45 Colt Cowboy
- Thread starter Reeferman
- Start date
vagrantviking
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- High River, Alberta
Yup similar to 45autorim brass for 45acp revolvers.
Its simply very short 45colt brass to preclude overfilling and or positional powder issues in the cavernous 45colt case when loading soft loads...especially when using regular pistol powders like 231/unique/bullseye etc
45cowboy brass is hard to source and expensive in Canada....Ive never used it. Ive also never had problems using 45colt brass either altho I don't load below ~800fps.....its the CAS shooters pursuing the very soft loads in search of faster times.....I prefer some actual recoil and a satisfying target clang and not too interested in a stuck bullet
Its simply very short 45colt brass to preclude overfilling and or positional powder issues in the cavernous 45colt case when loading soft loads...especially when using regular pistol powders like 231/unique/bullseye etc
45cowboy brass is hard to source and expensive in Canada....Ive never used it. Ive also never had problems using 45colt brass either altho I don't load below ~800fps.....its the CAS shooters pursuing the very soft loads in search of faster times.....I prefer some actual recoil and a satisfying target clang and not too interested in a stuck bullet
I load 45 Cowboy for my wife's Peacemaker. You can fit 23 grains of Fffg under a Lyman 225 grain RN bullet and crimp nicely. Out of her 4 3/4 inch barrel it gives about 720 fps which is like an old Schofield load. I use a mishmash of dies: a Lee 45 Colt size/deprime die, the Lee 45 ACP case PTE belling die or the Hornady LNL AP PTX die, depending on if I'm using Black or Smokeless to load the case. An RCBS 45 ACP Bullet seater die and a Lee 45 ACP Factory Crimp Die. I called up Lee and they send me the two parts required to turn the Lee 45 ACP FCD from a taper crimper into a roll crimper. That cost me shipping and a bit, but it was cheap enough.
I should point out that the Hornady LNL is a 5-station press, and after the powder charge, I use a Buffalo Arms Powder Compression Die to get the powder down into the case for bullet seating because to get 23 grains of Fffg into the 45 Cowboy case, you will find it comes up close to the top but scrinches down nicely with the compression die for bullet seating. (Much as same as loading 40 grains of Fffg into a 45 Colt case and seating a Lyman 454190 bullet of 255 grains on top: you'll probably want to have a compression die because 40 grains comes up real close to the top of the case).
I should point out that the Hornady LNL is a 5-station press, and after the powder charge, I use a Buffalo Arms Powder Compression Die to get the powder down into the case for bullet seating because to get 23 grains of Fffg into the 45 Cowboy case, you will find it comes up close to the top but scrinches down nicely with the compression die for bullet seating. (Much as same as loading 40 grains of Fffg into a 45 Colt case and seating a Lyman 454190 bullet of 255 grains on top: you'll probably want to have a compression die because 40 grains comes up real close to the top of the case).
It's supposed to be exactly the volume of .45 ACP so you can use any of the load data that exists for that (but isn't most of that going to be stiff enough to cycle a 1911?), but has the rimmed base to use in .45 Colt revolvers.
You still need real .45 Colt to cycle in a lever gun. So if you're a Cowboy on this road it's ten-of-this-ten-of-that and not twenty-same.
You still need real .45 Colt to cycle in a lever gun. So if you're a Cowboy on this road it's ten-of-this-ten-of-that and not twenty-same.
I don't have first hand experience but guns can be modified to run them without too much fuss. You are stuck with running the shorter cases but yeah.
Some guy in the U.S. makes "short lifters" for the Henry 1860's and the 1866 and 1873 rifles so you can run the Colt Cowboy cases. When you think about it, if you had say an 1866 Carbine and got that short lifter, the Colt Cowboy loaded with around a 214 grain RNFP bullet would give about as close a modern performance to the original .44 Henry rimfire round as you're likely to get. You'd also get original mag-tube capacity. It would not surprise me a bit if that 23 grain load/225 grain Lyman load I make for my wife would be near-bang-on to original Henry .44 RF performance out of one of those rifles.
Bullet diameter on the .44 Henry was .446, so that's closer in fact to a .452 .45 bullet than it is a .429-.430 .44 bullet. If somebody gifted me a .45 Colt 1866, I'd sure think about going down that road. Hell, I have thought about it. Get rid of Trudy and make Canada a shootin' country again and I might. Or maybe, that would have to be a Mexican project.
A .45 Colt 255 grain loading beside the 225 grain Lyman bullet 452374 loaded into a 45 Cowboy case. And a beat-up 9mm dummy-round for size comparison. That Lyman 225 grain bullet -- originally meant for the .45 Auto -- is great for the Cowboy case because it only has to be down in the case about .25 of an inch or less to crimp above the lube groove. That's how you still can comfortably get 23.0 grains into the case. If you really lean on the powder compression die, you can get 25.00 grains in but it doesn't seem to help any.
I pack my wife's Cowboy reloads in a vintage Schofield Box I got from Buffalo Arms when I bought the powder compression die. She loves her guady Pietta Peacemaker, and the Cowboy load in either Black Powder or Smokeless is a lot easier on her than the full 45 Colt loading for sure.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
So it’s a 45 short colt, not a 45 long colt. Gotcha 
Some guy in the U.S. makes "short lifters" for the Henry 1860's and the 1866 and 1873 rifles so you can run the Colt Cowboy cases. When you think about it, if you had say an 1866 Carbine and got that short lifter, the Colt Cowboy loaded with around a 214 grain RNFP bullet would give about as close a modern performance to the original .44 Henry rimfire round as you're likely to get. You'd also get original mag-tube capacity. It would not surprise me a bit if that 23 grain load/225 grain Lyman load I make for my wife would be near-bang-on to original Henry .44 RF performance out of one of those rifles.
Bullet diameter on the .44 Henry was .446, so that's closer in fact to a .452 .45 bullet than it is a .429-.430 .44 bullet. If somebody gifted me a .45 Colt 1866, I'd sure think about going down that road. Hell, I have thought about it. Get rid of Trudy and make Canada a shootin' country again and I might. Or maybe, that would have to be a Mexican project.
A .45 Colt 255 grain loading beside the 225 grain Lyman bullet 452374 loaded into a 45 Cowboy case. And a beat-up 9mm dummy-round for size comparison. That Lyman 225 grain bullet -- originally meant for the .45 Auto -- is great for the Cowboy case because it only has to be down in the case about .25 of an inch or less to crimp above the lube groove. That's how you still can comfortably get 23.0 grains into the case. If you really lean on the powder compression die, you can get 25.00 grains in but it doesn't seem to help any.
I pack my wife's Cowboy reloads in a vintage Schofield Box I got from Buffalo Arms when I bought the powder compression die. She loves her guady Pietta Peacemaker, and the Cowboy load in either Black Powder or Smokeless is a lot easier on her than the full 45 Colt loading for sure.
Did I sell you that Pietta for her?? I sold one exactly like that here on CGN a few yrs ago
And gaudy is a tad rough 
So it’s a 45 short colt, not a 45 long colt. Gotcha
Super short. The 45 Schofield was the first short 45 colt, lol. - dan
Did I sell you that Pietta for her?? I sold one exactly like that here on CGN a few yrs ago
A friend in Ontario bought it off of CGN and when he showed me I had to have it. He let me buy it for what he paid for it. It might have been yours. My wife loves it. I'm good with that.
I'm genuinely curious if that has actually ever been an issue for you? I have heard of it a lot but even shooting long strings of lead ammunition I was always able to insert the longer cartridges after?
I bought a 357 years ago that the previous owner claimed to have fired nothing but 38 Specials in. Some of my 357 loads (all with heavier bullets) would not slide easily into the cylinder chambers. Cleaned up the cylinder carefully and the problem went away. I have heard of it more often with 22's, but never had it happen to me personally. - dan
