very new at this

[unclebill]

greetings!.
this is my first post here.
i have a raging bull .454 casull.
that i would like to reload for .
i am not a caster ,so forgive me.
i have 2 boxes of bullets and would like to load them in.45 colt cases.or for that matter .454 casull cases.

this is what it says on the boxes
MI-TE bullets
match grade hard cast .45-255gr. SWC .454

D&J
hi performance matchgrade bullets
wgt.250
LRNFP
.452
i have IMR 4227 and greendot powders here at home i would like to use.
i have a matched pair of PIETTA 1873 colt replicas i would like so load for also.

thank you for your time and any advice you might care to share with me.:-D

[Skrenos]

Ok, you're not a caster, but are you a reloader?

[unclebill]

yessir! but i have only been doing it for a couple years though.
.303 brit
.308 win
just started .45 colt
and just bought the dies for
.454 casull

[unclebill]

i have made some cowboy loads with 6.8 of green dot.
and the MI-TE bullets
match grade hard cast .45-255gr. SWC .454
now i would like something with a little more power.
my pietta's are made with the same specs as the original colts so they are .454.
i would like to use the components i have on hand if possible.
otherwise i will toss these in the shed and go buy whatever one of my reloading manuals tells me to.

[9.3X62AL]

Welcome aboard, Bill. We aren't generally too prejudiced against the store-bought boolits, if you're using lead--sit right down. Some of us even use those red-coated pretenders on occasion, but the jacketed bullet is pricing itself out of consideration for most of my shooting.

How much--if any--reloading have you done, sir? If you are a total novice, I cannot over-emphasize the need for a good reloading manual prior to buying ANY reloading tools. My own favorite to recommend to new folks is the Speer Relaoding Manual, now in its 14th Edition. Its plain language format and minimal use of highly technical language makes things easy to understand for a first-timer. Speer has a pretty close corporate relationship with RCBS reloading tools, a situation borne out by any review of the Speer Manual's text. This Manual (its 10th Edition) got me started very successfully in the late 1970's, and the rest is history as they say. I had some critique by a mentor, and if there is someone near at hand who has experience in this hobby field--such a person can be a great source of information in "real time".

I don't load the Casull, but do load the 45 Colt in some numbers. Your Pietta 45 Colt revolvers will be well-served by either boolit, as long as the cylinder throats are a close match dimensionally to the boolits being fired. Most post-WWII 45 Colt revolvers have .451"-.452" throats, pre-war revolvers tended to run wider--about .454". The general rule is to have boolits at or .001" over the largest throat diameter in your cylinder, and hopefully your groove diameter is at or .001"-.002" smaller than the throats. A "few thousandths larger" lead boolit usually causes no issues, esp. in 45 Colt because the chambers tend to be a little oversize. Boolits a few thousandths too small can create conditions that prompt leading. If you load the boolits into Casull cases, I would take it easy on velocities, plain-based commercial boolits seldom do well much past 1000 FPS. Those Piettas should run no faster than 850-900 FPS, and the powders IMR- or H-4227 and Green Dot are both VERY good for 45 Colt.

Get thee hence to a gunshop or other outdoors emporium, and buy a reloading manual. Many of your questions will be answered in the text, and we are here for anything else that crops up. And, LOTS of questions crop up. EVERYONE HERE was new to this at one time or another, and you'll likely get more info than you can digest at one sitting to every question raised. The only "dumb" questions in the reloading venues are the one that go unasked.

[unclebill]

MI-TE on right
D&J on left
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l272/billhedges/davesdrive101-8.jpg

[unclebill]

9.3X62AL,
thank you for your quick response!
i have the speer #13
lee modern reloading
and the sierra manual.
i just second guess myself and worry that i may do something wrong.
i have loaded for my savage 10-fp and saiga in 308win
and my enfields in .303 brit.
but i know NOTHING about lead bullets.
all i have done is a little bit of cowboy loads.
now i want to make some noise with the raging bull.
i dont have the space to cast bullets.
my computer/reloading room is 6x8 feet!

[unclebill]

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l272/billhedges/davesdrive099-12.jpg
i just got these last month and have been having a ball with em!

[454PB]

Welcome to the forum!

I load for .45 Colt and own a Ruger Blackhawk. I also load for .454 Casull, and own a Taurus Raging Bull. I suspect you will find your Taurus won't even accept .454 sized boolits, but the .452 sized boolits should be fine. If you hold velocity down around 1200 to 1300 fps, they shouldn't cause any leading. Of the two powders, 4227 will allow that kind of velocity, the Green Dot could be used for reduced loads. Since I use neither of those powders in .454 Casull, I can't offer any charge weight suggestions.

My advise is to add a few powders to your selection for loading the Raging Bull. Using the lighter 250 gr. cast boolits, Alliant Bluedot is an excellent powder. If you decide to run the RB at it's top end potential, you're going to have to use a gas checked boolit.

[Mk42gunner]

Bill,

Nothing wrong with asking questions, like Al said we all started out at one point or another.

Reloading straight walled pistol cases isn't that much different from bottle necked ifle cases, with one major exception. Flaring the case to seat a lead bullet. You want enough flare to start the bullet in the case but not so much as to overwork the brass when you crimp the case into the bullets crimp groove.

For myself, when doing 45 Colt on a single stage press (with RCBS dies), the flare can be felt easier than it can be seen. I flare the case so I can set the bullet in about 1/32".

Read the relevant sections of your reloading manuals and walk through the actions required a few times. Make sure you adjust you seating stem for the different length of your bullets.

Good Luck,

Robert

[unclebill]

thank you very much you guys.
if i get stuck i will be sure and come calling on you!

[Three44s]

Welcome to "boolits"!

I would suggest that you don't load your .45 Colt cases to any level that your replicas can't safely handle.

Fire up those 454's but not the .45 Colts ..... it's just to easy to get a hot rodded Colt case meant for you Raging Bull mistakenly into those Piettas.

Three 44s

[unclebill]

that is really good advice!

[unclebill]

i impulse bought a S.A. .357 yesterday and some 300 gr. boolits for the bull

[pa_guns]

Hi

I have been down this road with a number of "multiple case" rounds. One example is the 357 max. It will chamber 38 Special, 357 mag and 357 max.

Stick with the longest case that will fit the chamber. Shooting short cases does nothing to improve the accuracy and you will get lead buildup in the front of the chamber. It's even worse if you shoot jacketed bullets.

As mentioned above, loads that are *ok* for the big boy probably aren't going to be a good idea for an original Colt SAA. That's another good reason to keep the big loads in the big cases.

Bob

[unclebill]

yessir!
roger that
i am afraid of damaging me OR my firearms!

[454PB]

Geez Bill, we were getting worried about you! It's been 5 months since you responded last.

[unclebill]

well
ive been pretty busy.
i changed jobs
found and lost a woman.
found and KEPT a few more guns.
ummmm
new comfuser
and stuff like that.

but anyhow i am back now.

[9.3X62AL]

Sorry to hear about the lady, Bill. Very happy about the new war toys, though!

[unclebill]

eh
she wasnt a keeper anyhow.
this henry big boy45 l.c. and the ruger sp101.357 with crimson trace grips are a different story!
and a new to me dillon press that i posted about in the reloading section of this site.