Navy Arms 1873, 45 Colt loads?

[Remmy4477]

Ok picked up an older Navy Arms 1873 in 45 colt today.
Very nice condition with low mileage.

Will be using it for plinking and the occasional Cowboy silhouette matches.
Kind of want just one good load to stick with it once its worked up for the rifle, nothing hot or wild.

Smokeless Powders I have on hand.
Varget
H110
H4831
IMR4198
Trail Boss

Molds on hand.
RCBS 45-250-FN
Ideal 454-190
Ideal 454-424

Probably not some of the best choices but using up some of my stock.

[Walks]

Trailboss is the only suitable powder that you list.

Overall length is CRITICAL. 1.600 MAX

LYMAN#454424 will hang up on the front band going into the chamber. You would have to crimp over the front driving band to get a short enough overall length.

RCBS#45-250-FN has a small front band, and a good crimping groove. It may or may not hang up on chambering. Check overall length.

LYMAN#454190 IS A GREAT CHOICE. It has no crimping groove but must crimp on the OGIVE. It's better to seat & crimp separately. It needs a hard crimp to survive recoil from driving the bullets back into the CASES in the tubular magazine.

I've used a std RCBS die set to load the .45COLT w/454190 for over 40yrs. These days I add a TAPER CRIMP DIE after the roll crimp. It's an extra step, but I feel better safe then sorry.

Make up about 10 dummies with the RCBS BULLET. cycle them hard & fast. If they feed WITHOUT a hitch, USE THAT BULLET.

5.2grs min - 5.8grs max, Trailboss.

PM me with results, and Good Luck.
I've been shooting UBERTI 1873'S & 1866's for 30+yrs.
In .45COLT since they started chambering them about 1990-1992.

Fun and easy to clean & maintain. Shooting 1873 in .44WCF since 1988 in COWBOY SHOOTING, never let me down yet. BUT WATCH THAT OVERALL CARTRIDGE LENGTH; 1.600 !!!!!

[35 Whelen]

Do yourself a favor and get a powder that will work efficiently with your the 45 Colt. Red Dot,
and 700-X are my two favorites for duplicating the original load, both will do it using only 6.0 to 6.5 grs. of powder (yielding over 1,000 loads per pound of powder) and are significantly less expensive than Trail Boss. If you don't want that much power, just back off 1/2 gr. or so.

I know folks are quick condemn SWC in the toggle link actions, but some do work. I have a '73 Uberti in .44 Magnum that feeds the RCBS 44-250 KT wonderfully. It appears this is due to the abnormally wide nose of this design and the subsequently small shoulder ahead of the driving band.

My NOE 454424 drops a bullet with a wide front section that I suspect would feed in a '73.

My RCBS 45-250 FN mould does not have a crimp groove so there's that. I load the 454190 in my revolvers and crimp on the ogive, but would never trust it to hold in a tubular magazine.


35W

[Harry O]

I have used Trail Boss for most of my 45 Colt loads. When I bought guns in that caliber, I laid in 500 Starline cases. These are thicker (heavier sides) than Remington or Winchester cases. I tried the top load recommended (but still mild), about 5.5gr from memory. It did not seal the cases inside the chamber and the accuracy was terrible. I slowly upped the powder to the base of the bullet (about 8.7gr). It sealed consistently at about 7.2gr of Trail Boss, and the accuracy improved a lot. I am using that load right now.

[Remmy4477]

Well got out this evening to try out the uberti.
Functions great. Used the 5.2 grns load, starline brass, boolits were .452, 250 grn hard cast with a crimp groove, I picked up at the gun show. CCI large pistol primers. Loaded 10 of them.
When putting them together the charge barely filled half the case.

Yep, smoked the brass and action quite well and sounded like an overgrown 22 rimfire. So I'm going to bump it up to 5.5 on 5 rounds then do 5 rounds at 5.8 and see if theres any improvement.
Accuracy wise, well 15 yards is not much of a test other than maybe recoil and pop report, but was popping soda cans with no problem.

I also loaded 10 rounds with Goex ffg, used the quick method and pretty much just dropped the powder in the case to the point the bullet would compress it just about 1/8th when seated, same 250 grn boolit.
That load will let you know it works! Very good report, Very noticable recoil, and good on pop cans at 15 yards. Still smoked the brass but only on a few cases, but not even close to what the TB did to the cases and action.

Just a side note.
Also been working on some low recoil loads for my Marlin 1895CB in 45-70 took it out today also.
10 rounds, 5 remington regular brass and 5 that were nickel.
28 grns H4198, Lyman 292 grn boolit and cci large rifle primers
Recoil feels like shooting a single shot 12 gauge, I can live with that. The thump on the receiving end, very impressive for a lite load, kills a 4 by 4 post with no problem!
However I also noticed it smoked the nickel brass, but the standard brass came out fairly clean.

Up until today I have never given case thickness much thought, Looks like I learned something!

[GhostHawk]

I agree with 35whelen.

My .45 colt is a single shot handi rifle.

But 6.5 grains of Red Dot under a 230 gr cast truncated cone bullet did amazing things in mine.

Easy on the shoulder, quiet, with a big thump on the far end. It was stacking boolits on the far end.
That is what works for me, YMMV.

[cowboy]

Howdy-
When I was able to do such things, I too gave Trail Boss a solid try- found it was a pain to get to meter though my powder measure, but worked really well for certain applications. Settled on CLAYS for my .45 Colt Rifle stuff- first through a Marlin Cowboy Limited, then a Uberti '73. Worked well.

[bigted]

Some body already mentioned/suggested the black powder loads. My favorite is as follows;

I have rem, win and starline 45 Colt brass all of which do what i require.
... i use a scoop that meters enough 2Fg old E powder to give me a 1/4" compression.
... i prime with predominantly CCI large pistol primers.
... i then unceremoniously scoop and dump in each primed, flaired case, black powder.
... now i take a Lee 255 grain lubed boolit [SPG] and seat it and compress the powder with the lead boolit [20 to 1 mix].
... next i use the excellent Lee factory crimp die to crimp the boolit into the case.
... no wads, no lube cookies, no weighed powder charges and no creedmore accuracy expectations.

I am a very happy camper if i can bust a clay pigeon at 50 yards. My old expectations drove me nuts with my open sighted guns. First off i am not a crack shot anymore for a couple reasons ... will not delve into this but i still have a blast shooting ... yes pun intended. I absolutely love shooting black powder. It goes BOOM, it SMOKES, and cleans in a snap. Makes this ol man very happy and feel like ive done something on every excursion.

[Remmy4477]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I have a nib Lyman 452664 4 cavity mold I found in my gunshow find bucket.
Picked up a new set of handles.

I have plenty of Goex ffg, pyrodex, American pioneer and a few others I use in my roller depending on what I'm doing with it.

Decided I will mainy use BP (Goex) with the lyman mold in the 1873.
Figure I will just neck size the cases and see how much powder I can get in them.

Should be fun!

[bigted]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I have a nib Lyman 452664 4 cavity mold I found in my gunshow find bucket.
Picked up a new set of handles.

I have plenty of Goex ffg, pyrodex, American pioneer and a few others I use in my roller depending on what I'm doing with it.

Decided I will mainy use BP (Goex) with the lyman mold in the 1873.
Figure I will just neck size the cases and see how much powder I can get in them.

Should be fun!

Thats the good stuff. The less science i apply to these pistol rounds, the more ground pounding fun i have with em