Alloy for 45 Long Colt

[SciFiJim]

A friend has a .45LC. He buys commercial cast for it. I am trying to get him interested in casting his own. (May be a mistake to increase competition for WWs, but he's a friend).

I have the NOE 454424 group buy mold and volunteered to cast some for him to try out.

My question is what alloy to use. He is running his current cast bullets at about 1200fps.

Should I use 50/50 like I do for my 45acp, straight WWs, or something harder?

He's had the cylinders honed to match the .452 groove diameter, so sizing will not be an issue.

[Tom W.]

I've always used straight w/w in my revolvers, and for me it does just fine. Then again, I kinda just plink with my .45 Colt...:lovebooli

[Dennis Eugene]

Straight WW's will be fine if ya want something a lil harder water drop them. And I would not be a bit suprised if 50/50 wouldnot work just as well. Dennis

[Lloyd Smale]

I use mostly #2 at that velocity level and sometimes 5050 ww/linotype. A bullet that hard may not be needed to prevent leading or even for performance on game but it will usually be more accurate.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
IF you have a properly fitted boolit to the cylinder throats you can fire some soft pills without leading. Generally I use as soft as possible for my revolvers and add mor WW as needed.
In my 45 Ruger I use 30-1. Pressure determins when I need to add WW.
50/50 is the hardest I have used. This is with 19 grains 2400 and I have no leading problems are can smack cans at 25 yards. Good expansion on 1 gallon cans of sand.
If I need more power I get out my 414 dan wesson Super mag.

[Wireman134]

I too have had good results with even less than 50/50WW's with a bit (2oz.) of tin babbitt mixed in. A 60/40WW's gives about a 96.6%PB/1.6%Sn/1.7%Sb, air cooled after 12 hrs. to Bhn 8 and water dropped to 15 Bhn. I use the water dropped for all my pistol's.

[jh45gun]

I shoot just straight WW in my 45 colt lubed with 50/50 beeswax/alox mix with no issues.

[Gee_Wizz01]

I have been using straight water droppedWW in my BH's at that velocity, with no leading to speak of. One BH needs .452 sizing and the other .454 and I just use 50/50 Alox for lube. I use an old Lyman 454424 that drops .455, a 454190 (J Cusey) group buy mold that drops .456 or a Lee .452-250 RF that drops at .454. Both Blackhawks like the Lee mold and are very accurate with that boolit and 2400, but it is a bit undersized for my old Blackhawk with large throats and causes some leading.

G

[warf73]

I use a Lloyd Smale boolit design in our winny's with water dropped WW with 0 leading at the same fps your talking about. Just make sure the boolit has proper fit, and you should be fine.

[Oyeboten]

For a longer Barrel SAA, would plain pure Pead be fine with BP? - with a 230-250 Grn Bullet, this should still be in the Ball Park of 1000 FPS I believe...