mine is not as purty by far as that one in the picture, but i did acquire a 4inch a few years ago and had it out today.
when i got it from out of state it had some rust on the right side of the frame near the front and on the front of the crane. I got it off and touched it up as best as i could.
the guy that owned it didn't shoot it much no signs of wear, he just didn't store his stuff properly.
I got a 270rcbssaa running at about 950fps and was thinking how close it is to some 41magnum and 44magnum loads i use.
But without all the drama.
I do have to size bullets up to .454 tho, which is okay cause thats what the mold throws them at.
I got in some of those bullets from Western Bullet company last week. I've put about fifty together with 9 grains of Unique. Hoping to land in about that same 950 to 1000 fps frame.
i pulled out a box i loaded in 2011 last night, i used 17.5grains of 2400. and marked 1000fps on the box. I think this is above most published loads, but is from a brian pearce article on that particular bullet some years ago. It was broken down into different pressure/load levels, was in the second category. But he rated it safe in most modern firearms. I do know i fired some in a 83/8inch smith 45colt. Impressive what the pentad hollow point did. I measured one after expansion at about .90 something. I think in that long barrel it was running over 1100fps. In rereading the article, i think next time i load some i am going to use unique or another powder to cut down on the amount used. 9grains of unique seems about right, and i have used that before. I don't know if i would use it in a first generation, but it worked okay in the vaquero's i was firing it in. in that article, pearce referenced 9grains of unique at 991fps, and 10grains at 1057fps. these are in the 20000psi group which he considered safe in"u.s. firearms revolvers 100%american made after year 2000, colt new service, ruger new vaquero and smith&wesson post WWII n Frames including models 25 and 625mountain guns.
the next group up was 32000psi limited to blackhawks, vaquero(old) colt anaconda or other modern revolvers designed to stand up to it including freedom arms model 83, redhawk, and super redhawk. in this category among the loads is H110 at 25grains for 1387 fps. Ouch. Top load.
what i am more interested in are the 20000psi loads. Where 9 to 9.5grains of power pistol, 9 to 10grains of unique, 8.5grains of titegroup would give me around that 1000fps target within the 20000psi pressure group.