Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns .45 Colt loads

What is your favorite lower pressure powder for the .45 Colt? I want to start loading for my recently acquired Taylor/Uberti SAA clone. I have 230 and 250 gr cast bullets to try.
Which powders are the least position sensitive in this large case. Trail Boss is unobtainium.

Try Win 572, it is readily available.

Still have some Unique but been using Win 231/ Hodgen hp38 and it is working well. I run around 7 - 7.4 grs. with 250 gr. bullets.

I played with H-Clays years ago under some H&G 68’s.
They shot way low and I wanted something “more”, but the groups were crazy tight.

H&G 68’s?

I have had the best success in Colt SAAs with HS-6 and the 454424 bullet.

edited to correct typo

I have the Lyman Keith 452424 mold, is that the one you meant?

I like 9.9 grns of AA#5 (that’s the 0.7 cc Lee spoon) with a 250 grn cast bullet. Burns pretty clean for a plinking load.

'
From the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook

I’m running 230’s over 6.0 grains of Titegroup, and it’s a nice accurate, easy shooting load. I use it my two Taylors Schofields, and as a super fun plinker load in my Rossi 92 454. 😎

Yep. 5.0 grains over a 300. Very nearly 1 ragged hole at 25 yards.

What are H&G 68’s?

Thanks DD.
Of those powders I have Titegroup, Red Dot, and HS-6.
I think I’ll try Red Dot with the 230’s and Titegroup with the 250’s.

200 grain cast semi wad cutter designed for the .45 ACP.

Universal seems to work really well for the 255s. Hodgdon's reloading data cuts off Universal at 13,000 psi for some reason, with the 7.8 grain charge.

Whoa---hold the phone! They list the pressures with Universal in c.u.p., not psi. Maybe that's why.

I run 8.2 grains anyway in my Blackhawk...I don't think it cares about any 14,000 psi limit. LOL.

Here's something interesting John Taffin wrote some years ago:


I am searching for some articles I read fairly recently wherein (IIRC) Brian Pearce stated that modern Colt single-actions in .45 Colt can easily hadle a diet of loads yielding a little higher pressures than the standard 14,000 psi. I may be misremembering. I'll keep looking.

Meant to say 454424, sorry.

This one casts a bit larger then the currently available 452424 that Lyman currently makes. I use this mold because the throats on the Colt SAAs measure .456.

Tightgroup plays very well in large cases in small volumes

If you have Red Dot, you needn't look further. It's very position INsensitive. For "standard" 250 gr. loads in my Uberti's it is my go-to powder. With bullets from either a Lyman 454190 or 454424 I use 6.0 - 6.5 grs. and velocities are usually right around 850 fps from my 4 3/4" barrels. This load is right around 14,000 psi.





I'm trying to attach a pic of a 75 yd. target I shot with a Red Dot load.

Lately I’ve been a fan of a 270-SAA (286 grains) over 7.5 grains of Unique. Not so much out of my 5.5” Bisley (though it shoots very well), but my 16” Henry where it shoots wonderfully at a sedate (and surprisingly quiet!) 1,050fps.

13 grs Blue Dot and the Speer 260 equates to most 285 gr Keith bullets or under for pressure.

12 grs of Longshot for 250grs and under if going to 20kpsi.