Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Cowboy Action Shooting "loading down" the 454

I posted this in The Lever Action General, but thought I might get more responses here:

I just aquired a Rossi 92 and don't want to shoot Colt cartridges for plinking, just Casull because of OAL. I'm wondering if I can safely load Colt level charges, or if the excess space in the Casull case requires more powder to maintain safe low-end pressures. I sure don't need to have a projectile lodged in the barrel. Right now I'm using True Blue and Enforcer powders just above Ramshot's listed minimum charges for the 454. Just wondering if I can safely slow it down a bit with the same powders.

Thanks,

Dan

Not sure with those powders. True Blue would have a better chance than enforcer for reduced loads. The best powder for what you're doing is hodgden titegroup. It's not position sensitive and works well with light loads. Meters very well also.

What about trailboss in the 454 cases for plinking? There should be a recommended load on the Hodgson or ADI/Thales site.

What would concern me is having excessive empty space in the loaded round. I've been reading about the "detonation" phenomenon for years. Detonation, or a spontaneous ignition of all of your powder at once is hypothesized to cause a dangerous rise in pressure, possibly causing a catastrophic failure.

I said I've been reading about the detonation phenomenon for years because I don't believe anyone has successfully recreated one in a controlled experiment.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

Has 7 different loading of Trail Boss from a little over 500 fps to 900 fps or so. Trail Boss is good stuff, I couldn't agree more with his recommendation.

Good Luck,
Mike

Trail Boss leaves a lot of residue, a bunch of little unburned donuts. I don't like it.

I think you could safely shoot .45 Colt cowboy action loads in that gun without a problem. There isn't that much more space in the .454 case than in the .45 Colt. Another thought is using long nose lead bullets in .45 Colt cases. You just need the right COAL, the Rossi will never know, or care how you got there.

You can get a bunch of CAS data on line. I like Clays, but many good, clean powders are available for that application.

Clean is key, IMHO.

DF

I have fired thousands of Trail Boss loads and never noted unburned powder.

It does leave a smokey gray film on everything.

I wonder if there is another factor involved.