Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns 45 Colt Loads

Lets here your suggestions for loads
I have a Ruger Blackhawk Bisley 45 colt I just purchase new
Have these bullets...
Oregon Trail Laser-Cast Bullets 45 Colt (Long Colt) (452 Diameter) 250 Grain Lead Flat Nose

And these Cast Performance Bullets 45 Caliber (452 Diameter) 265 Grain Lead Wide Flat Nose Gas Check

I have Power Pistol and Lil Gun on hand

I shoot more of the RCBS 270 SAA (282-283 gr) with Unique than anything else. I also like W-231 with 250's for light loads, and for heavy loads, I use a 325 LFN with Lil Gun. None of that helps with what you have on hand, but I'd probably start working up a lighter load with Power Pistol and your 150's, and a heavier load with Lil Gun and your 265's.

I would pick up some H110 also, that's what I run in my Bisley for heavy loads. The Power pistol will be fine with the 250's. I've used Lil Gun, but had better luck with H110.

Thanks guys keep the suggestions coming!

335 cast performance and H110. I have found my load to be accurate in every revolver I have tried it in. Its a fairly stout load, but extremely manageable. CCI LPM primer, starline case and some h110. I'm under book max but not by much.

Way back I went through the super-heavy bullet and load craze with the 45 Colt. No more. I use the RCBS 270 SAA most in my 45 Colt's. I load them to ~1100 fps using 13 or so grs of HS-6. Easy to shoot well, plenty of power and accurate in every one of my guns. The throats on all of my 45's are cut to .4525" so I can use standard .452" bullets and not have to pay more for custom sizing. I buy from Western Bullet Company. Great quality and great prices.

I have a variety of moulds from 255 - 325 and if I wanted to simplify to one for everything 45 Colt, the RCBS 270 SAA would be it - they hit a home run with that one...

My vote for a moderate .45 Colt load is a 255 grain Keith style hard cast SWC over 10.0 grains of Unique and a standard LP primer. From a 5 1/2'' barrel, it gets right at 1000 fps. The same load should work well with either of the bullets you have.

Works very well on little critters:


Medium sized ones:


And on slightly larger ones:


and you can shoot all day with it.

I've always stuck with the old standby of 8 grs. Unique and a good 250-255 cast slug usually a flat point (got a lever in 45 as well so it helps to have flat points) but the Keith slug Lyman 454424 is a favorite for hunting with a 45.Lately for target or light loads I've been using IMR Trail boss with 250-255 gr. slugs it gives you a great advantage in that for light loads it fills the case up (don't have to worry about double charging a case) but only should be used for targets or light field use (nowhere near as powerful as unique).

I have some Old Ruger Vacqueros in .44Mag and .45Long Colt with a couple of them in Bisley mode and for the wild loads I use H110 like a lot of lads here. I've stuffed some 300g. Laser Cast bullets on top of a heap of H110 and feel like I could go hunt Buffalo with it.

Milder loads are usually the 240-250g with some of the faster burning powders that clock around 950-1050 fps. Shoot those all day. Shoot the 300g at 1372fps?......not all day!!!!

I'll be damned if I can find any Unique powder avalible any where

I am loading Universal and 250 gr cast leads and WinLP primers.

Any one loading IMR4227 thats about all that is useful that is in stock at my dealer....may have a truck coming in this week with Hogdon,Wincheester and maybe Alliant but I'll not hold my breath

I also found 2 lbs of Ramshot Sillouette in my powder cabinet but doubt that will do me any good in 45 Colt

These are powders that my dealer shows in stock

POWDER INVENTORY
HODGDON
VARGET-1# H4198-1# LONGSHOT-1# H335-1#
H4350-1# US869-1# H50BMG-1# H4831SC-1#
H4831-1# H322-1# BLC2-1# H414-1#
H1000-1# BENCHMARK-1# RETUMBO-1# TITEWAD-1#
PYRO SEL.-1# PYRO RS-1# PYRO P-1# LONGSHOT-4#
H322-8# H4831-8# H4831SC-8# LEVEREVOLUTION-8#
H100V-8# H380-8# SUPERFORMANCE-8# T7FFG-1#
T7FFFG-1# T75050 T75030 T74550
T7MAG P5050 P5030 P5460
BP5030 RP4430

IMR
4198-1# 4350-1# 4831-1# 4756-1# 4064-1# 800X-1# PB-1#
7828SSC-1# 7828-1# 4227-1# 7625-1# 8208-1# 4007SSC-1 700X-1
800X-4# 4350-8# 4064-8# 7625-8# 4756-8# 4227-8# PB-8#
4198-8# 4831-8# 8208-8# WH5050

WINCHESTER
748-1# WST-1# WFL-1# WXR-1# AUTOCOMP-1# WFL-4#
WST-4# WSF-4# 760-8# WMR-8# 780-8# AUTOCOMP-8#

ACCURATE ARMS
AA7-1# AA9-1# AA2015-1# AA5744-1# LT32-1# NITRO 100-1#
AA2200-1# AA2495-1# AA1680-1# AA4100-1# MAGPRO-1# SOLO 1000-1#
SOLO 1000-4# BLACKHORN 209-1# BLACKHORN 209-5# AA2015-8# AA4064-8#

ALLIANT
RL7-1# RL10X-1# RL17-1# RL33-1# RL50-1# PP4000MR-1#
STEEL-1# HERCO-1# 410-1# EXTRALITE-1# PROREACH-1#
PP2000MR-1# PP1200R-1# HERCO-4# RL25-5# RL10X-5#
PP1200R-8# PP2000MR-8# HERCO-8# RL17-5# RL33-8#
PP4000MR-8# PPVARMINT-8# PROREACH-8#

I've used H4227 - it's been a long time but as I recall, the 4227's are slower burning than H110/296/Lil Gun. Several of my manuals show 20 gr with 250's getting 900-1000 fps. Ken Water's Pet Loads reported good accuracy with 20 gr and 250's right at 1000 fps. Only downside I see is it takes twice as much powder to get the same results as Unique, but if that's what's available I'd sure use it. It does seem to me it might be a better choice with heavy bullets vs. light...

+1

I'm usually loading Unique or 2400 with the 270SAA from rcbs in my .45colt Bisley.

I did look at an older download of Ramshot powder and they list
Silhouette
.45 Colt 14,000psi. 255gr lead SWC
7.5gr start @ 852fps, max 9.5gr @ 953fps

.45 Colt 30,000psi 255gr lead SWC
start 11.8gr @ 1144fps, max 13.8gr @ 1322fps

That data is in their current load data too, Link here

Thanks that sounds promising

You can do about the same thing with Power Pistol as Unique. The burn rate is close

Those Oregon Laser Cast bullets, I use them with 14.5 grns Blue Dot and get just barely over 1200 fps out of my 4" FA model 97.

This would be great as I have 5lbs of Power Pistol