New X-mas gift brings up a few ?'s

[klausg]

Hey gang-
I've been out of the net for awhile, so I thought I ought to check in with you guys. Last Friday I bought myself a X-mas gift, I managed to find a Ruger BH in 45 Colt for a song. It's an older one, new enough to have a transfer bar, but the cylinder is recessed. I haven't gotten a set of pin gauges yet, but I measured with the imprecise expedient of a .451, J-word bullet. It drops though all the chambers in the cylinder w/no issues. My intended use is mostly screwing around with normal pressure loads, but secondary use will be as yet another bear gun. So, I broke out some of my handy manuals, I'm currently playing around with 250 gr J-words, (I haven't thrown together a Midway order yet for a new mould) so my questions are these:

a) Suggestions for a good plinker mould/load. I'm leaning towards a Lyman 452664; I will probably go with a Cast Performance 325 gr PB for the bear load, I doubt that I will want to shoot enough of these to warrant purchasing another mould.

b) From perusing my Hodgdon manual, in the Ruger/Freedom Arms/TC section, they show a 250 gr J-word with a starting load of 25 point something of H110. This seems more than a little warm to me, any pet high pressure loads out there. My slow powder inventory consists of 2400, H110, & AA #9.

c) Finally, this one is aimed specifically at AlaskaMike, or anyone else in the Anchorage area. Do you guys know of a decent saddle shop in the area? This came with a Bianchi rig, and I need about 2.5 inches taken out of the belt.

Thanks in advance...

-Klaus

[454PB]

Any of those powders will work in this gun, but I'd recommend you stay with faster burning powders until you get familiar with it. Since I own 3 .454 Casulls, I don't hot rod my BH. The most accurate load in my Ruger BH is the Lyman 452424 Keith ahead of 10 grs. of Unique. That chronographs a bit over 1000 fps. in my 7 1/2" barrel. I don't shoot jacketed bullets much, but have had good results with the Hornady 250 grain XTP. I use both the Lee 300 gr. (actually weighs 320 grains ready to load) RNFP and Lyman 452651 330 gr. RNFP in all my .454's and BH. If you're going to push this gun to it's limits, you'll need a gas checked design.

[44man]

I can make a suggestion about the belt! If you are like me you will need the extra length sooner or later. :bigsmyl2: