Petrol & Powder
Well-Known Member
I know the 45 Colt can be an accurate cartridge but I struggled with it.
I always found the 44 Special and 44 magnum to just be easier to find success.
This is TOTALLY a ME problem and not a flaw in the cartridge.
Casting 45 long colt with lead
- Thread starter Xroughy
- Start date
I always found the 44 Special and 44 magnum to just be easier to find success.
This is TOTALLY a ME problem and not a flaw in the cartridge.
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
The .45 Colt is my favorite handgun cartridge.
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
richhodg66
Well-Known Member
Nice looking revolver.
fiver
Well-Known Member
when 'they' manage to make a 45 colt with new and appropriate modern day measurements the 44 has nothing on it.
when 'they' decide 1873 was the last time the 45 had an update and whatever tooling is in the drawer is good nuff the 45 rides the struggle bus so hard it has to chip in for tires and gas.
when 'they' decide 1873 was the last time the 45 had an update and whatever tooling is in the drawer is good nuff the 45 rides the struggle bus so hard it has to chip in for tires and gas.
funny stuff..... I just got an ad for one of the online places, who had Blazer aluminum cased 45 colt for sale.... only $65 per box. Per box..... a 50 round box....On a similar note, stopped in at the local gun emporium, today. There was a middle aged guy filling out Federal forms for a firearm purchase for a nice looking 4 - 5" bright stainless Cimarron SA with synthetic ivory grips. I asked him what caliber..........45 LC was his response.I asked if he was a reloader............nope!
I didn't see any factory 45 LC ammunition, at the register................good luck with that. Checked Bud's Guns. Nope, nada for anything in 45 LC in stock. Makes a nice paperweight, though.
My 45 Colt is one of the S&W Mountain Guns. It's fairly modern and tolerances are what they're supposed to be. Not always the case with S&W's of any vintage. As a side note Starline currently has 45 Colt brass listed as available. Should have 500 pieces showing up next Monday.
I don’t see why not. My 1994 purchase was .45 Colt. What I need now is a Henry to match it.
I prefer the .45 Colt over the .44 mag. I have a Blackhawk convertible and a Rossi lever-gun.... I think you would be hard pressed to find a better deer/hog caliber. You don't have to load heavy, magnum-type loads (even though you can, if you wish) .... a 255 gr cast bullet at 800-900 fps will do the job better than most others... out of the Rossi, those 800 fps loads are more like 1100-1200 fps.... just "more gooder" .....
The Rossi is capable of putting the bullets where you want them to go... this was at 25 yards... at 50 yards, my groups are closer to 3", but that is a result of my old eyesight, not the rifle....
The Rossi is capable of putting the bullets where you want them to go... this was at 25 yards... at 50 yards, my groups are closer to 3", but that is a result of my old eyesight, not the rifle....
I haven't had as good luck with the SWC's either. For some reason, the round-flat (RF) bullets seem to group better for me. This is my one attempt at 100 yds with the Rossi (so far).... I loaded the 255gr Lee RF, powder coated, and managed to keep most of them where I wanted. I still flinch/jerk/twitch occasionally, but I was surprised how well it did for aperture sights and my almost 69 yr old eyes. I think the 13,14, and 15th shots were low, just off the edge of the target.
Last edited:
RBHarter
West Central AR
There's only about 50 "correct" RNFP 45-255s .
They range from hemisphere with a .180 flat to .340 on a 2" radius with a .280 flat .
The Rapine 458-201 is probably closer than most . I had high hopes the the 452-255 would be more like the 358-158 RNFP ....... I'll have to drag out all of the 45 pistol moulds for a family picture........
They range from hemisphere with a .180 flat to .340 on a 2" radius with a .280 flat .
The Rapine 458-201 is probably closer than most . I had high hopes the the 452-255 would be more like the 358-158 RNFP ....... I'll have to drag out all of the 45 pistol moulds for a family picture........
I have a mold that I think is NOE made, for a RF 255-ish.... it has multiple small lube grooves, like a tumble lube bullet. I've only cast with it once, but plan to try it again. The crimp groove is pretty small, and powder coating makes it even smaller. My PC technique has gotten better, so it might not be a problem now... one way to find out.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
Midway has the 4-cav Lyman #452664 in stock and on sale for $125.........FYI.
That is an interesting bullet design; if the old classic #454190 has a flaw it is the dinky meplat that many of those '190' variants have.
My 45 Colt-ing has all been done with revolvers to date. I haven't seen the SWCs perform badly for me, but little of my paper targeting as gone past 25 yards. The small bit of 50 yard work shows the SWCs to hold up all right. #454424, #452190, and #454490 all behave themselves in 45 Colt and 45 AR.
Fiver points out one of the glitches that beset levergun users with some bullet/case combinations. The late NV Curmudgeon and I both had issues with Lyman #311316 and our Marlin 32/20 WCF rifles. Total PITA! Our 'Fix' was to trim cases back from min. 1.302" to 1.275". This also alleviated the 'Long front drive band/short abrupt throat origin' issue. Things ran swimmingly from that day forward, and revolvers don't give a rip about short-length cases--they have rims to headspace on.
That is an interesting bullet design; if the old classic #454190 has a flaw it is the dinky meplat that many of those '190' variants have.
My 45 Colt-ing has all been done with revolvers to date. I haven't seen the SWCs perform badly for me, but little of my paper targeting as gone past 25 yards. The small bit of 50 yard work shows the SWCs to hold up all right. #454424, #452190, and #454490 all behave themselves in 45 Colt and 45 AR.
Fiver points out one of the glitches that beset levergun users with some bullet/case combinations. The late NV Curmudgeon and I both had issues with Lyman #311316 and our Marlin 32/20 WCF rifles. Total PITA! Our 'Fix' was to trim cases back from min. 1.302" to 1.275". This also alleviated the 'Long front drive band/short abrupt throat origin' issue. Things ran swimmingly from that day forward, and revolvers don't give a rip about short-length cases--they have rims to headspace on.
Last edited:
fiver
Well-Known Member
yep i cut back 32-20 cases for my 30 carbine revolver using the same principle.
AIRC the 454424 [a SWC] has data in some of the older books for seating it to the front driving band, with a light crimp on the edge.
i done the same thing with my old H&G 68 type mold to get it to feed and shoot properly, but instead of a roll crimp i taper crimped it lightly.
many, many bullets ignore the saami length, while many guns don't, and will not feed anything over that length.
the bullet will come up and jam on the little feed ramp on the bottom of the barrel, or simply hit the frame halfway between the magazine and the barrel.
AIRC the 454424 [a SWC] has data in some of the older books for seating it to the front driving band, with a light crimp on the edge.
i done the same thing with my old H&G 68 type mold to get it to feed and shoot properly, but instead of a roll crimp i taper crimped it lightly.
many, many bullets ignore the saami length, while many guns don't, and will not feed anything over that length.
the bullet will come up and jam on the little feed ramp on the bottom of the barrel, or simply hit the frame halfway between the magazine and the barrel.
quicksylver
Well-Known Member
Love 45 Colt. had a Colt New Frontier and several ruger Black Hawks. 30+ years ago.The Colt was trash, but the Rugers all shot very well,so I thought, untill I got another Black Hawk off a gunsmith friend of mine,he said it shot pretty good, that ended up being an understatenent. the first time I tried it was after a .22 Bulls eye match.I used the regular 50' slow fire target at 50' the loads I used were my standad 454190 cast with a single cavity Lyman mold pushed along with 7.5 grs of Universal, a friend was spotting for me,the first round broke the 10 ring ,high and left,my friend said I didn't hit paper with the next four, he was wrong when we retrieved the target there was only one big hole.That gun is never leaving. Outside of the colt the only other mistake I made was purchasing a stainless Ruger Vaquero, with a 4.5" barrel,although pretty, Stainless does not work with open sights.