Handloader Article--45 Colt...

[BCB]

Sometime back in years there was an article written in Handloader about 3 pressure levels for loading the 45 Colt…

I have looked at all the indexes I have for the past 30 years and I simply cannot find it. I am looking under the Handgun sections in the indexes, but maybe it is under some other section?...

Anybody know of the article I am searching for?...

Thanks…BCB

[762 shooter]

https://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/HL%20246partial.pdf

762

[BCB]

Thanks 762 shooter...

That appears to be the ticket...

I was planning on doing a bit of "hot-rodding" with my Blackhawk. I don't do this often, or mostly not at all, but sometimes Winter demands a bit of new not-boring activities to pass the time until Spring...

Thanks...BCB

[tejano]

I was visiting the gunsmith at my fave LGS yesterday when another guy about my age came in with a pistol rug and a big bandage on his left trigger figure. I asked what happened and he said that blew up his pistol and darn near took his finger off. Surgery followed, then an infection, and then another surgery. Then he showed us what was left of his 1st gen 45 Colt. The cylinder blew up with sufficient force to take off the top strap. (I thought it would be rude to ask to take a photo or two so I didn't ask.) He went on to say that he uses Unique for his 45 Colt reloads and had been doing so for a long time. He thinks that he must have had double charge and didn't notice it. I forgot to ask what his normal charge is, but a typical charge of 8.0 gr. becoming 16.0 gr. would be really bad. Like him, I have been reloading for decades and have yet to experience such a disaster. Nonetheless, it is a reminder to pay attention to the details no matter how many years of reloading experience we have. To end on a humorous note, he said that his shooting buddies offered to buy the nicely aged bone grips since he won't be needing them anymore.

[M-96 Hunter]

Suggest OP go the Hodgdon website where the have special loads for modern strong 45 Colts.

Top loads are running 30,000 CUP.

My favorite "Bear load" is 22 gr of H110 behind a 300 gr hardcast in a Redhawk.

[9.3X62AL]

The biggest reason I don't use Bullseye for 38 Special loading is the possibility of getting 2 or even 3 charges into a case with sufficient space to still seat a bullet. WW-231/HP-38 are similar, so when I use those powders THE PRIMED CASES GO INTO A LOADING BLOCK, AND GET CHARGED "OLD SCHOOL"--from the powder measure discretely mounted off the turret press (Ponsness-Warren P-200). I look into EVERY filled case with a flashlight from above, and if I even THINK the powder level isn't correct--I dump it and refill the case.

I MUCH prefer to use a powder that will overflow the case mouth with any double-charge when I load on the P-200. All of the above applies when loading cast bullets in rifle calibers as well.

[Nueces]

I do as Al does when loading for cowboy action shooting in the 45 Colt case. Starting with deprimed and cleaned cases, they are sized, capped and neck expanded in the Dillon 550, then removed to the loading block for charging, inspection and bullet placement. Back to the Dillon for seating and crimping.

CAS shooting can be fast, so reducing the incidence of charge irregularities is worth the effort.

[ddixie884]

Once upon a time in the Gun Notes column in Guns and Ammo Magazine. Elmer keith reported that a man bought a new M-29 S&W and a new Ruger SBH and loading supplies. He proceeded to load some version of 240 or 250gr bullet over 22grs of powder. He then fired the SBH and the cylinder and top strap failed. He then fired the S&W three times and bulged the three cylinders which jammed the action so that it wouldn't rotate. Keith said the powder turned out to be Unique. He said he was surprised, that the Ruger cylinder actually blew apart when the S&W only bulged. He said he thought it had something to do with the Ruger being cast and unfluted vs fluted and forged. The particular conditions of this overload seems to have led to a catastrophic detonation, rather than a controlled burning of the powder. I believe there were pictures......

[alamogunr]

https://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/HL%20246partial.pdf

762

That article has been my go-to for a long time. I started with the RCBS mold for the .45-270 SAA boolit and moved on to two 4 cavity MP molds. I've got at least 3 copies of the article floating around the shop. I have not gotten as far as the 32,000CUP loads because the low and midrange loads do anything I want.

[hc18flyer]

I have a copy handy too! I load Tier 1 for a friend's Uberti Colt replica, my brother has the midsize Lipsey's Blackhawk, and I have the large frame BH. That said, Tier 2 loads will do anything I need from a .45 Colt! hc18flyer

[Tim357]

There was a piece years ago by Ross Seyfried where he used C.O.A.L. to differentiate betwixt loads. Loads too strong for Colt would have bullets too long to chamber in SAA cyl. And so forth

[TMenezes]

Accurate (now Western Powders I believe) had midrange 45 Colt data loaded to about 20k PSI until last year when they upped their data to 30k psi to compete with Hodgdon's data. The older data is still available if you do a search for it online, last I checked. It's also printed in the Lee Reloading Manuel.

That's if you still wanted the midrange level. If your looking for the high powered loads just go to Western Powders website or Hodgdon's Online loading data, both are free downloads. You can also order either of their printed manuals for very little money compared to other printed manuals. I wanna say the Western manual was like $3 with a dollar or 2 for shipping if I remember right.

[TMenezes]

Oh and I agree with the other fellows that suggested bulky powders in the big revolver cases. I think Blue Dot is somewhat bulky, and 12.9 gr of it under a 250gr cast boolit is listed by Alliant as their most potent standard pressure load. Might wanna try that and see it has the power your looking for. I haven't used that load in awhile but remember it was powerful enough to be fun without being punishing to shoot.

[RPRNY]

https://www.riflemagazine.com/magazine/PDF/HL%20246partial.pdf

762

762, any chance you have the article on page 86 of that edition "Elk loads for 444 Marlin"? That looks like it would be a good read!

[762 shooter]

Sorry. I found that article when I lucked into a Miha 270 SSA mold. No mag just the internet.
Midrange loads are stout enough for me.

762

[RPRNY]

Thanks for getting back to me.

[Walks]

I've been shooting/handloading .45Colt and many other cartridges for almost 60yrs. My Dad told me, when I got my 1st .45Colt Blackhawk that if I wanted to hot rod it to go buy a .44Mag. I load 3 different .45Colt loads that all use different bullet profiles. None generate beyond 14,000 psi.
I did buy that .44Mag. And several more. And finally a .454Casull. They get the hot loads.
On blowing up guns, I shot Cowboy Action from 1988-2009. I saw at least 15 guns blown up by inexperienced reloaders who bought a blasted dillon and some components and started reloading. No help, no manual and in one case no scale. I stopped shooting when the gamers took over the sport. And the wild bunch were taken over by greed.

[Throwback]

I like Accurate 9 with the 45-270SAA with standard primers. Magnum primers will give you higher velocity per charge, but I've generally had better accuracy without. I found while working up loads that I reached a point where adding more powder actually began to result in less velocity. At the apogee or maximum, I had excellent accuracy and very low spreads. Topped out in the neighborhood of 1,140 fps as I recall. Blackhawks may be run hotter but for a top-end load this does all I need.

[trapper9260]

I've been shooting/handloading .45Colt and many other cartridges for almost 60yrs. My Dad told me, when I got my 1st .45Colt Blackhawk that if I wanted to hot rod it to go buy a .44Mag. I load 3 different .45Colt loads that all use different bullet profiles. None generate beyond 14,000 psi.
I did buy that .44Mag. And several more. And finally a .454Casull. They get the hot loads.
On blowing up guns, I shot Cowboy Action from 1988-2009. I saw at least 15 guns blown up by inexperienced reloaders who bought a blasted dillon and some components and started reloading. No help, no manual and in one case no scale. I stopped shooting when the gamers took over the sport. And the wild bunch were taken over by greed.
I had load some 310 in my Redhawk 44mag and is more then I want to deal with. I use them in my Marlin and work fine for that way.I under stand what you mean about the ones that just get into reloading and do not get what they need and should have .Too many are doing that today.Also too many first times one get the Dillon and think of just push out the rounds.

[BCB]

OP here…

Just got back from my range with some 240 XTP MAG results. As mentioned, this was done just to break the monotony of the winter days, plus I have never shoot jacketed bullets from this particular Blackhawk—thousands and thousands of cast, but only 9 jacketed—all today!...

25.0…Lil’Gun…1380 fps
25.0…H-110…1273 fps
22.0…2400…1270 fps

QuickLoad predicted the velocities for Lil’Gun and H-110 to within 20 fps. But, it was not close with the Alliant 2400 charge. Regardless the pressures for the Lil’Gun and H-110 were both right at 20000 psi according to QL. So, I reckon more powder could be added of which I’m not going to do—this was just a “fun” thing to do with no intentions of using any of the loads for anything else…

I was shooting at a target at 35’ away as I have it set up to put a target in place and set my chrony at a point in between the handgun and the target. The target is the same place always and the chrony sets the same place always. The target gives me an aim point that lines directly up with the center of the screens—no need to adjust each time I chronograph a round. Anyhow, I fired 3 shots with each load and all the 3-shot groups had all 3 bullets touching or within 1/8" of touching. So, they likely would be pretty accurate if pursued further…

Sometimes I just have to shoot a jacketed bullet from time to time! I do in the 6.8mm SPC and my 30-40 Krag—SST bullets. Use ‘em for deer. Otherwise cast in both of them too…

Good-luck…BCB

[Biggfoot44]

Pardon the NecroThread , but this is closely related .

A cpl years ago during the Great Powder Shortage , Handloader had a slight variation . A chart featuring a lot list of powders , specifically giving the charges to duplicate the " Traditional , non-Cowboy " .45 Colt load of 250/255 cast @ +/- 860 fps . I'd like to find that .

[35 Whelen]

Pardon the NecroThread , but this is closely related .

A cpl years ago during the Great Powder Shortage , Handloader had a slight variation . A chart featuring a lot list of powders , specifically giving the charges to duplicate the " Traditional , non-Cowboy " .45 Colt load of 250/255 cast @ +/- 860 fps . I'd like to find that .

The simplest thing to do is subscribe to www.loaddata.com For about the price of one reloading manual, you get an unimaginable amount of data.

The loads from the article you reference are in available there.

35W

[Old Two Wars]

I'm loving my Ruger SBH Bisley S.S 7.5 Barrel and will work the loads up slow i also charge 1 at a time than check each case and 255 Lee flat nose as they say it will shoot just about anything. The info here has made me a better loader now to figure out bolt 450 action Bushmaster with lead bullets

[Alferd Packer]

When you know how to reload, you have got the shooting world by the tail.
So many ways to go.
If we're careful we can really enjoy ourselves!
Be safe!