Colt Lightning Rifle 45 cal - Reloading

[jolasa]

Anybody out there reloading black powder (or smokeless for that matter) for the Colt Lightning Rifle, 45 cal?

Looking for some reloading tips!

Mine is the Uberti version seen here:
http://www.uberti.com/firearms/lightning.php

 

[Fingers McGee]

I do not have a .45 lightning; but have a friend that bought one of the AWAs in .45 when they first came out. He never shot BP through it; but after a couple hundred rounds of smokeless rounds, it required a complete teardown and detailed cleaning, lubing and tightening of screws. I would guess that the blowback from a straight walled case would gunk up the action a lot quicker than that causing feeding and ejecting problems. My 44-40 Lightning will go 4-500 rounds before it starts acting up and requires a good detail cleaning.

The original Lightnings were not made in straight walled case calibers. Might be a reason for that.

Of course, the above is only my opinion. Someone with experince using .45 BP loadings may have a differing opinion.