A few practical shooting questions.

[Tall Dark Slim]

This is not all CAS related, but it is Schofield related so I beg the use of the knowledge pool. With regret the Schofield moderator told me to try here instead. I hope shooters here can appreciate my curiosity and desire to give a really ergonomic design a whirl in multiple games.

Has anyone ever tried using modern speed loaders of any kind with the Schofield variants? If so, please share your results including your experience with speed loaders in general and the brand used.

As far as slicking up the Schofield is there anything that the competent home gunsmith can do? I am aware that the smithshop will convert it to a slip hammer gun. Bill English was also mentioned. What are the typical costs for these jobs?

With respect to reloading techniques, what is the most efficient method to get the job done with respect to clean and clear ejection? What is the best way to eject shells while maintaining the 170? I'm not a beginner revolver shooter in competition, but the hinged barrel is way different than my S&W 625. I am noticing that while my gun will chamber .38 special it does not appear to have sufficient ejection stroke to cleanly eject the casings. Is this true of the .45LC models also? If so what brass are you all using in competitions?  .38 Short Colts and .45 Schofields?  

I plan on running my gun in several different games and figured that this was the best place to ask advice. I apologize for the bombardment of questions. Thanks in advance for your time.
Best Regards,
Tall Dark Slim

What is the OAL of .45 cowboy specials in comparison to a .45LC or Schofield? How does the dimensions/case volume compare? Where might I find more information?

[cpt dan blodgett]

Not a direct answer but if you go to this link from the darksiders den and scroll down you can see a picture of the 45CB spec next to the full size 45 colt, looks about .200 or so shorter

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,12250.0.html

or this the horses mouth actual 45 Cowboy Special Site

http://www.cowboy45special.com/cowboy45brass.html
Gives dimensions and capacity ratio when using 250 grain bullet

[Tall Dark Slim]

A .45 ACP length LC rimmed case. Cool. A bit expensive for my taste.

Would anyone care to comment about efficient reloading techniques?

Perhaps methods to slick up internals?

Thanks.

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[cpt dan blodgett]

Probably the most efficient is shooting smokeless powder and using a dillon 650 or 2nd most efficient Dillon 550.  That is expensive.

Over the years I have evolved my processes.  Iniitiallly used the lyman priming system that primes as you lower the ram.  Filling tubes sucks. Also no real feel doing it that way.  Bought a Lee ram priming unit that mounts like a die.  Has a large and small primer chute and 2 different pins.  Used that for years but, the primers dont always slide down so you sorta need to shake or tap after every prime.  Primers can easily flip if they do not fully slide into place to be raised up into the primer pocket.  Lee does not make it anymore.   Looked at the lee hand primer but it requires special shell holders, not particularly expensive but who needs the additional stuff to keep up with.  Bought a RCBS  Hand primer last week as it uses standard shell holders.  Have not had a chance to really use it.

There is no really efficient method for dealing with bottle necked rifle cases that have to be full length resized.  You end up having to trim and deburr.  Will not address loading bottleneck rifles.

Tumble all my cases first to clean dirt and dust that will scratch dies.  I use a lyman turret press.
De prime,
 prime on second press using the lee set up or use hand primer.
I am paranoid about failing to charge a case and getting a bullet stuck in the barrel so I have started batch charging cases 50 at a time and visually checking for powder and powder level.
I then expand case mouth if shooting cast
seat bullet and crimp.  Gentle rool crimp on rifles, just kinda take the bell out for pistols unless heavily loaded, I use small amounts of fast powders generally so do not need a heavy crimp to make for a better burn some like to use with slower powders.
use lee factory crimp for auto pistols

Short of using a progressive, using a turret press as a manual progressive is probably as efficient as you can get, but I do not like to prime on down strokes.  This necessitates handling the case one additional time
If you use a powder thru expanding die you can charge when you bell the mouth, rotate turret and seat bullet but I have gotten in the groove and occasionally failed to charge a case.  Pain to get bullet out of barrel and catestrophic  if you fail to notice and shoot another round.  Thus explaining why I batch charge and inspect.

[Tall Dark Slim]

My mistake sir, I was talking more along the lines of recharging the pistol with fresh shells on the clock or in a hurry in general.

Everything else makes great sense. I have a Dillon 550 and it is a great investment.  My tip to add to this is: invest in a spare toolhead and locking rings for the die set and a powder die for each set.   I've got the caliber change down to about five minutes this way. Leaving the dies on the spare toolhead is a waste of space.

[cpt dan blodgett]

Don't shoot a schofield, but have seen a few operated.  Yours is probably designed to extract 45Colts so with the shorter Cowboy specials the brass should just about fly out of the cylinder when you break it open.  Probably faster to reload from a pouch grabbing 3-5 at a time rather than single pulls from loops on the belt.

With SAA with a single shell reload the hot tip is shoot 1 load as the empty cylinder is right inline with the loading port and you do not need to rotate cylinder to find it.  With the schofield would be to shoot all 5, dump and load 1 to keep from ejecting live shells.

[Tall Dark Slim]

Thanks Cpt.
Your correspondence has been quite helpful. I can't wait until the next local shoot. It will be awesome.

[Tall Dark Slim]

I have discovered that N frame speedloaders do in fact work wonderfully for reloading the Schofield.  Handy to know for other games. I've got a fairly solid ejection stroke down. The tricky part was keeping the barrel down range during the entire motion while allowing the grip to point at me.