the grains) ??
Or is it just down to quality ? Goex Cartridge was a premium powder
FFFFg could be either floor sweepings -----OR specially formulated for better ignition in flinters in which case it would have higher sulphur content and a bit less energy
if the FFFFg was any other brand ???? Wano (Schuetzen) generates significantly less velocity per gram specially under lighter projectiles