another cast boolit question

[Gundogblue]

Hey guys how y'al doin,
I have a Colt 3rd gen SAA in .45 colt, I use those Hornaday 255grn .454 diameter swagged boolits in her and it works just fine, but I dont want to use my Colt as an everyday shooter. So I bought a Colt clone in .45 colt, a Heritage Roughrider big bore .45. I measured the cylinder mouths on the Heritage and they measured .4525, and the Hornaday .454 bullets don't drop through the cylinder, in fact the only way to push them through the cylinder is to use my pistol cleaning rod and give the boolit 3 to 4 sharp raps with the palm of my hand, thats what it takes to push them through the cylinder. So my question is, is that too tight?, are the .454 boolits to big for this gun? Any advice will be greatly appriciated.
Thanks,
Paul

[Outpost75]

The somewhat oversized, soft swaged factory bullets will probably lead the chamber throats, but will not be dangerous as long as you stick to standard pressure loads which don't exceed the velocity and pressure of factory ammunition. A charge of 6.0-6.5 grains of Bullseye, Red Dot, 700-X or TiteGroup closely approximates factory velocity and my experience has been that the fast-burning powders are more economical and burn cleaner than slower powders such as Unique or Universal.

The leading will be eliminated and accuracy improved if you get a Lee Sizing Kit in .452, LIGHTLY lubricate the bullets in Lee Liquid Alox on top of whatever lube the Hornady or Speer bullets come with already on them, and run them through the .452 sizer die before loading, and keep the rounds having sized bullets separate for your Heritage Roughrider.

There is no safety problem shooting the sized and relubed bullets in your Gen3 Colt, but accuracy may not be optimum if the bullets don't fit the chamber throats. However, using a fast-burning powder like Bullseye, Red Dot, 700-X or TiteGroup, you may find that the soft factory bullets "slug-up" upon firing and shoot just fine. So, you might want to try some prepared that way in both guns and it may pay to standardize on the same load prep for both revolvers.

I have found generally that tumbling a light overcoat of the Lee Liquid Alox on top of the factory lube on Hornady or Speer lead bullets reduces leading and may help accuracy, so I do it routinely.

[Minerat]

My understanding is that the newer generation of 45 colt guns are sized 0.452, while the older colts were 0.454. Using j word bullets (jacketed) in the newer guns may cause problems. You will have to look for the smaller size bullets mostly available for 45 acp which are sized 0.425. With a lead boolit you can get a way with a little over size but pushing .454 may be a little too much too. I'm pretty sure there are members that know more about this then me and will give you better information.

[runfiverun]

I dunno about too big.
have you tried chambering a round?
if the round chambers with slight thumb pressure I think you'll be fine.
give some a try and see what you get.

[FredBuddy]

Check in with DougGuy on this site. He may have a solution for you.

[Shiloh]

My understanding is that the newer generation of 45 colt guns are sized 0.452, while the older colts were 0.454. Using j word bullets (jacketed) in the newer guns may cause problems. You will have to look for the smaller size bullets mostly available for 45 acp which are sized 0.425. With a lead boolit you can get a way with a little over size but pushing .454 may be a little too much too. I'm pretty sure there are members that know more about this then me and will give you better information.

Why couldn't they be open up? Safety issue??

Shiloh

[44man]

It does no good at all to size a .454" boolit in a .4525" throat. You just need .452" boolits.
It does no good to "bump up" a boolit either. All will "go bang" of course.
It depends on if you want to hit a target in the end. Two different guns and two different size boolits. Buy another MTM box and keep them apart.
I sure would not open throats for a .454" since groove might be .452". Have you measured the groove?

[Sakoluvr]

Maybe I don't understand the problem. Hand load .452 in the Rough Rider and .454's in the Colt and carry on. Don't use the throats as a sizing die. There are plenty of vendors that will supply you with the correct diameter boolits.

[sutherpride59]

The rough rider bore is .452" you should really go back and re-check the cylinder throats. I have the same gun and mine were undersized till I reamed them out to .4525". Also the rough rider sufferes from sever muzzle constriction in 45lc so you will want to fire lap the barrel. I turned my barrel to line up the sights to POI before I fire lapped. Also I would seriously consider recutting the forcing cone.

Also yes don't use .454" boolits, instead use .452" boolits as this is what works best in the newer gen SAA's including the Rough Rider and the Ruger vaqueros. Like I said the barrels are .452" dia. Using an over sized boolit does nothing for you except send an out of round boolit into the barrel. Remember the cylinder throats are terrible sizing tools, the boolit should only require minor effort to push out of the cylinder.