Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 45 Colt Heavy Bullet Loads

Just scored a pound of AA9.

My experience with 335 and 345 grain cast bullets in my Ruger Bisley 45 Colt indicates that for heavy loads you should use H110 or Alliant Power Pro 300 MP. USE MAGNUM primer with H110 and standard primer with Power Pro. I am getting about 1200 fps from my 5.5 inch Bisley.

Looked again at Your initial post. You are after slower velocity so AA#9 should be a good choice.

I have not seen any of those powders on the shelf in years. In the last six months pistol powders have been slowly showing up on shelves. I have not seen Unique in the last eight years. I will keep looking. Thanks for your input.

Scott, if you manage to get up north of Seattle sometime, check the gun shops in Skagit county. We've had all of those powders off and on for a couple years now. 296 in particular has been pretty easy to come by.

I have some heavy bullet Blackhawk loads using H110 / 296, but not for Lil'Gun, sorry.

I will be looking around some places for H110 but really think I am going to start with AA9 and AA7.

You will like aa9.

Planning on bringing 2f and 3f to Armijo Springs.

A few primed pieces of 45colt brass and some shmancy coated bullets and we could have some fun...

Yes we could. I have another hundred or more penta Hp ready for the powder and am waiting for the second pot to melt to do a couple hundred of the heavis. It is a nice day here today so I am casting all I can while the son shines and will PC tomorrow when it rains. I have a bigger lead pot on order along with a hot plate for warming molds and an IR thermometer to track their temp. I am having a blast and counting the days to Quemado!

last night after casting for what, 20 years i bought a lead thermometer. I'm uptown now.

I still don't have one. With heating someone else's molds on a hotplate i figured I needed a way to tract temperature is I ordered an IR thermometer. It should do the job for y lead pot too.

Here are a few I chrono'd

340 BTB - 21, N-110 - 1200 fps 5"
340 BTB - 21, 2400 - 1150 fps 5"
340 BTB - 24, 4227 - 1130 fps 5"

300 BTB - 8.5, Unique - 900 fps 5.5"
300 BTB - 8.0, 231 - 836 fps 5.5"

300 XTP - 21, 2400 - 1172 fps 5"
300 XTP - 21, N-110 - 1143 fps 5"
300 XTP - 24, 4227 - 1075 fps 5"
300 XTP - 25, 4227 - 1136 fps 5"
300 XTP - 26, 4227 - 1157 fps 5"

285 RRB - 15, 2400 - 889 fps 5.5"
285 RRB - 16, 2400 - 967 fps 5.5"
285 RRB - 17, 2400 - 1001 fps 5.5"

270 RRB - 24, 4227 - 1122 fps 5"
270 RRB - 25, 4227 - 1203 fps 5"
270 RRB - 22, 2400 - 1207 fps 5"

BTB = Bear Tooth Bullets
XTP = Hornady
RRB = Rim Rock Bullets

5.5" is a Redhawk
5" is a Super Redhawk

All Starline brass

4227 LP mag cci, all other LP cci.


AA #9 will be real close to the 2400 loads. I don't have those loads at my finger tips.

Does anyone have any experience using 454 Casull cases, trimmed to 45 Colt case length, for the heavier 45 Colt loads? It's my impression the Casull cases are thicker in the web, designed for higher pressure so may be better suited for the heavier 45 Colt loads.

A couple of weeks ago, when re-organizing the ammo storage area, I ran across 10 rounds I'd loaded that way and never fired. They are some pretty stout loads with Hornady 225 JHPs and IMR-4227, midway between max 45 Colt and starting 454 Casull loads. Remnants of my more adventuresome reloading days.

May decide to try them in the 4" Redhawk, but thought I'd ask for experience along these lines before I light them off.

Modern 45 colt brass can easily handle over 50 kpsi for repeated loads, so there is no reason to cut down .454 brass.

Exactly

The smaller case volume of the cut .454 is another reason NOT to use them.

Scott,

I have only cast for a couple years, but I did a bunch of research when I started. One recomendation I took to heart was about preheating the mould. That suggestion was to lay the mould across the top of the lead pot.

Also, many people report poor results using an IR gun thermometer on molten lead. My experince also was not satisfactory. The thermometer is not accurate when reading off of a shiny surface.

I read that I theinstructions when I gotthr IR thermometer today. I will use it to watch mold temp and save up for a casting thermometer.

I've cast over 1000#'s of ww's and have never used a thermometer. Just get the mold hot enough to cast slightly frosty bullets and crank them out.

As the others said, there's no reason to do that.

I don't cast but does anyone have a line on someone that sells heavier IE 300+ grain powder coated cast bullets?
I'm currently loading some 300 gr cast keith style with gas checks. Looking for a few to try out
Thanks
Gordon