1873 MAS .45 ACP Black Powder loads?

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rilelyscastle

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I recently bought a modified 1873 mas revolver and the gunsmith i went to gave me the thumbs up to fire .45 acp black powder loads from it. i have some experience reloading but i have never reloaded with black powder before and was wondering if there is anything to watch out for besides angle grinding steel right beside my reloading setup.

I was also wondering what sort of black powder loads people have put through this revolver.
 
There's a Black Powder handbook too, and that's essential reading.

BP cartridges want to be loaded full, to the point the seated bullet meets the powder charge.
 
You need proper heeled lead bullets, as powder you can use smokeless, Unique for example. Probably around 4 grain.
 
rilelyscastle said:
I recently bought a modified 1873 mas revolver and the gunsmith i went to gave me the thumbs up to fire .45 acp black powder loads from it. i have some experience reloading but i have never reloaded with black powder before and was wondering if there is anything to watch out for besides angle grinding steel right beside my reloading setup.

I was also wondering what sort of black powder loads people have put through this revolver.
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You should know your bore ,groove diameters and chamber diameters. Find a bullet mold that will work.
45acp is way hot and probably twice the pressure you want.
45acp taper crimp isn't really what you want. Maybe modify a 45 colt or Schofield seat die so you can roll crimp.
A heavy roll crimp will help you get better burn with light powder charges of smokeless. I have good luck with magnum primers with very light loads but I don't personally have a gun like yours.
I've had good luck with titegroup.
Black powder is your safest bet here. Magnum primers, black powder lube and bullet with wide bigger lube groove .
45acp is a small case. With small cases and smokeless powder, bullet depth or very small changes can spike pressure and you can blow up yourgun if you don't know what you are doing.
 
I wouldn't ever chance smokeless in an antique. Too easy to lose focus and double charge, plus your range of forgiveness is much lower than BP. Probably won't get more than 25 grains of 3f by volume to the top of the case anyway and that'll be super soft shooting.
 
rilelyscastle said:
I recently bought a modified 1873 mas revolver and the gunsmith i went to gave me the thumbs up to fire .45 acp black powder loads from it. i have some experience reloading but i have never reloaded with black powder before and was wondering if there is anything to watch out for besides angle grinding steel right beside my reloading setup.

I was also wondering what sort of black powder loads people have put through this revolver.
Click to expand...
Same boat as you right now, except I’ll be using blackhorn 209, it should clean up nicer?
 
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