Real cowboy loads for the .45 Colt: bring back a little originality to your handloads

Guns Magazine, July, 2008 by John Taffin

Real Cowboys used black powder loaded .45s. The smokeless powder era didn't really come in until the dawn of the 20tb century and cowboying as we generally visualize it, had mostly disappeared into the dust of history. Smokeless powder became firmly entrenched in the first decade of the century, however, some never gave up their black powder cartridges and such loads were available right up until WWII.

It takes more time and know how to load black powder than smokeless. Until recently, my black powder cartridges were assembled on a single stage press. Things have been much simplified with the addition of two items to my reloading bench from RCBS and Lyman.

RCBS Pro 2000

For using black powder or black powder substitutes, I use the Pro 2000 for re-sizing, de-capping, priming, and expanding the case mouth. Once those four operations are completed I switch to the second item: Lyman's relatively new No. 55 Black Powder Measure. This powder dispenser is designed to prevent the possibility of a spark igniting the black powder in the hopper. Powder measures designed for smokeless use should never be used with black powder or its substitutes, due to the danger of static electric sparking. Some manufacturers of BP substitutes now OK the use of a standard powder measure. Check with them individually.

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Once my cases are charged using the No. 55 BP measure, I place a wad over the powder charge and move back to the RCBS RockChucker single stage press for bullet seating and crimping. Yes, it takes longer to load black powder cartridges, but there's something soul stirring and spiritually transporting backwards in time about dropping the hammer on a black powder cartridge, heating the Boom/, and then seeing the resulting smoke. When shooting outside with black powder cartridges the ideal situation is a mild wind to carry the smoke away. On a calm day it only takes a couple of rounds to envelop the shooter in smoke making sight acquisition rather difficult.

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One thing I find essential for loading black powder cartridges is magnum pistol primers for the best possible ignition. I normally use CCI's No. 350 Large Pistol Primers. Black powder should be slightly compressed (light compression can be accomplished by the base of the bullet) to aid ignition and there should never be any airspace between bullet and powder. Refer to the manufacture as to whether or not black powder substitutes should be compressed. Hodgdon's recommends their Triple 7 be right up against the base of the bullet without compression.

I prefer to place a vegetable wad between bullet base and powder both to protect the base and to also help to reduce barrel fouling. Waiters' Wads offers a complete line of quality vegetable wads in any diameter desired.

Bullets need to be of the proper alloy, proper size, and properly lubricated. This means the use of relatively soft bullets, anywhere from pure lead to 1:20 tin-to-lead alloy with the bullet sized to match the cylinder chamber mouths and lubricated with a special black powder lube such as SPG, Lyman Black Powder Gold or Thompson's Black Powder Lubricant. All of these lubes are softer than those normally used for lubing bullets for use with smokeless powder. The softer lubes help to keep the barrel fouling relatively soft.

Hardcast Bullets?

What about using commercially cast bullets, which are normally harder than those which give the best results with black powder? They can be used and rather successfully within limits.

I use a lot of the standard hardcast, hard-lubed, bevel-based bullets as offered by Oregon Trail Bullet Co. With these I always use a Ox-Yoke Wonder wad between powder and bullet and also keep a cleaning rod handy for swabbing the barrel after each cylinderful. While using the best possible soft bullet and soft lube may get you through a full box of .45s without ever cleaning the barrel, it is not going to happen using normal hardcast bullets even those lubed with SPG.

In addition to swabbing the barrel, it's necessary to clean the front and rear of the cylinder. All of this is much easier than it sounds thanks to Windex. I keep a spray bottle handy for thoroughly soaking the patches used in the barrel and I also spray a generous amount at the front and back of the cylinder without removing the cylinder.

All powders are loaded by volume, not by weight. The correct volume is enough powder to fill the case slightly above the base of the bullet thus allowing some compression. This is true for all black powders regardless of brand or granulation, again however, some black powder substitutes manufacturers advise their powder should not be compressed but simply loaded even with the base of the bullet. Follow the manufacturer's directions.

The original loadings for the .45 Colt used 40 grains of black powder under a 255-grain bullet. The original brass did not have a solid inner base as the primer pocket protruded above the rather thin base. These old cartridge cases had more capacity than current solid head brass and could accept the full 40-grain charge. This load, when assembled in old-style brass and loaded with current black powder using a modern Magnum primer for ignition, gives some rather startling results. When fired from 7-1/2" sixguns the 255-grain .45 Colt load exceeds 1,000 fps muzzle velocity.