Getting started ...Holy Black in brass. What to do safely ?

[Atlast357]

Shooting a lot in muzzle loading BP revolvers ,I'm very comfortable with bullet weight
and powder loading by volume . Now moving on to loads in metallic ( brass ) cases.
My plan is loading up 45 Colt and 45 Schofield and my lead cast 45- 200 and 45- 228 boolits.
The gun is an 1858 Remington with Howell 6 shot conversion cylinder, and fff Black Powder .
I know BP is always compressed ( no air space )Logic tells me to fill case to top and then seat the bullet.
Have I got that right ?
What are you recommendations.

[Nobade]

That will be too much compression. I'd drop in enough so you have .100" to .125" compression with the bullet seated. Usually you can do that with the bullet and not need a compression die. You can use a card wad as well, testing will tell you if it helps or not.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Cast your boolits, lube the with SPG, follow Nobade's advice, grease your cylinder base pin with TC Bore Butter, your Remington will run all day.

[country gent]

With normal pistol bullets you can compress powder while seating. a Card wad helps protect the base of the bullet also. A playing card wad works well.

As to loads Start at no airspace no compression and work up chronographing the loads as you go. Work up in 1 grn increments to start. Watch the extreme spread (ES) and Standard Deviation (SD) numbers as they get smaller when you get to the ideal compression for your bullet and fire arm then they will start going back up ( larger). If your planning on using soft lead bullets 20-1 or pure lead then a compression die may be needed. You can do this with your seater die and a wood or metal dummy of your bullet.

To make the dummy bullet Use a wood dowel or aluminum and roughly cut the same nose on the end then finish it smooth. make it 440-445 dia so it fits into a sized case freely. Put a cut in the base ( not clear thru yet just below surface of the dies of the bullet 3/8" wide or so. Leave the edge a little longer than you need it for now. While still on the stem finish with a slow cure clear epoxy. And let cure. You want this to soak into the surface as deep as possible as it strengthens the wood. When cured cut off of stem and finish to length needed and re coat the base with epoxy. When done it should drop in and compress powder with the same seating seating as seating the bullet. With the metal dummies ( aluminum, Brass, or Steel) the finishing isn't needed. You don't need to cut the grease grooves in just a smooth side that fits easily into the case.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Country Gent, don't you think your post is a little overwhelming for a guy who asked for starter information? I don't do what you described even with my Sharps, let alone a pistol.

[Atlast357]

I was thinking the same S J Hammer. Don't use a chrono, I use a target to measure POI.
I shoot a lot of Black Bowder cap & ball. No filler ,no fancy lubes.
what is a function of Card Wad ? My cast bullets are soft lead,either round ball or conical and sit directly on powder. On occasion I will seat a lubed wad on top of powder and run the guns loading lever firmly all the way down on 30grs of powder . Lube cylinder pin,do that on BP cylinder as a routine.
1858s are notorius cylinder foulers.

[Battis]

The best lube I've found to use on ungrooved cylinder pins (Remington, Colt Paterson) is the vegetable spray PAM (or a cheaper store version). I used it yesterday down the barrel of my Swiss Vetterli every few shots (black powder rounds).

[Silver Jack Hammer]

The card wad is supposed to keep the base of the boolit intact while there is a fire behind it. I use, we all use wads with the .45-70 but most don't fool with them with pistol cartridges.

I haven't chronoed my black powder loads either, it's where they hit that matters.

If you're loading conical boolits with a grease groove, it's best to stay away from petroleum based lube with black powder. I use SPG, there are others I suppose. I have 2 sizer lubricators, one with SPG and another with Alox in the reservoir.

I shoot my Colt's 2nd generation 1860's with black powder and try to make them jam, mine are very reliable. Frame stretch is more of a problem than fouling.

I load black powder cartridges with boolits lube with SPG. I think it cleans up a little easier. That Schofield is a nice cartridge.

[Atlast357]

My lube wads are: animal grease ( lard ) and beeswax in felt for round ball and conicals. I do have some Alox will use that in bullet grooves for the metallic loads.

Do you use anything harder in your casting for BP cartridge or is soft sufficient ?

I also bought a dedicated Colt 4 die set, and use 45ACP for the Scholfield.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I just use wheelweights for my cast boolit alloy, for round balls I just buy them, my round ball mold is a single cavity that I don't fool with. I cast round balls with wheelweights and the alloy is too hard. There's a video of TameBill hitting at 100 yards with his 1851 Colt's Navy '6's. He mentioned he cast his own with pure lead. TameBill said he got 10 hits out of 10 shots at 100 yards with his Navy '6's.

[Atlast357]

I believe TameBill ,Navy 36 is a very accurate C&B revolver. Look what Wild Bill Hickcock did back in the day.
I think I might have to go a little harder Brinell for use in metallic cartridge. Just tried a soft lead cast 45-228 RN
using a 45 ACP die.
The results of seating die, sqeezed the lead , did no get a firm seating of the bullet. Other than that I was happy with ACP
die on the longer Schofield case.
Got to establish a minimum hardness. So it will resist die ...........

[3Gunnah]

30 grn FF in a 45 colt case one 1/8 inch cardboard wad from track the wolf, 200 grn RNFP lubed with crisco/beeswax mix, use a Lyman M1 expander die with a 44mag plug to compress to desired depth, seat and use a lee factory crimp die to Finish the process. good clean loads. Schofield is 20 FF and 2 wads.

[TXGunNut]

Country Gent, don't you think your post is a little overwhelming for a guy who asked for starter information? I don't do what you described even with my Sharps, let alone a pistol.

I thought it was an excellent post!