Looking for a 45 Colt load with 340gr Hammer

[Whiterabbit]

I've not used that bullet, but Penn's at 340 grain. I was also pushing them much much harder than 1000 fps, but in my experience H110 didn't work well for me.

AA#9 however worked well and developed quickly. My only real recommendation is that #9 may work more easily with a 16" twist and a long 340.

If you have problems like I did, it will not take long to figure it out. a quarter of my H110 340 bullets passed through the target sideways, at any distance.

[suba]

I don't load for a 340, but heres a .452 400g that I shoot out of my 5 1/2 FA. I load it down to 3g TB and up to 23g 4227 with good accuracy on both ends. Don't know the velocities, but probably <600 TB / >1200 4227.

btw, that's 45 brass and shoot it in my Colt cylinder.

[HammerMTB]

AA#9 however worked well and developed quickly. My only real recommendation is that #9 may work more easily with a 16" twist and a long 340.

Well, I have the 16" twist, so that's a good start. The 4" bbl may be a bit of a hardship, but I doubt too much.
Do you remember your AA#9 loads? Velocities?

[Snyd]

Well, I have the 16" twist, so that's a good start. The 4" bbl may be a bit of a hardship, but I doubt too much.
Do you remember your AA#9 loads? Velocities?

I think you will be pleasantly surprised. As long as your boolits are .001 over bore diameter and the boolits slip through the throats.

My 4" Redhawk (converted to 454) will stabilize these 425ers. It's an RCBS .458, sized down. Now I just need to figure out how to keep em from jumping crimp.



25yds first time out. 1st group is at top, I changed my POA for the second group.



50yds

[Whiterabbit]

I wasn't loading my .452's into 45LC cases, so no I do not have loads or velocities. Sorry. I also don't know if barrel length is a factor either? My barrel is much longer than 4". For what it is worth.

Also FYI new info just today, with my 320's which stabilize OK with H110 and A#9, they have the same accuracy at 25 yards, but at 100 the H110 rounds are markedly more accurate. Maybe the #9's are going subsonic before 100? dunno. Also for what it is worth.

[wellfedirishman]

Hammer, I did some load development for a 45LC in the Buffalo Classic Carbine last year:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=99213

These were all cowboy loads with 7 grains of Trailboss. The 340 grain Lee bullet shot great (out of the BC Carbine). I tried it in my Ruger Blackhawk 5.5" also and it shot well there too.

25 yards, 340 grain bullet, 7 grains Trailboss, BC 45LC carbine:

[wildcatter]

I know this is an old thread, but for the last 2 years I've been using this load and cannot find anything better in the Blackhawk or stronger framed FA 83. I have looked everywhere and you hear a lot of praise for 2400 in the 44 mag but hardly ever in the 45 Colt. 18.0 grains 2400 with a custom 340 grain Mountain Molds WLFN. I had it made to just clear the cylinder when heavily crimped in the colt brass and chambered in the FA 83 or Ruger Super Blackhawk Bisley Hunter. will do under 1 1/4" @ 50,,,,, good for about 1200 fps.

The same design just less boolit from the crimp ring down is a 250 custom I have built from Mountain molds also, and ironically it shoots same POI and just as accurate with 14.5 grains of Blue Dot,,, another powder you never hear about in the MIGHTY Colt Cartridge.....

[Whiterabbit]

Good stuff. I also have a bluedot load for 250 grain boolits, about 15 grains of powder and seems to do OK.

Except that I can't find bluedot in any store lately....

[DougGuy]

I use the 340gr SSK TC design, seated to the crimp groove, over 22.0gr W296 with CCI 350 primer. You could use the same charge of H110 as they are the same exact powder made in the same plant, just labeled differently because Winchester buys one, and Hodgdon buys the other. Have fired a lot of these out of a short barreled Vaquero without incident. Recoil is stiff, but brass extracts without a hammer and the primers aren't all flattened out. As mentioned earlier, you really gotta shove hard to break the sound barrier out of a short gun, these run right at 1090 ~ 1100 fps.

Here are two that went completely through 36" of seasoned oak firewood and were recovered:



I have good luck using soft gas checks with these too. This is a sheet of dental wax, .060" thick, cookie-cuttered over the charged case mouth and pushed down by the boolit when it is seated. It greatly cuts down on leading, and you can see how perfectly square and sharp the base of the boolit is.

[Moonie]

I use 22gr h110/w296 behind the Lee 300gr .452 and planning on working up to the same with my new NOE 350gr HP. I get 1,350ish out of my 7 1/2" NMBH with the 300gr load.

[Whiterabbit]

what kind of accuracy? Also, 1350 is really zipping along. Would you be comfortable shooting that out of a large frame vaquero on a regular basis?

[44man]

21.5 of 296 is a magic number for accuracy in the .44 and .45 Colt with heavier boolits.
MY SBH with the 310 Lee and the 320 LBT works with it and the .45 likes the same amount for the LBT 335 gr and the Lyman 452651.Attachment 145922 5 shots at 50 with the Lyman boolit. Shot from Creedmore. I have shot 1" groups with both boolits at 75 yards from Creedmore. Yeah, had to put Pach's on the gun!
I use a Fed 150 primer in both calibers.
The heavy boolits will NOT shoot slow. Toss Unique, will not work.

[Groo]

I use the 340gr SSK TC design, seated to the crimp groove, over 22.0gr W296 with CCI 350 primer. You could use the same charge of H110 as they are the same exact powder made in the same plant, just labeled differently because Winchester buys one, and Hodgdon buys the other. Have fired a lot of these out of a short barreled Vaquero without incident. Recoil is stiff, but brass extracts without a hammer and the primers aren't all flattened out. As mentioned earlier, you really gotta shove hard to break the sound barrier out of a short gun, these run right at 1090 ~ 1100 fps.

Here are two that went completely through 36" of seasoned oak firewood and were recovered:



I have good luck using soft gas checks with these too. This is a sheet of dental wax, .060" thick, cookie-cuttered over the charged case mouth and pushed down by the boolit when it is seated. It greatly cuts down on leading, and you can see how perfectly square and sharp the base of the boolit is.

Groo here
If you are shooting a Red Hawk, this will work.
Measure how deep the bullet will seat,fill with WW680/AA1680 ,weigh,starting is 90%-max is 100%,light with mag primer and heavy crimp.
Good load,that pushes rather than snaps, may be 100fps under 296/110 load, cases fall out.
Given to me by J.D. Jones...
JD said this was a "balanced" load, the speeds difference between a 4 5/5in and a 7 1/2in was only 50fps.

[NVScouter]

I'm gonna go ahead and put my flame suit on......

If your RH is the 4" model, you will have to stand on it to get 1K. If it were mine, I'd load to the base of the seated boolit with H110 and not look back. That is a heavy long cylinder with offset bolt notches and will stand a good bit more than a Blackhawk.

Take a 3/8 wooden dowel and mark it even with the crimp groove with both the boolit and rod standing on the bench. Take your Lee dipper and add H110 in the case until the mark on the rod is even with the case mouth and the charge is sitting level in the case. Weigh the charge in the case and this should be your max load. Don't back down from that more than 10%.

Loading books are pretty much useless with custom cast boolits anyway. I have a 300gr 44 mold that takes up less space in the case than a 240gr conventional SWC. You end up having to run it about 5 gr over book max for a 300gr to get it to really shine.

I've loaded the LEE 340g .458 boolit sized to .454 over Lil'Gun for years in 4" and 7 3/4" Rugers. the 4" is about 1075 and the 7 3/4 almost 1300fps. hogdons lists loads for 325 and 360 cast loads with H110 and Lil'Gun ruger only loads.

[DougGuy]

what kind of accuracy? Also, 1350 is really zipping along. Would you be comfortable shooting that out of a large frame vaquero on a regular basis?

I can tell you from experience this is NOT a load you want to shoot more than about 10 of in a session with standard or even custom Vaquero grips. Pachmayer grips may make it tolerable. Even expensive shooting gloves don't pad that middle finger knuckle. I take a roll of that stretchy bandage material that sticks to itself when I go to the range with my birdshead and these loads. Wrap the middle finger 2x and let 'er rip! Works a charm!

20 rounds without tape:

[44MAG#1]

4.2 inch Redhawk, 410 grain LBT LFN GC W296 1100 FPS average for 6 shots. 1.785" OAL.
Mine produced that.

[Moonie]

what kind of accuracy? Also, 1350 is really zipping along. Would you be comfortable shooting that out of a large frame vaquero on a regular basis?

Wow, sorry, that should have been 1,300fps not 1,350. And yes, that will beat you to death with the factory grips. I had to change to those ugly rubber things as it was beating my middle finger to death. 22gr of H110/W296 with the Lee 300gr chrono'd right at 1,300fps out of my 7 1/2" convertible.

[Whiterabbit]

Not interested in advice about hand abuse. I shoot 200 grain 45's above 2400 fps form my BFR, 500 grain boolits to almost 1400 fps, and 740 grain boolits to 900. I am interested in gun abuse as I am turning into a one-load, one-gun kind of guy. I just want an accurate magnum load for the vaquero and have a very keen understanding of how fast the gun will loosen up and/or require maintenance as a result of my loading choice.