Squib load??

C

cptmclark

New member
Well, Here I sit embaressed, with 20 beautiful 250 cast loads of 25 long colt. Yes, I still call it that.
My issue is that I loaded them with 6.4 grains of Unique. (My ACP load). :mad:
So I suspect that is a borderline squib load. What say ye??
If it is slightly better than that I would prefer to shoot them and check each for stuck bullets than to pound the bullets out on a concrete floor.

Any experience shooting 6.4 Unique behind a 250 cast boolit??? (Did I mention how pretty they are??)


Thanks
 
You should be somewhere in between 630 to 750 fps depending on several factors as alloy, bullet caliber, barrel caliber, etc...do you have a chronograph?
 
It depends again on the alloy, caliber of the bullet vs that of the barrel, etc, etc. I shot 230 grains 45 webley at 450 or 500 fps in an old Royal Irish Constabulary and never experienced neither a stuck nor barrel leading...
 
cptmclark said:
Well, Here I sit embaressed, with 20 beautiful 250 cast loads of 25 long colt. Yes, I still call it that....
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Most folks might call it the .45 Long Colt.....



You have received good advice, all I would ad is to check the barrel for an obstruction for every shot....and tip the muzzle up before each shot. Due to a potential high shot-to-shot velocity deviation, a single sample is not a good indication of a load’s safety.



.
 
Lyman starting load for 250 cast .45 LC is 6.0 gr. Unique.
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My Lyman manual (1970) has starting load at 7.5gr Unique, 250gr cast bullet, showing 790fps from a 5.5" Colt SAA test gun.

Shoot one of your rounds. If the bullet clears the barrel, shoot another. Repeat until finished.

I doubt any will squib, but assume they might, until proven otherwise.

Raise the powder charge for your next batch. :D
 
Squib loads for 45 Colt

It's what I get for laying off a while and loading from memory. It was a perfect load for my ACP:(

I think I can load one at a time. Who knows? It might be the most accurate load ever:D.
 
I had a bullet from one of my own reloads fail to exit the barrel due to a low charge and it was a revolver and the results were VERY noticeable! All the gases exited via the cylinder/barrel gap which kind of left me in a mini-cloud of smoke and the sound was way different. It was OBVIOUS that something was wrong. No damage to the gun and I eventually convinced myself that what had happened was a "learning experience" (cough cough).
 
So I suspect that is a borderline squib load
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?????

No way to tell either the bullet exits the barrel or not.

Bt I don't know at what speed bullets can get stuck
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When its moving too slow to exit the barrel due to lack of powder. Only way to know would be to start at the minimum starting powder charge and then down load the powder 1/2 grain at a time to see what the minimum fps is before the load is a squib using a chrono. Barrel condition, round shot through barrel all plays into what you ask.
 
I don't know what your barrel length is, but I can tell you I've loaded the slightly faster Bullseye down as low as 2.9 grains behind 240-grain swaged LSWC's in 44 Special and had no problem. On the rule of thumb that Unique loads will be about 20% heavier, that's like shooting 3.5 grains of Unique in the same gun. Ignoring other specifics, in QuickLOAD, your load in 45 Colt should be producing twice the pressure my equivalent load in the 44 Special does, so I doubt very much you will have any kind of issue.

Granted, the old Colt round may leak more gas around the case than the 44 Special does because of the tendency to make the cylinder throats wide enough for the old .454" bullets. But I still think you'll do OK unless, of course, you actually do try to run a 25 caliber bullet in it. That would leak some gas, even assuming you could fit one as long as a 250 grainer would be into your chamber. At least it would fall out rather than get stuck.;)
 
Almost ANY amount of powder will take you out of the squib (barrel blockage) load range, and that much Unique will get lead bullets out of rifles.
What is a .25 long colt? Sounds like a heck of a wildcat.
 
25 Colt

OK, you caught my typo.

I had a colt in 25 cal, but this isn't it. If anyone is confused it is indeed a 45 Colt revolver.
 
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