45 Colt velocity

[bigted]

Been playing with the old Colt load of the original load. 40 grains of KIK 2Fg powder under the Lee 255 grain boolit ... Sparked up with the CCI 300 LP primer.

Question I am striving to find is the velocity of the loads. Dug out my Chrono yesterday and wondered at the extreme spread which ranged from 680 fps to 830 fps. Now I know my methods glean better spread than that ... After shoot all the BP shell's I loaded I shot some smokeless loads thru the Winny 92 and got velocity's of as low as 350 fps ... Realize that maybe the Chrono needed maybe a new batt ... Installing a new batt solved the problem ... But I still didn't get the velocity of the original old loads.

Anybody Chrono ed these loads? Thanks

[Don McDowell]

37 gr of Goex 3f under the remington bulk 250 gr bullet gave a bit over 900 fps from my 5 1/2 inch gun. The rcbs 250kt ran about 875.

[GoodOlBoy]

Look to your crimp would be my first suggestion. Nearly every time I've seen iffy load runs with 45 long colt it can be attributed to not a good enough roll crimp into the crimp groove. If the bullet doesn't have a crimp groove move to one that does have a good crimp groove. If that doesn't do that for you I don't know what to tell you, other than maybe look at a hotter non-manglum primer. CCI usually does it no problem though, although I do prefer Remington primers myself, but I'm weird. CCI is my second choice though. I dunno, I've used just about all of the standard large pistol primers and they have all worked with smokeless, and GOEX.

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

[Gunlaker]

Maybe it's the KIK powder? From what I remember with my .45 colt rifle, 35gr Goex FFg gave about the same velocity as about 8 grains of Unique with a 250gr bullet, which I think was 1050 or so.

Chris.

[w5pv]

I use Winchester magnum primers under 6.5 grains of Titegroup,so far no problems

[John Boy]

255gr bullet + 40gr FFg = 770fps

[bigted]

Guess I was a little vague with the first post,

I am shooting them thru my 7.5 inch Colt army and thru my Ruger Vaquero with the 4 5/8ths inch barrel.

I thank you Don and John. Wasn't too specific in the original post. John ... 750 fps seems kinda slow with 2Fg blackpowder. But my Chrono needed a Batt and I missed the hint till after I had shot all 10 of my 40 grain loads. After shooting the 92 a couple times I then gave thought of the Batt not being up to snuff. After installing the new batt, it worked fine with the smokeless loads thru the Winchester.

Now gotta load more 40 grain loads and Chrono them again in the Colt and Ruger.

Thanks for the replies so far.

[Outpost75]

I have seen as much as 100 fps difference in sample averages between different lots of Goex of the same year production. Compression matters alot, as well as quality and strength of the powder. I've gotten 1000+ fps with Swiss from 850-950 with different batches of Goex and less than 800 with Elephant.

[w30wcf]

Historically speaking, there have been several different .45 Colt b.p. loadings in boxer primed cases over the years.
.........28 grs., 35 grs., 38 grs., 40 grs.

Awhile back I purchased some U.M.C. headstamped .45 Colt b.p. ammunition. I dissected the cartridges and found that three of them contained the 35 gr charge and the rest, 40 grs. The powder had a polished appearance and screening determined that it was pretty much FFG granulation.

I annealed the cases and replaced the primers. I loaded the powder back into the cases. The 40 gr charges in the SHBP (Solid Head Button Pocket aka balloon head) cases required .20" of compression. I replaced the dried out lube on the bullets with SPG and reseated them.

Average velocity in a 7 1/2" barrel was 932 f.p.s.
In a 24" barrel .... 1,247 f.p.s.

The three 35 gr. cartridges averaged 877 f.p.s. in the Ruger.

By comparison, velocities with 40 grs of Goex FFG ran about 100 f.p.s. less.

In further testing, only Swiss and Olde Eynsford FFG had the ballistic strength to equal the velocity of the powder used in those pre 1911 U.M.C. cartridges.

w30wcf

[17nut]

I think part of your problem is to much powder!
To seat a bullet in the case you need to compress the living dayights out of that powder and may end up with a "pellet" so solid it makes what is caled a cigarette burn, ie only burning from the back while passing out the barrel.
Bear in mind that the old loads was in baloon head brass wich holds 4-5 grains more than modern brass.

[bigted]

Historically speaking, there have been several different .45 Colt b.p. loadings in boxer primed cases over the years.
.........28 grs., 35 grs., 38 grs., 40 grs.

Awhile back I purchased some U.M.C. headstamped .45 Colt b.p. ammunition. I dissected the cartridges and found that three of them contained the 35 gr charge and the rest, 40 grs. The powder had a polished appearance and screening determined that it was pretty much FFG granulation.

I annealed the cases and replaced the primers. I loaded the powder back into the cases. The 40 gr charges in the SHBP (Solid Head Button Pocket aka balloon head) cases required .20" of compression. I replaced the dried out lube on the bullets with SPG and reseated them.

Average velocity in a 7 1/2" barrel was 932 f.p.s.
In a 24" barrel .... 1,247 f.p.s.

The three 35 gr. cartridges averaged 877 f.p.s. in the Ruger.

By comparison, velocities with 40 grs of Goex FFG ran about 100 f.p.s. less.

In further testing, only Swiss and Olde Eynsford FFG had the ballistic strength to equal the velocity of the powder used in those pre 1911 U.M.C. cartridges.

w30wcf

YES ... this is exactly what i was in search of. thanks w30wcf. the velocity was my goal for info. i am certain my loading is secure and with the new battery in the chrono it performed perfectly again.

the additional information on loading procedures and problem solving is great and spot on and i thank you all for the additional info.

my goal here is the velocity of the old "first" loads being heavy and with much punch ... i have a lively discussion with a friend on the why of the old Colt round being so good that it was not replaced power wise till the 357 MAG came along. and it only outdid the old 45 Colt in the fact of the much higher velocity rather then depending on the rock sized lead the old 45 slings out at a rather brisk speed that does great harm to whatever passes into its path.