Former N frame 45 ACP to 45 Schofield ?

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
QL is a very powerful piece of reloading gear. Being able to get an idea of what to expect with various powder charges saves much time. Yes, it can prevent the purchase of new powder when you realize that new powder won’t get you where you want to be.
 

DougGuy

Member
I used QuickLoad to develop loads for a 45 Schofield in a medium framed vaquero I reamed from 45 ACP to 45 Schofield. It didn't show much favor for lighter boolits, but once I got up to the 250gr WFN styles it rocked with slow burning magnum powders. I only did one round of testing, 14 different boolits with various powders, this still doesn't want to be a mouse fart gun, hard making target loads shoot well, the last load I tested were LBT 250gr WFN-PB, LBT 250gr WFN-GC and a LBT 250gr OWC wadcutter. It really liked the OWC and testing was going well until one of them hit the chrony. Saved the crony, barely.. I managed to get the 250s to 1200fps, staying under 23,000psi which is what the medium framed 45s are rated for (same as 45 ACP+P) and very accurate. Recoil was only a little snappy, not at all like a full size vaquero with a full snort of H110. This will be my deer load.

Anyway, the 1917 doesn't have nearly the robust cylinder the medium framed Ruger has, so I would not subject it to 23,000psi loads. You would need to pin out the throats and size to a light drag fit if you can. I would not go heavier than 250gr with the boolit.



 

Ian

Notorious member
Bass, I'm glad I'm not the only one who wakes from a dream at 2:00AM thinking "OH, what about Lil 'Gun?". I've actually gone downstairs in the middle of the night and run a few powders to check pressure, velocity, and burn curves or to alter the seating depth/shot start initiation pressure to see if I can bump or reduce the timing of the peak pressure. QL is not an absolute and only a guide, but with a good chronograph you can actually verify to some degree of accuracy the predicted pressures. Sometimes I tweak the powder charge down or up so that predicted velocity matches what I was actually seeing, then look at the pressure prediction again. Only one time so far was I rudely surprised by an over-pressure situation with a reduced starting load based on predictions; Longshot behind a 500-grain Lee bullet does not predict well at all in the .458 SOCOM, but Herco, 2400, HS-6, and True Blue were SPOT ON with grains of powder vs. muzzle velocity. Being able to check actual muzzle velocity with a MagnetoSpeed chronograph is helpful to the accuracy of predictions, it's amazing what the difference in velocity can be between one foot and 10-12's from the muzzle.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Agree. A chronograph is almost required to really use QL properly. Use QL tog eat a prediction then chrony the load. When they come up in good agreement then you have a good starting point. I have often gotten within 25 FPS agreement between chrony and QL.
Where does it help? Try to find good low to mid range loads for the 375 Win. They aren’t out there but QL makes it easy.
 

Bass Ackward

Active Member
Huh, do you mean to say that a single gun failed to follow mathematics? Well I’ll be.

I forget where I did it, but I made an adjustment in the program that adjusted predicted velocity to actual. This accounted for unique charastics for THAT gun. Once I got that .... correct, my velocities / pressures gave no surprises. My new copy is supposed to be coming, so I’ll have to learn all over again.

Fiver: not interested in ultimate accuracy, (yet) just needed a poofer load to run 20-1. I was gifted almost 1500lbs of pure lead. I had about 80lbs of tin. While The 20-1 has been lacking in the narrow PB window of usage, I’m too cheap to bump that up.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Actually it was one powder that failed to follow the algorithm in one case behind one bullet in one gun....you know the drill. I've seen many, I'd say MOST, predictions come in within 2% with cast bullets unless you throw in powder coating as a variable. That's from 700 to 3000 fps in calibers from the SOCOM down to .223. Pretty good IMO. Lots of loads come in within single digits of predicted velocity.
 

Bass Ackward

Active Member
Nice line up & pic(s) Doug. So you actually did the reaming? I have considered this as I have 3, 625s. When I bought 1, 625, 4” on line, my wife bought me one for an anniversary gift. I’m allowed to sell one, just NOT THAT one. :) So I might as well own a Scovie.
 
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DougGuy

Member
Nice line up & pic(s) Doug. So you actually did the reaming? I have considered this as I have 3, 625s. When I bought 1, 625, 4” on line, my wife bought me one for an anniversary gift. I’m allowed to sell one, just NOT THAT one. :) So I might as well own a Scovie.

Yes this was in the year before Obozo issued the EO making simple conversions like this from gunsmithing into manufacturing so for now, I don't take in conversions, hopefully the Trumpster will rescind this one too.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I had some QL numbers run for a wildcat ....... extreme mildcat actually . It missed case fill on one powder buy a substantial margin . About 60% fill called 105% ....... I considered a couple of times . I can see here it would pay off . I'm not looking for hotrods just a safe +P without going too crazy . If I can get into standard Colts , 250 @ 900fps I'll be pickled tink .
 

Bass Ackward

Active Member
I got my Quickload yesterday so I played around with it. My load was 12 grains of AA#7 with the 260 gr LBT LFN. That's 19.6k psi & it was 950fps outta the 4"er, about 1025 outta the 5"er. That's seated for Scovie case capacity / length. And most importantly, it …. shoots.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
that sounds like a good balance for #-7 it likes to be in a full case, much like some of the other Accurate powders do.
the only difference would be the LFN design and RB's bullets case capacity.
shouldn't be a problem dropping back and coming up again though.
 

RBHarter

West Central AR
I wonder what I have around in the stash that would be close to that .
Unique has been a stand by ........ I did run some H322 in a Colts carbine . I was gifted so AA#5 but kept it for the can mostly . I'm not sure what else I have . A little Steel maybe ......I might have dumped that though there was only 10-15 shotgun loads left in that big bottle before the move . Dad was fond of a couple of powders I never warmed up to . Probably both 4198s . I'll see about getting numbers for the NOE 250 . Push to shove I guess +P ACP data would be passable for Unique class powders , just in case it becomes a business thing . I will also confer with the smith as he has QL available and running .
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
herco, BE-86, are right about there, maybe a click faster.
if I had some of them I'd for sure give them a run.
800-Xwould e pretty good too, and if you do have any steel left it would be flirting with the very slow side for the case.