Black Powder in modern reproduction??

Skinny 1950

Skinny 1950

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My latest gun is a reproduction 1873 SAA made by Uberti,it is chambered for .45 Colt and due to the high cost of ammo I am going to re-load for it. I was advised by a gun dealer not to shoot black powder through it because of corrosion issues. The gun is a faithful reproduction of the black powder frame Colt 1873 and even has an "Antique" finish so I am going to shoot black powder when I get set up for re-loading. Anyone know how many grains of Goex the cartridges take????

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When you are shooting black the case has to be full or you will get a pressure "spike". So...either you fill it all the way with bp or top it up with a filler. I would suggest a copy of the Lyman black powder manual. Lots of info.

Cheers, Steve.
 
Personally I prefer Kapok for filler (instead of CoW or Cornmeal) as it won't raise pressures in bottleneck cases and works equally well in straight-walled cases.

That being said, if you top the case up with ffg and seat the bullet so it touches the powder, they gun will work just fine and will probably be close to the original loading from back in the day. using filler will give a lighter shooting load that you might prefer though.
 
I have never loaded Pyrodex in .45 Colt or anything else for that matter. I shoot plenty of Goex in that caliber though, in both revolver and rifle.... I don't bother with filler and use a full load... I find that 35 grains by volume of 3F gives enough compression behind a 270 grain RNFP lubed with a 50/50 olive oil/ bees wax mixture....

If you clean properly with an approved blackpowder solvent and promptly rust protect your guns corrosion will not be an issue.... One thing you must do is promptly clean your brass as well. I bring a milk jug of dishsoap and water to the range with me and put my empties in. Once I return home I give it a good shake and dump the empties out, rinse them in clean hot water and lay them out to dry. As soon as they are dry they are placed in the tumbler...

Since I have never used Pyrodex I can not comment on how corrosive it is, all I know is that is less corossive than true BP....

Beautiful revolver by the way!
 
ckid said:
Since I have never used Pyrodex I can not comment on how corrosive it is, all I know is that is less corossive than true BP....
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Actually, Pyrodex is highly corrosive. Black powder is hydroscopic. When left in a moisture free environment, a Pyrodex fouled barrel will still corrode, but a BP fouled barrel will have the fouling turn into a grey powder and do no damage to the metal.

Both types of powder require similar cleanup. For revolvers that see black powder, an internal cleaning is recommend at least once a year. It's good times, trust me.
 
Depending on your bullet and case manu. you can get 35-37 grs. of black in if drop tubed, which is the proper way to settle powder in the case. This is a very nice heavy load of over 900 fps. that sounds and feels like a .45 Colt's should.
 
Good point Ben.... I forgot to mention the drop tube, mine is about 24" long... And you are right with "sounds and feels like a .45 Colt should"! The deep thump accompanied by the clouds of smoke and embers never fails to put a smile on my face!
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback on this. I am considering getting a Lee 4 hole turret press.... would a drop tube work with this???
 
Drop tube is used independent from any other equip., drop powder from measure into pan, slowly drop tube the charge from pan, 24" minimum, some folks take a minute to drop one charge, this is not speed reloading. If you don't believe in this, try drop a charge directly into the case from your measure, measure from powder to mouth of case, now do the same but slowly drop tube charge, in some cases you pick up 1/4" or more of space.
 
You are probably right Tiriaq, although depending on the height of the loading bench it may make it a little high to dump powder in the top....

Just to comment on Ben's statement about taking a minute to drop tube one round, I can maybe see it if one was loading a high capacity (45-90,120) for long range accuracy, but for handgun I feel that is a bit overkill.... I pour it into the funnel on the top of the drop tube at a rate that doesn't allow the funnel to pile up and block and call it good...
 
You're right, drop tubing for my 50/90 Sharps is diff. then the .45 Colt's, the other method is to throw the charge into the case(as long as it doesn't overflow) and then vibrate cases 'till powder settles. To do this you can put your loading block full of charged cases on a bench/table beside your running case tumbler or some such.
 
Get a set of LEE powder dippers. When using a 250 RNFP bullet I use the 2.5 CC dipper. That is for FFFg, and FFg GOEX. No drop tube (pistol rounds) used.
I have seen a video where a fellow was loading .45 Colt, and .44-40 on a Dillon 550B Progressive with a drop tube attached to a LEE case expanding die (powder through). Mike Belliveau produced the video. He is know as "Bottom Dealing Mike" on the CAS City forum. He is also the black powder editor for "Guns Of The Old West" magazine.

I tried 777 powder, but it does not smell or sound like original Black. It is 15% hotter too, so stay away from FFFg, get FFg if you are going to try it.

As mentioned above.... go to the CAS City forum site. Great info about BP there. I learned alot there. Not so much on this forum.
 
Olof said:
As mentioned above.... go to the CAS City forum site. Great info about BP there. I learned alot there. Not so much on this forum.
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Sorry, didn't to step on anyone's toes here.This forum does have a lot of info, but not in the area of my interest. My interest is primarily Cowboy Action Shooting (with black powder of course), and there is not a lot of info here about that.

The fellows involved on the CAS City forum (Darksider's Den) are mainly cowboy shooters. :redface:
 
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