45 long, please help!

[smokey salsa]

Need help please, I just got in to reloading, my dad has a couple of books and i cant find any reloading data, this is what i have, Winchester 230gr fmj, Winchester brass, and hodgen tite group powder.

[Flexmoney]

You can get that data right off of the Hodgdon website.

[smokey salsa]

all they show is the 45 Winchester magnum cartage, i dont have magnum brass or are the the same. don't know much about it sorry!

[chirpy]

Try looking for .45 Colt (leave out the "long").

Richard

[HSMITH]

The bullets you have likely don't have a cannelure in them for crimping and most 45 Colt dies don't size down the case enough to prevent bullet pull when firing a revolver. I would suggest you sell or trade the bullets you have for revolver bullets. The loading data you need is online.

[smokey salsa]

I have the right ones now, 300g Hornady (.458) does that sound right? on hodgdon's site they dont have any thing for a .458 diameter bullet.

[JD45]

What is the name of the cartridge? Is it a .45 Colt?

First thing is you do not use .458" bullets in any common pistol cartridge! Most use .451-.452" bullets. Call Hodgdon and they will also send you a free paper data manual.

[Duane Thomas]

Following is a cut 'n' paste of a post from Cowboy Action Shooter "Driftwood Johnson" (to see this message in its natural environment, click here):

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php...ic=15877.0;wap2

Driftwood Johnson:

Howdy

First some comments about 45 Colt and bullet diameter. I'm going to paste something in here that I wrote over on the SASS Wire a few weeks ago, to save retyping:

*******

It depends on the diameter of your chamber throats. Chamber throats can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and gun to gun.

You probably do not have to slug your barrel, most 45s are pretty good at holding the standard .451 groove diameter. Although slugging a barrel is really easy.

Typically, bullets for 45 Colt are available in two diameters, .452 and .454. The .454 size is really for pre-WWII Colts that had barrel grooves of .454. After WWII 45 Colt barrel groove diameter was changed to .451 to match the diameter of the 45ACP cartridge.

Determinging the proper size bullet for a 45 Colt revolver you actually have to work backwards. Most important is the diameter of your chamber throats. Ideally you want your bullet to be the same diameter, or just .001 or .002 smaller than your chamber throats. Any smaller and gas will blow by the bullet before it leaves the chamber throat, causing leading and possibly upsetting the bullet before it reaches the forcing cone. Ideally, chamber throat diameter should perfectly match the rifling groove diameter. Unfortunately, revolver manufacturers have not always done a great job of matching up chamber throat diameters to groove diameter. My Rugers are right on the money at around .451-.452. My Second Gen Colts are typical of that Generation in that they have oversized throats, around .456 in diameter.

Here is a simple test you can do if you can get a couple of sample bullets of the two different diameters. Remove the cylinder from the gun and hold it vertically with the chamber throats down. Take a bullet and drop it into a chamber. If the bullet drops right through it is too small. If it hangs up in the throat and can be shoved through the chamber with light thumb pressure, it is ideal. If you have to really shove it through, it is probably too large. Be sure to try all 6 chambers, they can vary, even in the same cylinder.

With oversized chamber throats, .454 bullets are a good option. They well seal better in the throat than a .452, and will get sized down to .451 in the rifling. This is not a pressure problem as long as bullets are reasonably soft and loads are moderate. With chamber throats that are closer to spec, like my Rugers, there is no point to using a .454 bullet and .452 should be fine.

*****

OK, that's the scoop on bullet diameter and 45 Colt. If you can get a few sample bullets you can determine what your pistols need. Personally, I shoot .452 in all my 45 Colt revolvers, including my 2nd Gen Colts with their oversized chamber throats. I shoot Black Powder and cast my bullets very soft, so they probably bump up in diameter when they leave the case.

Might as well talk about bullet weight for a moment while we're at it. The traditional bullet for 45 Colt is a 250 grain round nosed bullet. That is the bullet the cartridge was designed for back in 1873. In the world of CAS, shooters who are concerned with shooting fast often try to minimize recoil with the 45 Colt by down loading it. They often attempt to recreate 38 Special ballistics in the 45 Colt. The 45 Colt does not do this very well. 45 Colt was originally designed as a big, powerfull man stopper. It does that very well with a 250 grain bullet and a stout powder charge. Part of the problem is the huge case capacity. The case was originally sized to hold 40 grains of Black Powder. Once Smokeless is put into it, the charge occupies much less volume than the original 40 grain BP load. This means there is a lot of empty airspace in the case. Lots of empty airspace can lead to poor ignition and inconsistant burning of the powder. Couple that with a light bullet, and powder burn can get even spottier. Some CAS shooters have migrated down to very light 160 grain bullets in the 45 Colt in an attempt to lessen muzzle flip. Personally, I have found that 45 Colt works best with bullets in the 230-250 grain range.

You mentioned you are going to be shooting Cowboy Silhouette. I dunno what range you will be shooting at, but I suspect you will want a stout load.

My own standard Smokeless load for 45 Colt has always been 7.5 grains of Unique and a 250 grain Round Nosed Flat Point bullet. This is a bit under the max, but it still generates enough pressure to work well in the big cavernous 45 Colt case.

Hope that answers your questions!

[smokey salsa]

Thank You!

[Duane Thomas]

Yer welcome.