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.

I've also had good luck with 270-SAA in one of the newer Flat Top Ruger Blackhawks. I went a bit hotter but 7.5 grains should be fine. Either way, that's a lot of weight and a lot of meplat.


Okie John

I’ve shot 9.0grn. H-Universal for years. Right on 1,000fps out of my 5.5” Bisley, 1,186 out of my 16” Henry. 20,000psi according to Brian Pierce. Still love the load out of my pistol, buuut…..

I don’t have a .45 suppressor, but I wanted it quieter out of the Henry (pistol is gonna be loud either way). Slowing down to subsonic and cutting the pressure back to around 13-14kpsi with Unique did the trick.

The Unique load shoots VERY well out of both guns.

Can anyone help me out with this? Is there such info out there, or am I simply in error?

Brian Pearce has mentioned this, I believe, but I can't put my hands on the exact article.

I believe the presumption is that any SA revolver that is available with an optional 45 ACP cylinder, a cartridge whose SAAMI pressure recommendation is in excess of 20,000 psi, would he capable of handling 45 Colt loads in the sake pressure range.

In his Handloader magazine column, Dave Scoville wrote about a load that worked in his .45 Colts, 8.0 grains of 231 with any 250 or 255 grain cast bullet.

I tried it and sure enough, it was very accurate in all 6 or 7 of the Ruger Blackhawks and a Marlin 1894 that I tried it in. Not exactly a low pressure plinking load but not a blaster either, it will give 900-950 fps in the handguns.

Do the recent manufacture Ubertis require a .454 bullet or will the .452 work? I see several mentions of molds casting at .454. Are these then being sized down to .452?
I ask as I have a .452 230 gr. round nose bullet for my 1911 I wanted to use in the .45 SAA clone.

Uberti's, especially those manufacturers in the last 15 or so years, are built just about perfectly where cylinder throats and barrels are concerned. I’ve fired cast bullets sized from .451" to .453" and it makes little difference as accuracy is wonderful with any and all. So your .452's should be fine.

Thanks!

NVhntr, I’m running .452” bullets in both mine. As mentioned above, they oughta work just fine in your’s too. Happy Shootin! 😎

Just last night I was loading some 200 grand round nose in Schofield cases. Using the 45 ACP seating die to get a nice firm taper crimp because that particular bullet doesn't have a groove for it to roll crimp... And these will be shot through my Uberti Schofield..

Good info, thanks all!

For those interested, I did locate that article. It was written about the Lipsey's version of the Blackhawk in .45 Colt, built on the smaller .357 flat top frame (Handloader, Dec. 2011, No. 275).

I have a copy of that article. Unfortunately he wasn't using powders I have.

Maybe older than you're looking for, but still a good read: https://buffalobore.net/HandloaderDecJan2012.pdf


Okie John

Appreciate the effort Okie John, but that's issue no. 275 which has already been mentioned.

I DID run across THIS just now:

Brian Pearce on the Uberti .45 Colt revolvers



This does not adrress the question for my own purposes (which is to determine whether a 1961 vintage New Frontier will withstand handloads generating more than 14,000 psi), but it may be of interest to the OP. In my world, it's not about the velocity but rather the accuracy. As mentioned earlier, my New Model Blackhawk seems to prefer a load that's probably (I AM guessing) giving 16,000 psi or thereabouts. I want ONE single load for both guns.

I think I may have slipped a cog or something...I cannot locate the article I believe I read only a couple of months ago.

Read through and not sure what you have for powders...

Several people suggested 9.0 grains of Unique with a 250-255 SWC. Was using the 452423 in .45 Super so rolled it over into .45 Colt. Shoots right to POA..

This is in a Colt SAA, Colt NF, Standard Mfg., 2 Ubertis and a Ruger NM...

Have not clocked it yet but supposed to be 900+- fps.

In the burn rates we're discussing I have Red Dot, Bullseye, Titegroup, HS-6, Silhouette and WSF.
My question mainly concerned which powders are least position sensitive in the large .45 Colt case.

I loaded up some 230gr LRN over Red Dot, 6.0gr - 7.2gr in .2gr increments to try tomorrow.
I'll start there.

Don’t use CCI primers for loads in a Taylor Tuned Uberti.
Just that.

Too hard?

I was pondering your comment about the topic of this thread. You know that any thread here is likley to veer off course sooner or later---and usually sooner rather than later. That's just the nature of the web, I think. Same story for my thread on "safe" Colt pressures. Got all kinds of comments pertaining to Rugers and maybe one or two others. Anywho, I was thinking about the question and without actual testing, I am not sure how the question could be answered with any authority or credibility...but, I might guess that the powder that best fills the case with a charge that works well for you would probably be your huckleberry.

What have you seen so far?

My excursion with the cast 230gr. LRN with 6.0 - 7.2 gr. of Red Dot and a CCI 300 was interesting. Several misfires out of 30 rounds. Couldn’t set 5 of them off even with multiple hits.
6.8 grains looked promising and shot closest to the sights.
7.2 grains threw two keyholes out of five shots.
I’ll load up more of the 6.8 gr. and give them a try with Federal primers.
I loaded 12 empty cases with Federal 150 primers and they all went bang out in the garage.

Red Dot Chrono data:
6.0 gr = 786 fps
6.4 gr = 815 fps
6.6 gr= 861 fps
6.8 gr = 880 fps
7.0 gr = 899 fps
7.2 gr = 892 ps

Interesting at 7.2 gr there was no increase in velocity and the load started keyholing.

Dimensions go way before hardness and way before the wallet for sure.

The keyholing is the effect of both dimensions and the wallet and definitely not the .2 grs of powder.....

The CCI cap misfires I also find suspect.

Have never had one fail to pop over thousands of rounds.

Would find more fault with a Euro gun trying its best guess at domestic dimensions on rims and tolerances of cartridges that have a lot of variance domestically.

Thanks for your insights HawkI.
I'm not sure what the wallet comments relate to?
Am I somehow cheaping out?

CCI primers have never caused me any grief in the past and I think the misfires are the result of the Taylor main spring being a bit too light. My other option is to replace the Taylor reduced main spring with a full power Uberti main spring which I have on order.

In searching for information on relative primer hardness I came across these comments from Garrison Joe at the SASS site which led me to trying the Federal primers.

"Until then, we have some pretty good evidence from the CAS shooting community about which pistol primers are easiest to get to fire. That evidence has been reported here on the Wire many times. Over the last five years or so, it's been pretty steady when folks report the relative rankings of "easiest to fire" among the common US made primers.

That would be:

Federal - easiest

Winchester

Remington

CCI - hardest to fire

Many problems with light sprung guns have been reported as being solved here on the Wire by moving toward Federal primers. Never once was it solved by moving toward CCI primers. That should be pretty definitive."

Yes, bulk machine produced hard cast.

I would bet there is some serious leading.

Sorry I was being a jerk there.
They look like bulk 45 ACP bullets.

HawkI, you're one of the casting gurus here and I appreciate your thoughts.
The bullets were cast by me out of range scrap lead with a BHN in the 10-11 range.
Since I wasn't using a hard cast bullet I was stumped as to what caused the keyholing.
I've shot hundreds of these through my 1911 and never had one keyhole.
If the Federal primers solve the ignition problem I'd be happy going with the 6.8 gr load at 880 fps. If they don't I'll change out the main spring.

Embarrassed here and apologetic. Please accept my apologies for being a grump!

What are they sized to/what do they measure?

What mold?

Keyholing is either too small and leading or your lube can't keep up with the friction when your bullet metal hits the barrel steel. Seating and deforming is also suspect.

1911s are easy; you only have one chamber/throat to fit.

Yes, Federals are the ignition Champs, at least for now, but if domestic primers aren't going boom the Euro stuff surely won't and as handloaders we need as many options as possible these days.

Have been adapting my guns to fire everything available myself these days!

No need to apologize, I took no offense. I've hung around here awhile and developed a pretty thick skin.

The bullets are as cast at .453 from a Lee TL452-230 mold and alox lubed. I have a .452 sizer available so I can run them through that and see if it helps,
They shot fine in the 1911 unsized so I assumed they would shoot in the Uberti, and they did until the velocity approached 900 fps.
I don't have any pin gauges to accurately measure the cylinder throats but my attempt to get a measurement with calipers shows they may be more in the .451 range.

Aha.

If they are (throats) indeed under .452 that may be our issue.

My worries (initially) is that they were bulk undersized, too hard 45 ACP bullets.

But it sounds like the throats may be suspect if your bullets are .453.

Ubertis are generally .452 for throats, so that is another head scratcher, but if they are under that dimension therein lies a problem more than a tenth or so grain of powder.

I would imagine you have some leading just beyond the forcing cone, which will layer until accuracy goes to pot.

Absent a pin gauge, jacketed bullets make a decent measuring device. If you have any .451 bullets, see if you can push them through the throats with minimal pressure.

I usually send my cylinders to Fermin Garza to ream for consistency as I usually have at least a couple undersize throats on most cylinders.