swageing bullets for my .45 long colt.

[johnson1942]

i was told here once that any dumb a----- can smash lead into a good bullet so thought i would tell anyone interested that this dumb a--- is doing just that. i aquired a as new ruger old army. then i bought a R and D .45 long colt cylinder for it. it fit perfectly. i have lots of swageing dies i use for paper patched bullet and i have a .451 swageing die. i have over 400 .445 round balls left from a roundball muzzle loader i just sold recently. today i set it up with a deep cupped base base punch and a true very short round nose nose punch. i dropped one of those .445 roundballs in it and out come the most perfect 45 long colt bullet ive seen. the lip on the cupped base is stout it has a 1/4 inch bearing surface. and a short true round nose. i also have a wad cutter for the 45 so i punched out of 1/8 inch cardboad a couple hundred wads. my friend has some 45 long colt brass and we loaded up the case with blackhorn 209 powder the wad and then this bullet. roll crimped it tight and man does it shoot. it may be too simple for here but it is swageing and it is cheap and man do they shoot. one can swage more than copper coated bullets. their is no leading as the stiff tight wad prevents that. i also wage for a couple 45 rifles and a 50 rifle and paperpatch those bullets. i love my swageing equipment and am sure glad that over the years i got what i got.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Very nice. Pics please!!!

[DougGuy]

Very nice. Pics please!!!

^^^^ What HE said!!

[MrWolf]

Yea, pics please!

[johnson1942]

my wife will be able to post some tomorrow evening. thanks for the interest.

[johnson1942]

139395Here is the picture promised

[johnson1942]

these can also be made from 50 cal roundballs. the 50 cals just have a longer bearing surface. very cheap reliable good shooting.

[R.Ph. 380]

Nothing wrong with that, Looks like fun............................

[Omnivore]

Those look great, Man, so just how well do they shoot in your 45s?

I'd lean more toward using the heavier 50 cal RB, personally, since using the smaller ones you're actually going down in weight, compared to a typical .454" round ball.

I'd also very much like to see the setup you use for mashing them.

[johnson1942]

they shoot great as the old army ruger is a good shooter in the first place. ruger has the throats of the barrels throated with a taper smooth type throat and the bullets center themselves and are very accurate. my swageing dies came from corbin as the heavy duty press did 25 years ago or about that long ago. it consists of a die a base punch and a nose punch. drop a round ball in the mouth of the die, lower the handle and when you raise it out comes the bullet. i could make longer bullets with longer cores but why do it as this way i dont have to cast core. i just pick up a bulk sack of 45 round balls at diff places and they all come out perfect when swaged. they shoot good and the cost is as cheap as it can possibly get. for my paperpatch muzzle loader bullets i just buy cheap lee molds and drill them out to the core size i want and cast cores and reswage them in one of my dies and they shoot as accurate as a bullet can get. i have several 45 cal rifles in various twist and one 50 cal left. now this pistol. i really like my swageing set up as it opened up a whole new cheap but good world of shooting. i also swage pp bullets for my 2 45/70/s. swageing equipment also lasts forever if you take care of it.

[Wolftracker]

I'm doing the same thing using some of my cast bullets. I can turn a Lyman or Lee round nose into just about any design I want, all with a Corbin 3/4 E Point former, a lead Semi Wadcutter die with a keith nose punch and a hollow point punch. One can experiment a lot. Also, if you cast first, you can get away with using harder alloy because you aren't squeezing it with so much pressure. I make 45's primarily for 45ACP but they'd work for Long Colt as well, I'm sure!

[Littlewolf]

those look like they would be great for a BP single shot 45 target pistol, is there a posibility of getting a small batch of those

[johnson1942]

shot a bunch of them to day. 22 grains of black horn 209 powder. a poly 60 thousands wad and a tight roll crimp over the round nose. ive got to chonograph them as they snort. no leading at all and very very accurate in my converted ruger old army. very very cheap to shoot and easy to reload.