Reloading .45LC

[dennishoddy]

I've got a S&W 25-5, and a buddy bought a Henry in .45LC so I though I would start reloading them. I saved up a couple hundred rounds of brass, and found wide discrepancies in rim thickness, and case length.
Hornady brass from the leverevolution ammo seems to be the shortest, but the Winchester cowboy loads are .020 longer.
Even within the same brand, rim thickness varies a lot. My RCBS trim pro has shims to help accommodate different rim thicknesses, but I sure need one in-between.

Right now, I'm going to start with some mouse fart loads using 230 grain Berry coated round nose bullets, and graduate into Hornady SST rounds. I see a deer in the sights in November.
I've got Unique, Blue dot, H110, and WST if anybody has a pet load using those powders. I'm not going to go out and buy a different powder, since that selection covers every thing I shoot pistol wise.

What's your load?

 

[becker_atc]

I'm not entirely positive but that hornady stuff you have picked up is cut short on purpose for that bullet. I know they do this on the 45/70s. Due to this I gave away all the hornady brass and stuck with other brands. As for rim thickness and such I have never put much thought into it.

As far as loads I mainly use J&K bullets 250gr LRNFP with universal. It's what I could get durring the crunch, still have not used up that pound i bought. I stick to colt pressures since what these are shot in are a colt clone, new model valquero, smith governor, and a tc contender 45/410. Nothing real hot just a by the book upper limit colt load. There are TC and Ruger only loads that are at or above 44 mag stuff (dont use these in your smith).

 

[dlbleak]

dennis, do a little research on the 25-5's. the chambers in some had larger than needed bores in the cylinders. loss of accuracy was the result. i had one that had the correct chambers and shot beautifully. its been gone for a while(stupid move on my part) so i don't remember the load i was using. i load most of my rounds to powder puff loads though.

 

[dennishoddy]

dennis, do a little research on the 25-5's. the chambers in some had larger than needed bores in the cylinders. loss of accuracy was the result. i had one that had the correct chambers and shot beautifully. its been gone for a while(stupid move on my part) so i don't remember the load i was using. i load most of my rounds to powder puff loads though.

Thanks for the Intel. I've shot two boxes of the leverevolution. 25 yds was about a 5" group offhand. Pistol came with a target hammer, target trigger and custom grips, so hopefully the cylinders were checked. I'll do a little looking around and check the measurements.

 

[swampratt]

I sold my Ruger New model 45 Cold Bisely it had 7.5" barrel and I had best accuracy from the 200gr Lee Tumble lube SWC.
The Lee 255gr Round nose flat point was ok..The 255gr .252" diameter Hornady plated Hollow point did very well when I loaded a Ruger only load with 2400 or even the 9gr Unique load.

Now when i say Very well or did well I am saying better grouping than other loads.
All loads I tried from that Ruger really left me unhappy.

The wide variance of brass left me angry.
Not only is the Hornady brass shorter it is also thicker ..I could not mix different brass and get anything that looked like a group.
Some cases would size with an ID of .445" and some would size with an ID of .452"

Left me hating the 45 Colt..I sold it and do not miss it one bit.

measure case ID after sizing and sort brass like that ..after head stamp sorting.
I hope your guns are not as picky as mine.
I got best groups with No crimp. But i did use a lee carbide die to iron out the case after loading I actually used an Older factory carbide crimp die from lee 45acp as final die for the 45 colt.
But of course i tried many things in the loading process as i know you will also.

I could hit bowling pins from 20 paces but back off to 25 and 20% success rate. My 45acp was more accurate as is my 357 mag.
Wish you luck.
7.5gr unique or 8.5gr Unique should be tried with your bullets .
The red dot 6.0gr was really the best load in my gun with any bullet.
I tried a milk jug penetration test at those low powder loads with 255gr hornady XTP and found 4 1 gallon milk jugs and a 3/4" piece of oak was not enough to stop it.
That big slow bullet just keeps pushing through. Find accuracy and do not worry about top speed as that heavy bullet should punch a hole right through a deer.

 

[aviator41]

my go-to 45colt competition load is 4 gr of Promo, a mag primer and a 200gr RNFP. it's a light load but very accurate out of an 1866 rifle and a friends NMV's. needs a good strong crimp but provides plenty of power to get good chamber seal and no blowback at all, though it's not powerful enough to hunt with. I will be working up a 45Colt load for long range over the summer and expect to use Unique to do so.

Ditch the hornady brass, it's specialty (as has been eluded to already). you will have problems with it during reloading.

 

[fatcpa]

My 5 1/2 inch Blackhawk likes a 250 RNFP Missouri Bullet hard cast over 8.0 grains of Unique. I bought a bunch of new Starline brass a couple years ago, so that's all I reload. I get around 800 fps out of this load and it's as accurate as any load I've tried.

 

[Shadowrider]

Dennis I've not reloaded that caliber but I think of the powders you list the Unique is the one I'd be looking into. I seriously doubt WST will work in that big of a case, it's just too fast IMO. H110 and Blue Dot are for heavy magnum loads and you don't want to be going too crazy with that 25-5. The frame would handle it fine but the cylinder won't. Check out how thin it is from the bottom of the cylinder stop notch to the inside of the chamber. It'll shock you. Stick with standard pressure loads for that revo.

That rifle might be another story, H110 or Blue Dot might be just the ticket for it, but Unique may work well in it too, it's a very versatile powder.

 

[dennishoddy]

Dennis I've not reloaded that caliber but I think of the powders you list the Unique is the one I'd be looking into. I seriously doubt WST will work in that big of a case, it's just too fast IMO. H110 and Blue Dot are for heavy magnum loads and you don't want to be going too crazy with that 25-5. The frame would handle it fine but the cylinder won't. Check out how thin it is from the bottom of the cylinder stop notch to the inside of the chamber. It'll shock you. Stick with standard pressure loads for that revo.

That rifle might be another story, H110 or Blue Dot might be just the ticket for it, but Unique may work well in it too, it's a very versatile powder.

I've got a 4lb jug of unique. I figured on using it to get somewhere around 900 fps unless somebody came up with another powder. Those Berry bullets don't like 1K fps. When I shoot them up, I'll go to the Hornady SST, 250 grain HP for deer.
I got intel from another member about the cylinder. I'm checking out everything before going over 1Kfps and it won't be far.

Got some 185 grain sierra HP that might work too.

Anybody loaded any 340 grain in that caliber? I've got a box of them. Hard cast lead with a gas check.

 

[turkeyrun]

Just got a Henry in .45 Colt, very interested in this thread. I'm loading .44Mag with Unique, highest velocities are with Unique and 630 in my Hornady book listings for .45. Prefer the 250 gr JHP for deer and hog use.