New to casting and loading 45 LC

[c0wb0y84]

Well I have a ruger blackhawk in 45 with the 4 5/8" barrel on the way and instead of waiting for it to get here and seeing what I have and how it shoots I figure I should probably just start speculating and guessing and trying to figure out what would work best theoretically. I have Win 231, 296, Unique and 2400 to load with. I'm thinking about a 454190 to start with. Gotta find a used one somewhere though to meet budget demands as the dies, brass, gun etc is eating up the budget pretty fast. I also figure starting out around normal 45 loads and getting that down before going up to ruger only stuff is the way to go. Depending on what it looks like when I get it may send the cylinder out for honing, depending on how it shoots may have to get a taller front sight. But then again maybe not. I'll mostly use it to put holes in paper and hunt whitetail from time to time. Any thoughts, loads, experience with the shorter barrel.

[shell70634]

I shoot a 255 gr pc'd boolit sized at .452 over 8 gr of Unique. Ruger BH 7 1/2 gets 930fps. SW 625 5 1/2 gets about 890. Both with acceptable accuracy and comfortable to shoot.

[shell70634]

Went back and looked. That was a 250 gr HP PC'd and sized to .452. I guess that's why I write this stuff down.

Shelly

[onelight]

Is your new gun a flat top or standard model ?

[c0wb0y84]

Standard Stainless. (Seller's pic)

[Texas Tinker]

Standard Stainless. (Seller's pic)

I have a 4 5/8" "NEW MODEL" Blackhawk that has had several thousand rounds of 250 gr- 255gr cast of just about any profile you can think of (RNFP, RN, SWC, SWCHP, WFN) over the past 25+ years that I have carried it around the woods and range. No matter the bullet in this weight class it has always served me well with 8.0 grains of UNIQUE. That gives me just about all the recoil I want on my end and hits with plenty of wallop on the receiving end.

[Walks]

Can't beat the old #454190 over Unique, been the std since long before I was born (1954).

And I can't believe I'm gonna say this but you might be better off starting with the Lee #452-252-SWC 2cav. It has a regular crimp groove and cuts a clean hole in the paper.

I've had My NM Blackhawk 4 5/8" since 1978, bought a Lyman #452424 2cav a 255gr SWC to start.
Dad gave me a 1cav #454190.

If you've never crimped a bullet on the ogive, it can be a pain to learn.
Have fun to start, get frustrated later.

If you absolutely need a RNFP, then try the LEE #452-255-RF. It has a crimp groove and comes in a 6cav too.

[DougGuy]

See if a .452" will go through the cylinder throats from the front. If not, it probably needs the throats honed to .4525" so you will actually be delivreing a .452" to the bore instead of it swaging the boolits down to whatever throat diameter is every time it is fired.

[charlie b]

I'm with the rest

I liked my short barrel Ruger the best with the std 255gn SWC loads.

For a while I shot 300gn at the max Ruger load level. About a box at a time. After the 4th or 5th trip to the range I noticed my wrist and elbow would hurt the next day. That next month was when Taffin wrote his long article about messing up his arm by shooting too many large bore magnum loads during his career of writing. I went back to std Colt loads and never felt under gunned.

[onelight]

That is a nice looking 45 they are a lot of fun.
I'm on my 3rd one I have learned my lesson and am keeping this one.
I also like boolits around 250gn at 850 to 1000 FPS

[oldhenry]

I've loaded the Lyman 454424 & the 454190 with varying loads of Unique. However for the past 15 years most of my shooting has been with the 452374 (crimped over the ogive) over 7.0 gr. of HP-38/231. The Lyman 452488 (a wadcutter clone of the H&G 130 with a light crimp over the end of the straight portion) is also one of my favorites with the same 7.0 of HP38/231 load. These "softball" loads are more fun. For a heavier boolit recently I use the Accurate 45-250E with HP38 or Unique.

My bowling pin load is the 452424 over 8.5 of Unique in my 8 3/8" 25-5.

[littlejack]

RCBS makes a dandy 45-255 SWC mould. I run two of these double cavity moulds when casting. This is one of the commercially available moulds that Glen Frixell recommends to replace the original Keith 454424. You can usually pick one of these double cavity moulds up on ebay for about 50.00 + shipping. My go to load, is this bullet over 9 grains of Herco. This load shoots to p.o.a. in my Uberti Evil Roy model pasta gun.
Regards

[smkummer]

[QUOTEMy bowling pin load is the 452424 over 8.5 of Unique in my 8 3/8" 25-5.[/QUOTE]

That has to absolutely blow chunks of wood out of the bowling pins. 9 mm and 38, the bowling pins last a good while. 45 acp fmj, less so. 44 or 45 SWC, appears to take pieces of wood with the bullet every time.

[Outpost75]

Factory loads in .45 Colt have been loaded with Bullseye for over 100 years. You can do lots worse than 6.5 to 7 grains of Bullseye with whatever 250-265-grain bullet you like which fits the cylinder throats of your revolver. My preferred bullet for the .45 Colt is of my own design from Accurate. I adjust the powder charge for the lot of powder I have to produce 880 +/- 25 fps from my Colt New Service M1909 with 5-1/2" barrel and 0.008" cylinder gap. Use the same load in my Cimarron Pistolero, H&R Handi Rifle and Ruger Blackhawk convertible.

Attachment 259959

[c0wb0y84]

Thanks for all of the replies. Lots of good info, discussion and things to think over. I have looked at the lee 452-255-RN but I have only used lee molds for casting in other calibers so I figured if I could find one in the price range I'd get something else to see what the fuss is about. I've seen a few that looked to be in rough shape with rust and maybe missing a screw or something. I may look into trying to refurbish one if its not overly complex. I guess I need to find a pin gauge or two I suppose as well. I really appreciate the help from everyone.

[oldhenry]

[QUOTEMy bowling pin load is the 452424 over 8.5 of Unique in my 8 3/8" 25-5.

That has to absolutely blow chunks of wood out of the bowling pins. 9 mm and 38, the bowling pins last a good while. 45 acp fmj, less so. 44 or 45 SWC, appears to take pieces of wood with the bullet every time.[/QUOTE]

I never did a post mortem on the pins. I do know that load shoves them off the table & they were in one piece when they went.

[Drm50]

I load Lyman 454-309 button nose WC 237gr/ 10gr Unique for my 83/8” m25.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

Yesterday I cast RCBS 45-270-SAA and the day before I cast 452423, but only because I had a quantity of 452374, 454424 and most importantly 454190. The 454190 is the boolit I use the most in my five (5) Colt’s and one Ruger .45. The 454190 delivers on target at all ranges most reliably out of all my guns.

[smkummer]

The 454190 delivers on target at all ranges most reliably out of all my guns.

In my Colts which includes the SAA, cowboy, New Frontier, New Servce and Anaconda the same is true for me with 9 grains unique. And that bullet rings steel all the way out to 200 yards. I sold my 452424 to a friend with a S&W25 and it works fine for him. I since picked up a single cavity 454424 but have yet to see if it will match 454190. My 454190 sized to .454, seats heavily enough into the case that it doesn’t push back into the case out of my burgess repo rifle.

[Silver Jack Hammer]

The 454190 works as well with the scrap lead I’ve been using as it does when I mix it with 4 parts of Linotype.

The 454190 is the boolit adopted by the Army at the same time the Army was testing and developing the .45-70.