45 colt twist rate?

[Tackleberry41]

Looking at some barrel blanks. Not a target gun or anything. Numrich has some octagon blanks in 451 but 1 in 56 twist, I imagine for muzzle loader weapons. Green mountain sells a 25" blank 'for colt rifle' thats 1 in 32. But most others sold, douglas etc are faster 1 in 16 or so.

223 I would know, will that slow twist work with a 45 colt in a pistol or do I need to pay for the faster twist?

[UNIQUEDOT]

1:32 works well in pistol length barrels with round balls, but not so well in pistols with conical bullets.

[Outpost75]

The standard twist in the .45-70 was one turn in 20" and if I were building a .45 Colt rifle and wanted to use bullets heavier than 300 grains, that would be my choice. The 32" twist Green Mountain barrels are fine for shooting standard 230-260 grain bullets at low velocities below 1000 fps in a rifle for cowboy shooting, but the heavier 300-grain bullets need to be driven harder in the slow twist for best accuracy. In a strong rifle the "Ruger Only" type loads of about 25,000 psi should be no problem. In my H&R Handi Rifle the 300-grain LFN bullets shoot well with a nominal "caseful" about 22 grains of H4198, lightly compressed and it is effective.

[felix]

The latest run of 45 Colt, 44 Mag 94s before going belly up were both 24 twist. I have one in 45 Colt. I shoot a LFN 315 LBT with 28 grains of the 680s, or 25 gains of RL7. Zero accuracy problems at any range you can see a beer can. Also, the gun shoots 185 button nose ACP boolits very accurately at 50-80 yards. The 24 twist seems to be about perfect with this boolit range. ... felix

[paul h]

I've always leaned towards a slightly faster twist vs. a slightly slower twist given the choice as the faster twist will work well with a wider variety of bullet weights.

If you plan to only use the lightest of bullet weights, the 1-32 will work for you. If you plan to use mostly 230-250 gr bullets and swc's which are long for their weight, you might find the 1-32 is marginal or doesn't work. Nothing more expensive than buying the bargain priced item if it won't work for the job.

[Tackleberry41]

So might work sticking with light bullets.

I see track of the wolf sells barrel liner one is sold as 45 auto, the other 45 colt with a slightly larger bore and groove. Never seen barrels sold that way. Is there a reason? Found something that the tighter acp may not shoot lead bullets as well?

[44man]

I see he asks about a .45 Colt pistol. Then a 1 in 16" rate is correct but if velocity can be increased with barrel length, a little slower can work, maybe 1 in 20" to 1 in 24".
The revolver needs 1 in 16", can't get to velocity.
Remove the muzzle loader stuff from the question, does not fit. Neither does the 45-70. I find even 1 in 18" for the 45-70 too slow with heavy boolits. 1 in 20" with smokeless and lighter bullets--OK.
Why is all kinds of stuff brought in when the .45 Colt was the question?
But then barrel length or velocity was not mentioned.
I see someone saying a 1 in 32" rate for slow boolits works. NOT TRUE, it should be a FASTER twist. For the mouse fart CA loads even 1 in 14" is too slow.

[Tackleberry41]

I have a good 10 in of barrel to work with, a single shot. But its not made for the hotter loads, so standard pressure and velocity loads. I have a bunch of the polymer tipped 225gr leverlution bullets, Midway had blems for 100/$16 the other day. And a 230gr 45 mold. If I need more power Ill use my 44mag single shot rifle.

This is one of the rossi matched pair single shots, with a 45/410 barrel. Its near worthless with any sort of lead bullet, not much better with jacketed. Got some of the 444 marlin brass to work in it, its better but still pretty bad. It was bought as a spur of the moment toy, not gonna sink much money into it. I was considering just rebarreling it to 45 colt. Or even a liner like track of the wolf sells. I have a lathe and lots of time. Possible something like people do to rebarrel an H&R, cut off the barrel, leaving the stub, thread it and install a new one. Be nice of somebody sold the barrel blocks.

Wasn't sure why they sold a 454 'colt' liner, okay for the older guns with the larger bores.

[cbrick]

44man as usual is correct but I'm really curious . . . Just what is a mouse phart CA load? :veryconfu

Rick

[44man]

Rick, zero recoil, zero barrel rise.
I never shot the CA stuff but watched it on TV a lot, guns don't move much, even the shotguns.
I have a stupid question about using a pump shotgun, Why don't they use the magazine, why do they load one shot at a time? I am sure a real cowboy would not use a pump as a single shot!

[cbrick]

Ah yes, the Hollywood guns. No recoil and even better yet they never run out of ammo, just keep on shooting.

I spent 34 years in that business, there are very few in charge of production that know which end of the gun the bullet comes out. That plus a solid attitude that since it's something that they know nothing about how could you possibly know the difference.

Rick

[shorty500M]

in my experience the grand old Colt cartridge works swell given proper ammo and good shooters with any twist of 1-15 thru 1-24 with well designed bullets from 185 to 360 grains. after 325grains bullet weight and twist become important, although i feel the 340-360g are truly the ultimate limit of usefull weight vs. velocity regardless of twist

[Larry Gibson]

I see he asks about a .45 Colt pistol. Then a 1 in 16" rate is correct Why is all kinds of stuff brought in when the .45 Colt was the question?

I wouldn't go slower that 1-16 rifling twist for a handgun barrel in 45 Colt either.

Larry Gibson

[cbrick]

Both my 7 1/2" Blackhawk/Bisley conversion and 20" Marlin have 1 in 16 twists. Blackhawk does well with heavier boolits but the Marlin has the most horrid bore I've ever seen in a new firearm. Don't shoot it, gonna send it off to someone other than Marlin and have a real barrel put on it. When I get around to that I should think a 1 in 16 for the new barrel would be good. Anyone have different ideas?

Rick

[Grapeshot]

Years before the Cowboy Action craze started I bought a Navy Arms Model 1873 Uberti copy of the Winchester '73. I took it to my gunsmith and told him to stick a Douglas Barrel in .45 Caliber with a 1 in 16 inch twist on in and chamber it for .45 Colt.

It is the most accurate rifle I have shot that was chambered in .45 Colt. Does not matter if I use 185 grain or 350 grain bullets in it. As long as they are sized to .452 and a stiff charge of Unique or AA#7 the rifle will eat out the center of a B16 at 75 feet all day long.

[Tackleberry41]

I have enough problems with twist messing with subsonic loads. So will look around for a decent fast twist barrel. Was considering a liner from track of the wolf. But after chucking up the existing barrel in my lathe and doing some checking, its sort of a manual on how not to make a barrel. Its not straight to begin with, so a sleeve wouldn't be either. Nothing is concentric so reaming it out would be a problem, at least as far as a sleeve goes. Hard to believe with modern machinery that they could even make it so poorly, then either they don't inspect at rossi, or don't care. Probably both.

So means cutting it off and using the stub to mount a different barrel. Or chuck the whole thing in the trash, which seems a bit of a waste. I like the idea of the rossi, being able to mount the different barrels, without like H&R sending them back to be fitted. Seems the execution was off, as getting barrels is a bit of a challenge.