New to 45 long colt reloading

[Vstrom]

I have loaded thousands and thousands of reloads but I have never had a gun in 45 long colt? I have purchased a Taurus Judge and would like to reload for it I am also in the market for a Winchester 1873 copy in the 45 lc would one load work for both guns?
Thanks!

[Throckmorton]

any standard...meaning not Ruger Only... load should work for both guns.the tried and true bullet weight is 255 grains,and the T and t powder is Unique. for mild loads TrailBoss is a good one,but it's prety darned wimpy.
you'll get less recoil with 200 grain bullets,but the heavier ones shoot better in most guns,and hit harder.

[Phillip]

Well a good starter load would be a 250gr lead round flat nose (LRFN) with 6 grains of Unique.

The LRFN will feed in any leaver as long as the over all length is around 1.600".

[DanWalker]

Try 6.5 grains of Red Dot under a 250 grain boolit. Shoots great in every 45LC I've tried it in.(rifles and pistols)

[arkypete]

Loading the 45 Colt is an adventure. I've been cranking out ammo for the past 30 some odd years for my collection of 45 Colts. I've settled on 8.5 to 9.5 grains of Unique, both do nicely. I have one Dillon set up to load nothing but this caliber. I guess I should tell what bullet I'm using, it's a 250 grain plain base Saeco.
I also have a Rossi 92 in 45 Colt that I use a 300 grain Saeco, GC'd bullet with 20 grains of H110.
The one thing I found out real early was all of my 45 Colts like .454 diameter bullets.
I'm not sure how accurate the Judge will be with a cyclinder that can also handle 410 rounds, using 45 Colt ammo.

Jim

[Rocky Raab]

In truth, you can have either very good or very bad results with the 45 Colt. Gun dimensions, die dimensions and component dimensions can be all over the place. Frankly, I wouldn't expect much accuracy from a Judge, simply due to the tunnel that a bullet has to waddle through before it gets to the bore.

However, I second the recommendation for a 250-260 grain bullet (nose shape up to you) over 6.5 RedDot, or 7.0 W231 or 8.0 Unique/Universal. Any of those will pretty much duplicate the cartridge's original blackpowder performance of about 850 fps from a revolver. Heavier loads of Unique are often quoted, but IMHO the only thing they hit harder is your own wrist.

[fryboy]

ummm the original load of a case full of black powder ( lightly compressed ) works just as well today as it did 125 years ago .... for a lil lighter load add 1-4 felt wads under it replacing that much of the powder , plz note it still must be at least lightly compacted , other fillers can work etc if done properly , hodgdon's pyrodex pellets also work and hodgdon has alot of cowboy action type loads that wont beat one to death as well
personally for a judge .....brass .410 shells sounds about sweet !!!

[geargnasher]

+1 Fryboy, I think brass .410 shells loaded with a conventional boolit would be the hot ticket for the Judge, one should be able to "neck" size just the portion where the boolit would be seated and then you'd have a more conventional fit with the cartridge. Wouldn't work with the 1873 Winny, though!

My advice is a little different than others, I prefer Hodgdon HS6 for my dual-purpose loads, mainly because it gives me the POI that works best. Unique often groups 3-4" below point of aim with my fixed sight revolvers in standard pressure loads, so something slower is in order with the 255-grain boolits. YMMV, of course, but I've found using near the high end of Lyman 49th data for HS6 under just about any 250-260 grain boolit works very well for my rifles and pistols.

Gear

[Char-Gar]

Buy a copy of the current issue of Handloader magazine. There is an article by David Scoville entitled "Colt". There is a wealth of information in that issue on loading for the 45 Colt round with cast bullets. You will learn more from that you will here.


P.S.... I am not trying to "dis" this board or any of it's posters. Here we tend to give bits and pieces of information based on our own experience and what we like to do. The Scoville article details his 40 year journey loading the 45 Colt, and the learning curve he went through in some strong detail. It is the best overview of the subject I have read. With that article, the new fellow gets a fly over of the issues and not just a step or two on the ground.

[Vstrom]

Thank you all for the information! I am looking forward to reloading the 45Colt ! I see a possible new revolver in my future!

[Rocky Raab]

You'll be a happy clamper with a 45 Colt revolver.

To echo chargar's comments, Dave Scovill may be THE 45 Colt expert. The article mentioned is indeed a summation of the round, distilled.

Be sure to pick up the next issue of Handloader, too. There'll be an article by somebody here.

[Rocky Raab]

Well, how's THIS for coincidence: my copy came today. See page 84, guys. Editor Scovill did me proud.

[Catshooter]

Rocky,

The reloading room link in your sig line leads to an empty page.


Cat

[RayinNH]

Not on my confuser Cat...Ray

[Daddyfixit]

Not on my confuser Cat...Ray

It just shows a light green back ground with a blank screen on both my laptop & desktop........mmmm?

[RayinNH]

Daddy must be some setting on your computer. It is a light green background, but there is Rocky at the shooting bench and a waving flag. I can also click on his links to articles and such...Ray

[Rocky Raab]

If you can't see the pages, you must be using Internet Exploder, the ONLY browser that scrambles them.

Do yourself a favor and get Firefox or Chrome.

Thanks for looking, guys. I always feel honored to hear it.

[OldSchool]

Do yourself a favor and get Firefox or Chrome.

+1

It'll take us awhile to read through that website!

[Rocky Raab]

Probably will. I uploaded over 50 meg of stuff!

[Good Cheer]

Concerning the Judge...
There's plenty of common sense and experience in common that tells cast bullet shooters that the Judge is probably not gonna shoot very straight. But, you can bet your bottom dollar somebody is gonna figure out how to make the Judge do it's very best.

So, I'm gonna be waiting to hear about what works. I'd just about bet that some enterprising soul is gittin' it dun.
Wonder how many hard alloy round balls that rascal will hold in each chamber.