.45Colt BlkHk Heavy Loads; why ?

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Up until recently I had two 44 Mags, a 5.5" Redhawk and a 14" Contender. My 45 Bhwk at 4 5/8" was a whole lot easier to pack in the woods and could be loaded for defensive purposes against a 4 legged creature. I don't push it hard but I do respect a 250 gr bullet @ 1200 fps.

You won't find too many people, not even Mall Ninjas or Tacticool Boys, willing to stand down range and play catch with that 250 at 1200! ;)
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Black powder 45 Colt 255 grain bullets were alleged to run at 1000 FPS from the 7.5" barrels of SAAs. I don't care who you are, that is a BIG, HEAVY chunk of heavy metal that will do damage to whatever or whoever it connects with. In the Ruger BisHawk, it isn't punishing for the shooter--but it lets you know that a substantial transaction just got turned loose. Most of my loads for the 45 BisHawk run at this intensity--#454424 at 1000 FPS, prompted by enough Herco to enable that (11.0 grains, most recently). That might be a bit much for Colts or their Pasta Colta clones; in the past those were fed #454190 and #454424 with 9.0 x Unique or 10.0 x Herco. In the 4-3/4" Cattleman these ran in the 875-900 FPS bracket. Again, not abusive to the mechanism or its user, but you'll know a sincere message got sent.
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
Right now my 45 caliber adventures involve some samples sent by a correspondent for my S&W Model 625 x 4". I might have mentioned this about a dozen times over the last year, but this is a VERY NICE revolver, and it seems to enjoy any cast or jacketed bullet you feed it from 185 to 260 grains in weight; just the hit elevations raises and lowers a bit. Evil-doers and malefactors tend to be a lot taller than they are wide, so vertical dispersion is less critical in those instances. Base carry load is the WWB 230 grain JHP, and the sights are set for that load at 25 yards. Heavier bullets hit a bit higher, lighter bullets hit as bit lower. Life is good.
 

UH-1H+Crewdawg

New Member
I have a 45 LC Contender and I can't find a 44 Mag at a reasonable price, so. Load the 45 LC with 300gr and use it for hunting in the mountains as a back-up. Black bears are plentiful here so need something heavy.
 

Walks

Well-Known Member
When the Vaquero's came out, I got a STS 7 1/2" .
Figured this was my chance to load Full Power BLACK POWDER LOADS.
So I sized 50 REM cases in a steel sizer, primed them with CCI 350's. Loaded with 35grs by weight of 3F a dry lubed fiber wad and crushed a 260gr #454190 cast of 20/1 down on top and added a tiny bit of Taper Crimp.

BOY HOWDY !!!
Thought the Revolver had blown up at that first shot !!

Was afraid to Chrono those loads, muzzle flash was about 12 feet.

Fired half the box at a 12" steel plate. Knocked it over at the 25th shot. Saved the rest for later. The cylinder was starting to bind. Used the Lyman Black Powder lube, applied by hand. Bullets were shot unsized. Dropped .455 from the mold.

No wonder the old Cavalrymen said it would take down a horse.
My hand felt like I'd fired 100rds of .454 Casull - 300gr loads with the Beautiful Rosewood factory grips.
Cleaned up really easy, No leading at all.
Shot the last 25rds the next month.
Afterward I stuck to BP Loads for .44-40 & .45-70 Rifle Loads for BP SideMatches.

Guess I just turned into a sissy at 38yrs.
 

Dale53

Active Member
There is no doubt that black powder loads recoil significantly more than a comparable smokeless load. My Ruger Bisley .45 Colt using the Lyman 452664 with a case full of Swiss Black Powder compressed 1/16" will give close to 1000 fps. Since recoil is determined by "ejecta" weight (weight of powder charge + bullet weight) and velocity, the recoil will be considerably more than a smokeless load of, say, 8.5-9.0 grs. of Unique.

I used to shoot competition Black Powder Cartridge Rifle Silhouette and they had side matches for black powder revolvers. They were FUN, too! I really gained a lot of respect for the original black powder load in the .45 Colt. That was (and is) a REAL revolver load for the field!

FWIW
Dale53
 

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
250 grain castings run at BP velocities (1000 FPS or so) in the Rugers buck a bit more than the smokeless factory loads which do well to reach 825 FPS in my BisHawk x 7.5". #454424 at such ZIP Codes are substantial but remain comfortable. The 357s Marie and I shot last week (125 JHPs @ 1425 FPS and 158 JHPs and #358156 @ 1250 FPS) were louder and were sharper in recoil than the 44s and 45s with std. wt. SWCs running in the 1000 FPS realm. Laws of physics get no plea bargains.
 

Winelover

North Central Arkansas
Besides competition or dire need, due to lack of smokeless powder, I see no point in using antiquated black powder in modern guns. I'm not about to spend more time cleaning my firearms, than shooting them.

Black powder and their substitutes have there use in muzzle loading arms. I own several but they see only occasional use because of the PITA cleaning, immediately after use.

Besides, you can't stuff enough black powder in a cartridge to equal or exceed high performance smokeless loads. Never even considered a cylinder conversion for my ROA. For what they want for them, I'd just purchase another modern revolver.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I scored an ACP cyl at show for $20 once . That was a great show !
I have a second .004 short for the frame . The $20 cyl took only the blue off the nose to fit and time perfect .