Loading for an original S&W Schofield

[RichardB]

In another topic area I laid out my rebuilding of an original 1877 S&W Schofield revolver. Having completed everything but the front site I gathered components to load some ammo for it. Starline cases were acquired and as I had everything else needed I began.

As I didn't want to stress this old revolver I decided to go with the lowest load data I could find. That decided as a starting point I slugged the cylinder throats and bore. As I usually hear about oversized chambers and bores I was VERY surprised to find the throats at .449 and the bore at .4485. The chambers were not under sized in the least, taking the new cases easily.

As my cast bullets were .452 this was going to be an issue. First getting them thru the throats and bore without undo lead shaving or swaging down and possible increased pressure issues involved. Solved that with a scrounge thru the bullet sizing dies on hand and found a .450. Ran 100 thru that die and they were ready to load.

The brass of course was not prepared to hold a bullet that small. Some experimentation followed with various dies at hand. 45 Colt would not size them small enough at the mouth area. The 45 ACP would so the cases were sized the depth of the seated bullet to hold them. A 45 expander just negated the previous sizing work so the search was on for a solution to that issue. A 44-40 expander was used to put a slight bell on the case mouth the ease the bullets start into the case.

Trail Boss was used as powder and the resized bullets were loaded and crimped using a 45ACP seat die.

Will test fire some in the next few days. The Schofield seriously needs a front site tho!

[Dan Cash]

If that were my gun, I would take extreme measures to obtain and use only Black Powder. Smokeless powder can be a lot spunkier than might be supposed.

[ATCDoktor]

I don’t know what charge weight your using reference Trail Boss but it’s not a black
Powder substitute.

It’s a very fast burning smokeless powder and if it were me I’d follow Dan Cash’s advice and endeavor to find some black powder.

[quail4jake]

Caution with Trail Boss, not low pressure. I would stick to black powder and soft boolits with generous dosing of SPG or any good black powder lube. My No. 3 is a repro and I have used Titegroup conservatively but nothing grouped and chronographed like 25 gr of Swiss FFg and an NOE 455-255 wadcutter .454 with all grooves filled with SPG. For what it's worth...

[RichardB]

Hmmm, well I guess I can shoot them up in my DMax 45 Colt and reload them.

[Baltimoreed]

I do infrequently shoot very light Bullseye loads [160 gr bullets] in my .450 Metropolitan Police Webley solid frame revolver. It’s fun to shoot these old guys. I don’t know if old Webley steel heat treatment was better than S&Ws treatment was so proceed with the utmost caution. I would suggest you poke around the s&w forum to get an idea of when your revolver was built and get some imput from guy’s who know Smiths.

[RichardB]

Mine was made in 1877 according to the serial number.

[Dan Cash]

Given your date of manufacture for the revolver, you can bet it is butter soft. Couple that with a none too strong design to begin with and you are begging for trouble with smokeless loads.

[leadeye]

I'm inclined to used pure lead bullets and BP for that revolver.

[smkummer]

30 years ago, I had a new model number 3 in 44 Russian. I loaded a starting load with smokeless powder ( either bullseye or unique) and a 240 grain round nose cast bullet. It worked fine in the 2 boxes I shot out of it before trading it. I don’t recall the pressure range. Currently loading a starting load for an original 1875 Remington in 44 WCF with smokeless 700X in the 7000 psi range for cowboy action. Your results may vary as anyone is on their own loading smokeless in guns originally designed for blackpowder.

[Freischütz]

You might find this topic from the Smith-Wessonforum interesting.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/s-w-ant...-american.html

[RichardB]

Well I shot the remaining Trail Boss loads in the DMax and started by loading six with 22.5 grs. of Goex FFG. That amount gave just a touch of compression using my .450 sized 230 gr. RN Cast bullets.

Fired those thru the Schofield. Oh Joy! What Rapture! They fired perfectly, left the gun smokey and a cloud of smoke around me. Does it get any better than that?

Cases dropped freely, were deprimed and dropped in soapy water while I checked over the revolver. Did the usual cleanup with BP cleaner then oiled it all well. Bore showed no signs of leading even tho it has some pits. They are the only detriment to an otherwise very shootable bore. Can't wait for a front sight so I can see how accurately it shoots.