Greetings, All!
Over the span of two evenings, I took a double-handful of mixed head stamp .45Colt's brass ( Just shy of 100 pcs. ), and cut them down to 1.095", the same length as my sample box of Starline .45 S&W Schofield brass. I then annealed the case mouths, and ran them through my old Hornady Titanium Nitride .45 Auto / .45 Long Colt 3 Die Set in my bid to create ".45 Colt's Government" cartridges for my OM #3.
With a Reloading Manual starting charge of Alliant Unique ( 5.4gr. ) using my RCBS Little Dandy + #12 bushing, I capped half with CCI #300 Lg Pistol Primers, the other half with S&B Lg Pistol Primers recently acquired at Cabela's. These were corked with NEI #323A bullets ( .454-230HB ) that I had cast to a BHN-14. Crimp was light, just removing the flare, and gently pressing the case mouth into the bullet ogive, giving 1.404" OAL...
Thus, I recreated the ".45 Colt's Govt." cartridge, in an effort to give myself not only a slightly more economical load, but also one that, by virtue of its shorter length, might eject and clear the cylinder a bit more freely from my Cimarron Old Model #3 Americans' cylinder. Which they almost always did.
What they did do well was shoot rather accurately, neck-in-neck with my .45 Colt reloads in my previous post, about two and a half to three inches at 25yds, when my eyeballs were screwed in just right. Also, I was unable to discern any performance difference between the two brands of primers, neither was one fired primer materially different appearing from the other. Nonetheless, I would encourage you to seek out Published Reloading Data for S&B Primers.
I'd say that they were a success! The biggest pain was cutting the .45 Colt's brass down, for the sometimes benefit of ejecting and clearing of fired cases from the cylinder. The simpler solution: buy a bag of Starline .45 S&W Schofield brass!
M.T.M.
5-25-22