Talk to me about loading 45 Colt in 454 brass

[LeMat]

Came across some 454 rounds that I'll never use and decided to pull the pills.

Planning on trimming them down and using them for some 300gr thumpers in 45 Colt.

Did a search, but had a hard time sifting through the pages of results to find what I wanted.

I'll be loading 300gr Hornady jackets HP's and 300gr Gold Dots. Also have a lot of 300gr hard cast.

What kind of primers? I'll be using H110, what are some good starting loads for both jacketed and cast?

Trim to standard 45 Colt length?

Be shooting them in a Ruger Vaquero and Colt Anaconda.

Thanks!

[Calamity Jake]

Trade the 454 for some 45C then get a couple of load books that have 300gr 45C loads in it using H110 and go from there.
If you must you can trim the 454 to 45C, I've always thought it best to have the correct head
stamp on the brass to control confussion.

[ktw]

I tried trimming down 454 brass in order to match a slightly long 45 Colt chamber.

I found that small rifle primers (CCI) in the 454 brass were somewhat harder to set off than large pistol primers (CCI LPM) in 45 Colt brass. I got 1 or 2 failures to fire in every 10 rounds in a Winchester 94 carbine with a rebounding hammer.

You will need a good strong hammer strike for it to work.

I don't see the point in it if you are going to trim them back to standard 45 Colt length.

-ktw

[LeMat]

I already load heavy loads in standard 45 Colt brass. Thought the 454 brass would last a little longer.

[DragoonDrake]

I tried a few trimmed down for a 45colt ruger vaquero. I never shot them because I pulled one and the brass had swaged my bullet down another .002''. I did not find that acceptable. I spend the time to size them I really don't want to do it again.
My $.02.

Adam

[LeMat]

^^^ That's interesting. Wonder if there'd be much case deformation with jacketed bullets.

[RobS]

The walls are thicker on the Casull brass so the same brass sizing die will result in a smaller inside diameter of the brass. If a person doesnt have an expander plug to adjust the inside diameters they will need to adjust their alloy hardness to counter the stress the brass will place on the boolit. Nothing worse than seating a perfectly sized boolit to have the case swage it down to a smaller diameter. Your jacketed bullets are fine and hard cast boolits will also probably be ok regarding the neck tension from the 454 Casull brass.

Another note is if your chambers run on the larger side then the 454 Casull brass will be worked hard when sizing so life expectancy of your brass may not be a whole lot better if at all vs 45 colt brass.

[LeMat]

Well, this just gets better and better. :roll:

Glad I didn't go trimming all of them yet.

Thanks guys. :smile:

[RobS]

I also forgot to mention, the small rifle primer sucks IMO.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=92064

I converted most of my brass except a few hundred for the plinkers that I load quick powders in i.e. 230 grain boolits with 6 grains of promo. I have to use up my left over SR primers some how :)

[NickSS]

I have some 454 brass that I trimmed down to 45 colt length for hot loads in my Rossi Puma 92 carbine. I loaded them with 31 gr of AA 1680 and a 250 gr JHP bullet for a hunt that I went on a few years ago. I killed a nearly 300 pound wild boar with it and one shot to the front left shoulder. The bore was charging me and it dropped at the shot and skidded a couple of feet closer. The slug broke the shoulder and penetrated the body at an angle and came out the right side of the boar behind the rear rib. It works well in my carbine but I would not enjoy shooting them all day long in either a handgun or my rifle.

[leadman]

I had an older Ruger Blackhawk with oversized chambers. The 45 Colt brass would really expand to fit the cylinder when 300gr bullets were fired with a load of H110. I tried neck sizing but the chambers were different so fit was not good. Loaded rounds resembled a larger version of a 38-40.
I cut down 454 brass and dropped back a couple grains and worked up again. The brass barely expanded. Accuracy improved and velocity was a little higher with the same load. Never had a problem using small pistol magnum or small rifle primers in that gun.

[beagle]

I have 25 or so that I've trimmed back and loaded as .45 Colt in a Ruger convertible. Don't recall the headstamps but they loaded fired all right with no apparent problems

Wish I had more./beagle

[Grapeshot]

I've done this in the past and still have the cases. I found that I could open the flash hole to 3/32nds of an inch and use small pistol primers when shooting cast bullets of 250 - 255 grains and Unique, Trail Boss, Bullseye, or Red Dot. The Slower burning powders need the small rifle primers, which I do not have.

I have used those cases when shooting 285 grain JHP's and JSP's that I swage from .40 S&W brass and they show no sign of distress whem using any of the above powders with a published load for 300 grain bullets. YMMV.

I also use them in a Colt Anaconda exclusively.