Liberty1776
06-24-2021, 10:25 PM
If you're interested...
After trimming some oddball-length .45 Colt brass down to 1.1" (Schofield length) I loaded a few with 3.5 grains of Trail Boss (weighed individually, not a powder drop) under a 180 grain Lyman 452389 with conventional lube.
(I cast these things probably 38 years ago and they've been sitting ever since. Finally found a use for them.)
Shot them in a Pietta .45 Great Western II Colt clone, 4-3/4" barrel.
285113
I also loaded some of the same bullets in regular Long Colt brass, also with 3.5 gr Trail Boss.
Ballistics for the Long Colt (click to enlarge):
285114
Ballistics for the "Schofield" Colt brass.
285115
As you can see, the shorter case pushed the same bullet/powder combo to an average of 603.7 FPS.
The normal, longer case achieved an average velocity of only 462.2 FPS
For Cowboy Action loads, this tells me I can back off the Trail Boss with shorter cases. Maybe 3.0 grains?
More testing required.
After trimming some oddball-length .45 Colt brass down to 1.1" (Schofield length) I loaded a few with 3.5 grains of Trail Boss (weighed individually, not a powder drop) under a 180 grain Lyman 452389 with conventional lube.
(I cast these things probably 38 years ago and they've been sitting ever since. Finally found a use for them.)
Shot them in a Pietta .45 Great Western II Colt clone, 4-3/4" barrel.
285113
I also loaded some of the same bullets in regular Long Colt brass, also with 3.5 gr Trail Boss.
Ballistics for the Long Colt (click to enlarge):
285114
Ballistics for the "Schofield" Colt brass.
285115
As you can see, the shorter case pushed the same bullet/powder combo to an average of 603.7 FPS.
The normal, longer case achieved an average velocity of only 462.2 FPS
For Cowboy Action loads, this tells me I can back off the Trail Boss with shorter cases. Maybe 3.0 grains?
More testing required.