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Old February 27, 2011, 10:45 AM   #5
ClemBert
Senior Member
 
Join Date: March 2, 2009
Location: Orlando
Posts: 936
45 Colt is a very versatile round with black powder. There are many combinations of powder charges and bullet weights. Some folks go with 25 grains and use fillers such as grits or Cream-of-Wheat to take up space. Others, like myself, like to load with 35 grains upto the max of 40 grains FFFg. For real BP most folks I know use FFFg in 45 Colt but there are some who use FFg. Either one is appropriate. You be the judge.

As far as bullets go the choices are considerably more than powder charges. Since you already do 45 Colt reloading you know that with a "newer" firearm you'll probably want a 0.452 bullet whereas the "older" firearms typically chamber a 0.454 bullet.

With BP reloading lubrication is key. Use a BP compatible lube or buy bullets that have a BP compatible lube. Leave the hard crayon type lube for your smokeless powder loads. The soft BP lube will help out greatly in keeping BP fouling at a minimum whereas with smokeless lube you may end up with messy goo.

The picture below shows some great choices for BP 45 Colt reloading. From left to right you are looking at: 0.454 RB, 150gr Biglube, 200gr Biglube, 250gr Biglube, then a 250gr RNFP for contrast. The 3 bullets in the middle are called Biglube bullets for a reason. You can see the huge lube groove filled with BP compatible lube. The RNFP on the right has a rather small groove filled with hard crayon type lube that is great for smokeless but not so much for BP. If you already have a bunch of smokeless bulllets with the crayon lube you could melt it out and replace it with BP lube. I've done that in the past. However, BP generally likes much more lube than the little groove will hold. BTW, you can reload 45 Colt with a round ball if you like. Lots of folks like to create "gallery loads" that typically have a small powder charge (18-20gr or so) and top it off with a round ball. They do this just for grins to do a little plinking.

As for primers, standard large pistol primers work great. BP has a rather low ignition point compared to some BP substitute powders.

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