There have been questions about using BP in the .45 Colt in long guns periodically, the most recent concerning their use in trombone gunz (lightenings). I wrote the following for The Cowboy Chronical some time back (actually this is an early draft, I cain't find my final submission as printed
) and I think it is pertinant to the use of BP .45s in any long gun.
Fact is, Americans have been enamoured of having rifle and hand gunz chambered for the same round for a long time. It made sense 150 years ago and it still does today, and for much the same reasons, ease of reloading, simplifying purchase of ammo/componants, and yes...even when things go really bad and one finds oneself down to one gun in a bad situation. In our game it also makes sense to have both gunz chambered fer the same round fer another reason..when it's time to do a fast reload on the line it's a major help not to have to stop and think to ones self, "do I have the right ammo!?!?!"
But...when Colt designed the .45 they weren't thinking about about long gunz! They were designing the round to be used in their fabulous single action revolver! And because of that, the case they originally designed had a tiny little rim on it, unsuited fer use in a gun that used a single point mechanical extractor to yank the cartridge out of the chamber.
Time passed, things changed in manufacturing and the .45 ended up with a fairly substantial rim on it. And some bright boys in the sales departments remembered Americans love for having pistols and rifles chambered in the same calibers. And we began to see reproduction lever guns chambered for the mighty .45. They worked pretty good with that new fangled smokeless powder too!...More time passed and some crazy Cowboy Action Shooters decided they wanted to shoot these new lever guns with black powder, similar to the original loadings...and I wrote the following:
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The .45 Colt, Black Powder, and Lever Guns
Howdy Pards 'n Pardettes!
This article explains how I use neck sizing to improve the seal of the .45 Colt cartridges to reduce fouling caused by blowback. As many of you know, I shoot strictly in the frontier cartridge categories. A few months ago I bought a reproduction 92 Winchester chambered for .45 Colt. I was tickled to no end because I shoot .45 Remington revolvers as my main match guns and would like the same caliber for my rifle. The .45 doesn't have the best reputation in lever guns when loaded with the black stuff. In fact, the former owner said he was selling this one because black powder badly fouled the action. From what I've read on the SASS WIRE I understand that this is why .44-40 and .38-40 caliber lever guns are so popular, they don't allow as much blowback as the cartridges with straight walls.
I examined the gun when I received it and found it had a somewhat large chamber, which is probably one of the reasons the previous owner got so much fouling. All that open space around the chambered cartridge was letting a lot of powder gas blow back into the action! Having no experience with the .45 in lever guns, I approached this problem with a bit of concern. I've learned a few tricks from other SASS members about black powder in .45s and discovered one or two on my own. Now it was time to see if these would help me with this gun!
The first trip to the range established the gun was accurate!!! (I wish I could shoot standing on my hind legs, like I can off a bench rest! No one would have a chance against me!) But it did quickly foul the action! There was lot of nasty stuff getting in there! I used my standard revolver load: a 255 grain modified maxi ball seated over 32 grains of 3F with a card wad between the slug and the powder charge. The Maxi Balls had been modified to create a large meplat for safe use in a tubular magazine. With all of the fouling problems, I went back to the loading room to think about how to cure this problem.
Fellow Darkside shooters like Doc Shapiro, SASS #31526, have found that blowback can be reduced in the .45 Colt by using a heavy bullet with as much black powder as you can get in the case, and then using a small amount of compression. This lets pressure build for a millishake in the case before the bullet starts moving, thereby expanding the case into the chamber walls for a tighter seal.
I was already using a heavy slug and a stout powder load so I could not increase the load to better seal the cartridge to the chamber. What else could I do? I was looking at an old bullet chart on my shop wall and the picture of a .44-40 kept drawing my attention with its sleek bottle necked case. That's it! I simply needed to find a way to slightly taper a casing to better seal it against the chamber. I examined a few cleaned cases with a micrometer and compared them to my finished reloads.
There was a considerable difference b'twixt the case diameter of the fired casings and the full-length sized reloads. The reloads were much smaller. I figured I could set the depriming rod very low in the case-sizing die and remove the primer while only resizing the open end of the case. I put it back in the press and adjusted it so the depriming rod tip was level with the bottom of the shell holder when the ram is at the top of it's stroke. This left a large gap between the shell holder and the base of the die. I put a case in and ran it up into the die! I pulled out a deprimed and "necksized" .45 case that looked almost like a bottle necked case! This looked like it had possibilities so I prepared a hundred rounds and proceeded to reload them with my standard black powder combination.
After cleaning the action of the rifle, I went to the range for testing. One hundred shots later, I was very pleased! Accuracy was still excellent, the gun functioned perfectly, and there was hardly any blowback fouling in the action! The slight "shoulder" created by only necksizing the cases was enough to create a situation nearly identical to real bottle necked chambering. The rear of the case appears to fill the chamber completely and block the flow of gases back into the action. I later found these loads chamber in my Remington revolvers with a bit of a push instead of a simple drop into the chambers. The fit does not concern me in slightest!
If you want to shoot Black Powder in a lever gun chambered for .45 Colt, this appears to be a new alternative! Use a heavy bullet in the 250 - 255 grain range, "necksized" only cases, a full charge of slightly compressed powder, no fillers, a card wad over the charge, and a heavy crimp on the slug. This combination works great for me and I imagine it will for you other pards who are considering Black Powder in your .45 lever guns! Go try it! It's a BLAST, and that's what being a Darksider is all about! <grin>
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Since that was written I've learned a few more things that will make the .45 even better with BP in long guns!
Annealing: This makes a MAJOR improvement! The act of heating the neck area of the case to soften it slightly helps let the brass expand easier into the case walls and creates a better gas seal to prevent blow back. A word of warning here: I've seen several times on the net the recommendation to heat the necks until they glow cherry red. DON"T! Doing so will "burn" the brass and make it very brittle! It only needs to be heated until it just begins to change color. I heat mine with an LP torch, while holding the brass by the rim with a heavy pair of pliers, turning it constantly and then dropping it into a bucket of cool water to quench. Note: brass is not like iron & steel in that quenching it makes them hard!
Another major assit in using BP in the .45 is to find the thinnest brass you get your hands on! Winchester .45 brass seems to be the thinnest out there, with Star Line being the thickest. (nuthin wrong with Star Line it's jist really thick) I've also noticed that Winchester brass with the WW headstamp seems to be thinner than their brass that has the full word "Winchester" stamped on the case heads.
I will also add that I know that the above sounds like a major pain! It's a lot of time and effort to put into preperation, no question about that! But for me and many of us the steps to reload a properly functioning .45 BP round is kinda relaxing. And I guess it depends to some extent on how dedicated one is in making things work the way we want them too, in spite of the manufatures original design flaws!
Hope this is helpful to some of you pards who love that big old .45 round as much as I do!