.45 Minie Ball load?

[Deadeye]

I have a .45/.410 Bond Arms Snake Slayer Derringer. For close up self defense it's hard to beat, but for any distance beyond 10' it's shoot and pray.

It has a 3.5" barrel with only 1/2" of rifling, so when firing .45 Colt rounds they have to jump about an inch + before they engage the rifling. This causes The boolit to tumble.

Would the hollow base of a Minie ball (cast from soft lead maybe?) expand enough to keep the Boolit centered in the chamber until it engages the rifling? Hopefully improving accuracy.

I have no idea what issues a Minie ball seated in a .45 Colt case will bring up. Just a stray thought rattling around my head.

P.S. I'm thinking of using Lee Improved Minie ball mold.

[mooman76]

Give it a try and see. You just never know about things like that until you try. I shot the Lee Reals out of a 45 acp just for giggles and they actuallly shot pretty good.

[Deadeye]

I'm going to give it a try. I figure a nose heavy boolit like the Lee Improved Minie should fly straight without tumbling, similar to a Foster slug.

I just ordered the mold & will report on results.

[Deadeye]

OK! I need ya'lls opinions on my plan here. I can't find anybody that has tried this, so I'm having to wing it. I've ordered a Lee Improved Minie ball mold .454 298gr. that I plan to size to .452 dia. I'll be using 300gr load data.

I have three issues that I haven't decided on yet:
1. Whether to cast them from soft/pure lead or WW (would rather use WW as I have more of it).

2. Powder/Charge. Most of the data I've found so far (haven't dug real deep yet) for a 300gr bullet is Ruger only loads. The BA derringer is a stout gun but would rather stay on the milder side, so any ideas on data sources would be appreciated.

3. Seating depth? These Minie balls are pretty long, (not sure of exact length yet) so I'm wondering about potential pressure issues from seating depth. I plan to seat/crimp them at the third driving band (see picture). Not sure yet how deep that will be, but will post that info when I find out.




This is my first attempt at an off the wall project like this so any ideas you may have will be greatly appreciated

[NickSS]

cast them from pure lead and they may expand. Another way to go is to blow out some 303 British cases and load long 45 colt loads. I did this in my H&R handy rifle with a 45/410 shotgun barrel. I was getting sub standard velocity and accuracy with the standard 45 colts. In fact they sounded funny going off. So I blew out a few 303 cases and loaded 452 diameter bullets over 10 gr of Unuque and got much better results. I would not go so high with your pistol as I do not know how strong they are.

[44man]

I would start out very slow. A 300 gr boolit bumbling along is going to be very hard to stop so there is no need to look for velocity.
The experiment sounds like fun.

[Archer]

NickSS wrote, Another way to go is to blow out some 303 British cases and load long 45 colt

Do you mean open the neck on the 303 cases, or cut them off below the neck?

[Deadeye]

I would start out very slow. A 300 gr boolit bumbling along is going to be very hard to stop so there is no need to look for velocity.
The experiment sounds like fun.

Yea, I agree. I found some loads on the Hodgdon web site for HS6, UC & Titegroup that run around 700fps. They're for copper jacketed bullets but I think they're low enough to be safe for lead also. I think I'll stick with them.

Nickss, I thought about cutting some larger cases down or using .460 S&W cases. But due to spending too many $$$ on other projects, my budget is 0 on this one. I'm gonna have to use what I have on hand. I will be casting with pure lead. I was saving the PB I have for another project, but I'm only going to cast about 100 of these so that will still leave me with plenty.

Thanks for the great replies guys. Keep'm coming!

[Deadeye]

Shot the first 10 .45 Colt Minie Ball loads today. In short they're nice, real nice!

I cast them from Pb, Sizes them to .452, tumble lubed them in ALOX. Loaded them on top of 7.2gr UC. Didn't have a chance to check accuracy beyond 10' (just fired them into dirt bank in back yard), but they don't appear to be tumbling. Snake Slayer handled them nicely with no signs of pressure.

Will update when I get some to the range!

[TreeFittySebm]

I have just begun to cast with pure lead, the 298 grain Lee .454 Improved Minie for my Bond Arms Texas Defender and I must say it is working out fantastically! I use 6.2 grains of HP38, get very little leading and these don't tumble. It had been hit and miss (mostly miss) looking for the right bullet/load but this one is it for the Bond... At least for me.