First two months with 45 Colt

[Jakeway]

Well, I'm digging the Uberti Cattleman II. I've shot about 300 rounds with it, all but the first 50 being handloads. I started with Titegroup, since Unique and Trail Boss were hard to find in my area. I finally found a can of Unique and tested 70 loads with it, 4 or 5 different charge weights in both 200 and 250 gr RNFP. It shot consistently 40% smaller groups than Titegroup, and I love how it smells just like shotgun powder (because it is).

I decided to load up a bunch of 200 gr bullets with 8.2 g Unique (approx 847 fps) as a relatively light load, and 250 gr bullets with 8.6 g Unique (926 fps) as a heavier load. The heavier loadings tended to open the group a bit, as were loads less than 8 gr powder.

I also loaded 20 rounds of 250 grain bullets with Goex FFFg black powder, using home-made lube and felt wads, with cork wads separating lubed wad from powder. With the thickness of the wads, I only put in 28 grains of powder (same charge I use with my 44 cal 1860 Army). I got a good amount of powder compression, as the un-compressed load wasn't quite up to the lube ring on the bullet. Thirty five grains of powder left the wads right at the case mouth, and I didn't want to compress the charge that much. I'll shoot these next time out.

 

[Hdonly]

I like red dot in my .44mag. Around 6 grains behind a 240 grain slug. Always was pretty accurate in my Redhawk and not too heavy a load.

 

[Crunchy Frog]

Jake, you need to get to a cowboy action match. There are some good clubs in Tennessee. I bet you will find some "Frontier Cartridge" shooters who appreciate the charm of a case full of Goex.

If you have an adequate lube groove on the bullet and BP-compatible lube, you should not need a lubed wad under the bullet.

If you are looking for a little less powder capacity for a more manageable pistol cartridge, order some .45 Cowboy Special cases from Starline. It has the rim of a .45 Colt but the case length of a .45 ACP.

 

[vba]

Last Saturday I took my Ruger New Vaquero 5.5" out. I had loaded these with 9.0 grains of Unique and a 250 grain Missouri RNFP bullet.

The accuracy at 20 yards was astounding, 50 rounds fired and 42 rounds were inside the black 6.5" circle. All were to point of aim.

I did just ream the cylinder throats to .4525" though.

 

[bedbugbilly]

I use 6.5 gr of Red Dot under a Ideal / Lyman 454-190 RNFP in my 7 1/2" Uberti Cattleman - I tried Unique and several others and kept going back to Red Dot. BP I use Goex and it's a sweet load with 2F. I just finger lube the above traditional lead bullet and seat to form a compressed load.

 

[Jakeway]

Jake, you need to get to a cowboy action match. There are some good clubs in Tennessee. I bet you will find some "Frontier Cartridge" shooters who appreciate the charm of a case full of Goex.

If you have an adequate lube groove on the bullet and BP-compatible lube, you should not need a lubed wad under the bullet.

If you are looking for a little less powder capacity for a more manageable pistol cartridge, order some .45 Cowboy Special cases from Starline. It has the rim of a .45 Colt but the case length of a .45 ACP.

Thanks for the tips. Can the Cowboy Special be loaded using Lee 45 Colt dies?

My gun club (formerly known as Gallatin Gun Club) just bought some land and is building a range. When we can start shooting there, I'm going to talk to some of the BP Cartridge shooters. There's a Cowboy Action club with regular meetings about 90 minutes from me; I might head there for one of their shoots.

Today I found a website that sells bullets with a larger lube groove. I almost ordered some today, but I want to try out some variations with the ones I have now. I've been removing the smokeless lube from these (Acme) and pan-lubing with a mixture of beeswax and lard, but the groove is very narrow. I was able to load some up with 32 gr and both cork and lubed felt wads, and some with 35 gr but only a felt wad with card discs above and below the felt wad. They were so tight I wasn't sure I could compress the powder that much, but it seems to have worked OK. I guess the cork and the felt wads also compressed. I might get to try them on July 4.

 

[Pathfinder45]

There are lots of powders that work very well in 45 Colt. But it just so happens that Unique is still among the very best. Certainly one can find better powders to make the 45 Colt perform well with very light loads, as well as loads that rival the 44 Magnum. But for 90 percent of what I want out of the cartridge, Unique is the perfect powder. The standard load used a lead bullet of either 250 or 255 grains over a tightly compressed charge of black powder, with no fillers. It's a pretty powerful load which can be equivalently match by a lot of smokeless powders; but again, Unique is a front-runner. If you are also going to use it in a companion rifle, there will be a useful gain in velocity, and thus, power. But there will be more to be gained from a slower burning powder, like IMR-4227, if it will deliver acceptable accuracy in a safe loading for the revolver that will be paired with the rifle. Yet for both guns to shoot at their best, they often end up with different ammo.