What 45 colt mold for accurate original loads?

[Stopsign32v]

Through searching I found the 454190 is as close to original as can be. However, is that a 454 cast? I have a new Uberti I will shoot through and I'm pretty certain it uses a 452 boolit.

[Outpost75]

Slug your Uberti cylinder throats to be sure.

[DougGuy]

Take a .452" boolit and see if you can slide it into the cylinder throats from the front. If you can, with a little resistance, use a .452" sizing die and run all your boolits through it. If the .452" goes through there really easily, you may want to size to .454" but the bottom line is you want your boolits as close to throat diameter as you can get and still let it slide through.

[dubber123]

They sold a 452190 and a 454190. As the fellas said, find out which ones you need first. Both turn up regularly on the used market. Sizing .002" off isn't much of a feat even if you do end up with one that casts .454"

[M-Tecs]

Tom at Accurate molds http://www.accuratemolds.com/ make the nicest 454190 mold. He will make it to whatever size you want.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...=45-250D-D.png

http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...45-250D1-D.png

If you what a crimp groove http://www.accuratemolds.com/bullet_...45-250DC-D.png

[cajun shooter]

First of all, you need to also slug your barrel and not just the cylinder as has been posted. They have many guns that have large cylinders and small barrels which need a complete cylinder change. If your cylinders are a few thousandths larger than the barrels then you are alright.
Remember that the alloy used has a lot to do with the dropped size of any mold. Most all standard molds are made to drop a bullet from Lyman #2 as the final size. If the mold maker claims a bullet of .452 then you use a different alloy, it will be of another size.
Many gun makers have made guns with cylinders and barrels out of spec for the 45 Colt including Uberti. I have purchased several Uberti guns to be used in SASS matches and I have a very high regard of them as I have 3 at present.
The problem with the 45 Colt is the old Colt had the barrels that were for the most part, sized at .454 for the caliber. Then Colt made the guns with the .451-.452 size and the problems were all over the place. They had cylinders with .454 readings that had a .451 barrel and .451 cylinders with .454 barrels. I hope you have a good matching barrel and cylinder.

Take Care David

[Wolfer]

While not an exact duplicate of an original my most accurate boolit in 45 colt has been the lee 452-255 RF. I have a pretty good selection of 45 molds and while they all work good none are as accurate as the lee.

[.22-10-45]

I have an Ideal 450190 mould. with alloys close to 20-1 in hardness, slugs drop at .454. My Colt SAA has cyl. throats right at .452. Your only talking .001" / side if sizing to .452. This has prooved to be the most accurate bullet in this revolver to date.

[paul edward]

While not an exact duplicate of an original my most accurate boolit in 45 colt has been the lee 452-255 RF. I have a pretty good selection of 45 molds and while they all work good none are as accurate as the lee.

I also use the Lee 452-255 RF in my Uberti with excellent results. I like that this boolit has a crimp groove.

[Bohica793]

NOE makes a 454-255RF that is excellent.

[Dale53]

I have a couple of .45 Colt revolvers. My first was a Vaquero (Ruger) that I bought for use in side matches at the Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette matches. They had to have fixed sights and were black powder or approved substitute, only. My Vaquero worked really well but I decided I would be happier with a longer barrel (it was 4 5/8"). The replacement was a Ruger Bisley Vaquero in .45 Colt. My chosen bullet was the Lyman 452664 (250 gr RF). One reason I picked this design is that it has one large, square bottomed lube groove. The competition rules required period dress and this bullet, while not perfectly "accurate" was close enough to the original to keep with the spirit of the events.

I cast these bullets at 30/1 lead/tin (after tests proved this worked well) and sized to .452". I lubed with Emmert's lube (50% pure natural beeswax, 40% Crisco, and 10% Canola oil). Accuracy was about 2" or less at 25 yards off a rest. As it happened, the Bisley Vaquero shot to center, right out of the box. That certainly simplified things, a bunch. The large lube groove carried enough lube to allow me to shoot 70 shots without cleaning. At about the 70th, the cylinder started to bind from fouling. A few minutes with a good black powder solvent and I was ready for another 70 shots. This may be revolver specific so YMMV.

This combination won me a number of matches and I gained a tremendous amount of respect for the original .45 Colt black powder load. Using Swiss 3f my load chronographed at 900+ fps. I filled the case with powder and compressed 1/16" when seating the bullet. Any further compression will damage the bullet (unless a compression die is used).

One thing I might mention, the Rugers have excellent fixed sights that enable precision shooting. I had a lovely single action USFA that I bought used for a very reasonable price. It was really good lookin', made well, and chambered for the .45 Colt. Unfortunately, it had those horrible Generation 1 sights (like the original Colt) and there is no way I could have shot that one well. It "went down the pike"...

Here is my Ruger Bisley Vaquero. Not only a match winner but a dandy field pistol in both black powder and smokeless.



FWIW
Dale53