First Generation Colt Peacemaker

sharp shooter

sharp shooter

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Essex county (Ontario)
I have a first generation Colt Peacemaker Civilian model. 45 long colt. I talked to the gunsmith nearby and he said I can only shoot black powder bullets out of it. The gun is in great shape. Its been reblued many years ago and has matching serial numbers in the 30000 range. Great working gun although I would love to fire it to really find out. Where can i get Ammo for this old girl?
 
Wide (soft) .454" bullets, reloaded with a case full of black powder, shouldn't be a prob. for a guy named sharpshooter.(Old orig. Colts used the wider bullet).
 
I thought I was pretty bold to have named myself sharp shooter on here. Maybe I shoulda went with 'not dull shooter'. Anyway, what black powder would be good as I have never dealt with that stuff.

I probally won't be able to put a pic on here but I'll try.

thanks
 
I have used FFF Goex black powder in my .45 Colts.

Fill the case to the top, scrape off with a card and seat your bullet. This is basically the original load and it works fine in my Ruger Vaquero as well as my less robust Italian clone.

Make sure you don't use a modern black powder substitute or your Colt will be destroyed.

Clean your gun and brass as soon as possible when you are finished shooting (dish soap and water) then dry and oil.
 
merkelerk said:
Make sure you don't use a modern black powder substitute or your Colt will be destroyed.
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Ummm, yeah, OK...

Now for the real story. Pre-WWII (or Pre-war) SAA's do indeed have a groove diameter of .454". Post-WWII (or Post-war) SAA's have a groove diameter of .451". This was because after WWII there was lots of tooling to build .45 ACP barrels, and the .45 Colt tooling was just plain worn out. So rather than spend money on new tooling, the stuff in use was used to make .45 Colt barrels and the specs were changed.

Now according to load data listed in Mike Veturino's book "Shooting Sixguns of the Old West" were as follows. Page 171 BTW.

Colt SAA 4 3/4" vintage 1892
NEI mould #454-255PB 1:20 alloy sized .454" weighing 252 grains
CCI-350 Large Pistol Magnums
Starline brass

35.0 gr FFg............ 808 fps
35.0 gr FFFg.......... 870 fps
35.0 gr Ctg............ 747 fps
25.0 gr Pyrodex P.... 869fps And last I talked to Mike, he still has all of his extremidies and digits, so I gather he didn't have a gun blow up on him.

When it comes to BP cleanup, I find it easier to use Windex with Vinegar, and Ballistol for a final coating. The brass is de-primed and soaked in hot-as-I-can-get soapy water and then tumbled in ceramic media. If you need help loading BP, just ask. I looked back on your posts, and see you're one of them there nitro powder types. :D Be glad to help. There's more to it than you would think.

Congratulations on getting a 1st generation shooter. Afraid that other than Ten-X BP factory loads, handloading is your only option. And for what Ten-X would cost, it wouldn't take long to break even. Just for the love of Pete, don't use smokeless. Some internet commandos might swear you can, but there is a guy out there (a friend of Mike V's as it happens) named Kirk Stovall. Mike has bestowed the alias of "Shrapnel" upon him... care to hazard a guess as to how he got that one?
 
Short Knife Johnson said:
Just for the love of Pete, don't use smokeless. Some internet commandos might swear you can, but there is a guy out there (a friend of Mike V's as it happens) named Kirk Stovall. Mike has bestowed the alias of "Shrapnel" upon him... care to hazard a guess as to how he got that one?
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I used smokeless in my SAA but it was made in 1895. The OP's gun sounds like a mid 1870's make so I wouldn't go near it with smokeless. I also now shoot exclusively BP in my SAA, it's just so cool.
 
Ten-x? How much? I wouldn't plan on shooting it too often, maybe once or twice a year. I work a lot. Its too bad the ranch is just down the road from me.

What are the proper steps in cleaning the gun??? I have never cleaned a gun like this one thouroughlly
 
sharp shooter said:
Ten-x? How much? I wouldn't plan on shooting it too often, maybe once or twice a year. I work a lot. Its too bad the ranch is just down the road from me.

What are the proper steps in cleaning the gun??? I have never cleaned a gun like this one thouroughlly
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1st off, learn how to disassemble it enough for cleaning. Remove the grips and cylinder is good enough. Put the revolver and cylinder in hot soapy water and with a rod and patches for .45 clean the bore of gun and bores of cylinder. Also of course the exterior of both. Rinse with hot water and dry bore and exterior of both best you can. Then put it in the oven just long enough to dry out the inside, I would wait till I needed a mitt to handle it. I have used this method for years on a cap and ball. After its cooled use gun oil in bores and exterior. Couple of drops in hammer and trigger area also. Others may have suggestions also but this worked great for me.
 
First Gen Colt.

sharp shooter said:
Ten-x? How much? I wouldn't plan on shooting it too often, maybe once or twice a year. I work a lot. Its too bad the ranch is just down the road from me.

What are the proper steps in cleaning the gun??? I have never cleaned a gun like this one thouroughlly
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Ten-X is a ammo manufacturer in California that manufactures obsolete cartridges with BP substitutes.Windex with vinegar will work great ,Just remember to thoroughly dry and then use ballistol ,breakfree ,clp
 
Thanks for the help everybody. My friend and I have wanted to shoot this thing forever. Can I buy that ammo here in Canada (Southern Ontario) or would a place like cabelas or bass pro in the states have it. Thanks again.

Steve
 
sharp shooter said:
Thanks for the help everybody. My friend and I have wanted to shoot this thing forever. Can I buy that ammo here in Canada (Southern Ontario) or would a place like cabelas or bass pro in the states have it. Thanks again.

Steve
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Try Ellwood Epps I think that they carry Ten-X ammo or they can get it.
 
$30 for a Lee Classic Loader kit
$20 for a pound of FFFg black powder
$35 for 1000 primers
$50 for 500 bullets (big guess don't use these ones)
0-50$ in .45LC brass

Learn a little something about the past, have a lot more fun shooting.

or you can pay like $50 a box for those commercial BP loads.
 
It would take some doing to get a box of Ten-X BPs for 50 dollars per box after shipping and import fees. You'd be farther ahead to buy components and leave the brass to rot if you don't want to deal with cleaning the brass. (Shuddering at the thought of leaving brass behind :p) Anyway. I don't recommend dunking a gun in hot soapy water like someone had said. Especially one with working parts on the inside. I clean the bore, the frame, the exterior - especially the crown, and if you are concerned about the guts, take it to a gunsmith and have him (or her) pull it apart and give it a good internal cleaning. Might be a good idea to do that before you shoot it. They are amazingly simple guns. However, if you want, I'll trade you my stainless Pietta Great Western II straight across if you want a shooter. :D

Do some research, ask questions, read Mike Venturinos books and articles, and you'll be surprised how much fun doing it all by yourself is.
 
Ya, I reload for shotgun, trap, hunting, etc. I am looking at throwing down some money for a new moose gun. I just want to shoot the gun a few times to make sure it fires properly and all that stuff before I get all the components. That being said, i will eventually get the reloading gear down the road. Thank you everybody for the help!

Steve
 
Short Knife Johnson said:
I clean the bore, the frame, the exterior - especially the crown, and if you are concerned about the guts, take it to a gunsmith and have him (or her) pull it apart and give it a good internal cleaning. Might be a good idea to do that before you shoot it. They are amazingly simple guns.
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They are simple guns if you just want to pull out the guts to clean them. I do this once in a while and coat everything in grease before reassembling. The grease keeps any water that gets in during regular cleaning from rusting it up.

I use a green wheel bearing grease from Canadain Tire that's good to up to 500 degrees or something. It's petroleum based (I think) which isn't good for BP guns but crisco liquifies at too low a temperature and would probaby just drip out after a few cylinders through the gun.
 
I know grease is popular but i dont use Grease in my guns as it atracts Dirt dust grit which gets inside a colt pretty easy.
G96 is a good thing to spray in there as it coats then drys and keeps everything protected dirt dont stick to a dry surface like it will with grease.
I have antique guns that are just polished steel finish and spray them with G96 and they have never rusted at all or discoloured.
grease is fine if your guns are just going to the range in a box but for climbing around in the bush crawing along the ground thru ditchs & trees ect and camping i like G 96.

I know alot of guys will disagree with me on this but as far as ammo that winchester cowboy ammo in 45 colt should not hurt your SAA Colt if its in ex condition.
its in a brown plain looking box with a horse and rider on it.
Its loaded down smokeless loads for older guns and cowboy action shooting as they like mild loads for fast shooting.
SAA Colts are a soild frame gun and are very strong compared to alot of antique guns, Theres guys on here shooting smokeless loads outa Antique breaktop S&Ws that are hotter loaded than that winchester cowboy ammo.
I use the 44 Sp winchester cowboy ammo all the time i know lots of other CGNers use it to in there pre 1898 SAA Colts and other guns.
the 44 Sp is loaded to 44 russian speeds.
as long as your gun is in ex condition.
If your worried about it buy a 2nd gen 45 colt cylinder as the steels better stronger but i never seen that winchester cowboy smokeless ammo hurt any gun.
 
Short Knife Johnson said:
Ummm, yeah, OK...

Now for the real story. Pre-WWII (or Pre-war) SAA's do indeed have a groove diameter of .454". Post-WWII (or Post-war) SAA's have a groove diameter of .451". This was because after WWII there was lots of tooling to build .45 ACP barrels, and the .45 Colt tooling was just plain worn out. So rather than spend money on new tooling, the stuff in use was used to make .45 Colt barrels and the specs were changed.

Now according to load data listed in Mike Veturino's book "Shooting Sixguns of the Old West" were as follows. Page 171 BTW.

Colt SAA 4 3/4" vintage 1892
NEI mould #454-255PB 1:20 alloy sized .454" weighing 252 grains
CCI-350 Large Pistol Magnums
Starline brass

35.0 gr FFg............ 808 fps
35.0 gr FFFg.......... 870 fps
35.0 gr Ctg............ 747 fps
25.0 gr Pyrodex P.... 869fps And last I talked to Mike, he still has all of his extremidies and digits, so I gather he didn't have a gun blow up on him.


Well then you just go ahead and load your case up to the top with Pyrodex P

Have fun
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