.454 Casull trimmed to .45 LC

B

brasky88

Inactive
I recently purchased a Marlin 1894 chambered in .45 LC, the gentleman I bought it from gave me a few hundred brass, bullets, and primers (both large pistol and small rifle), along with his old Lee single stage press with it. Around 50 of the brass he gave me are actuallly .454 casull that have been trimmed down to 1.275 in" for use as .45 LC.

I've never reloaded in my life, this guy gave me the press, I just bought a powder measure, scale, caliper, hand primer, some 45 colt dies, and the Lyman reloading manual.

For a first timer, do you have any advice on how I should handle this trimmed down .454 casull brass? Should I even bother with it? I found another thread on here where someone asked if he should trim some down and the general consensus seemed to be "Why would you do that? the casull is more valuable just trade it for some 45 LC". Obviously thats not an option for me since I got them for free and they're already trimmed.
 
I have a buddy that used to cut down his Casull brass to LC when the Casull started to crack at the mouth. He kept that brass segregated as it is a bit thicker and the volume is different. He also has used that brass for his hunting loads. I don't remember how different but it would be prudent to measure the volume in the 2 cases.

On a side note any of my 223 Win brass that has a split case at the mouth gets thrown in to a jar. Once a year I give them to my brother-in-law who shoots 300 BLK. He will cut them down and reform them for the 300 BLK.
 
Main thing to keep in mind is that the Casull case takes a small rifle primer rather than a large primer. They should be good to reload.

(Note that the proper name for the .45 LC is just .45 Colt rather than .45 Long Colt.)
 
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Splitting case mouths. When my 44 mags split I cut em down to 44 special lengths, then they only get loaded to 44 special pressures. I'd advise the same with your cut down cases.
 
I think you will find that the most significant difference is the primer. If it has less case volume, it will only be an issue if you are running high pressure loads that might be too hot for a lesser strength gun. Use them or lose them; they are easily replaced if it's more trouble to use them than it's worth to you. I think you will like the Marlin. I recommend Starline brass. Midway carries it in both brass and nickel-plated finishes. Longtime 45 Colt enthusiast, here. I've been reloading it since 1976.
P.S. Welcome to The Firing Line
 
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"...I got them for free..." Good for you. Best price for anything. It is kind of odd a guy would trim Cassull's to LC, but if somebody asks, "Why would you do that?", say(and look aghast), "It wasn't me!" I can give you some words to go with that, but both of us would get yelled at and probably kicked off the forum.
Small pistol and small rifle primers are the same size. Regular .45 Colt uses large pistol primers. You're only issue is not mixing 'em. It's like .45 ACP cases using small pistol or large.
For 50 of 'em, I'd make some drawer pulls and pitch the rest. .45 Colt brass is neither horribly expensive or hard to come by. You can get 100 of 'em for less than $40. So it's not worth worrying about.
 
Loading manuals call for either small rifle or small rifle magnum for the Casull loading, but small pistol (same size as mister T pointed out) should suffice for the Colt loading.
 
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