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Ozzieman · March 31, 2013, 10:07 AM

Hodgdon has a load for 160 GR which if you start mid load should work since most ball are around 150GR.
Do yourself one favor, take some unprimed cases and get your load working first. It’s not the easiest process.
This is what I found. You need to bell the case as little as possible. Most dies when you bell/expand the top of the case it expands the first 1/3 of the case to the size of the bullet. This is too big for the round ball. The first couple that I loaded looked perfect,,, but when you took hold of the ball it would spin in the case.
I have the belling plug on order for a 45 and I’m going to have a friend machine the lower end smaller than the case so that it only bells the top so that the cases holds the ball much tighter. Hope it works.
The accuracy was dismal but at 7 yards was a fun round to shoot. Actually my cap and ball 44’s shoot ball MUCH better but it was a fun experiment. In my Ruger the ball felt like shooting a 22. Lots of smoke and soot with Unique. Velocity was 560 FPS, a real magnum.
Have fun.

http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp

March 31, 2013, 10:07 AM	#2
Ozzieman Senior Member Join Date: December 14, 2004 Location: Northern Indiana Posts: 6,117	Hodgdon has a load for 160 GR which if you start mid load should work since most ball are around 150GR. Do yourself one favor, take some unprimed cases and get your load working first. It’s not the easiest process. This is what I found. You need to bell the case as little as possible. Most dies when you bell/expand the top of the case it expands the first 1/3 of the case to the size of the bullet. This is too big for the round ball. The first couple that I loaded looked perfect,,, but when you took hold of the ball it would spin in the case. I have the belling plug on order for a 45 and I’m going to have a friend machine the lower end smaller than the case so that it only bells the top so that the cases holds the ball much tighter. Hope it works. The accuracy was dismal but at 7 yards was a fun round to shoot. Actually my cap and ball 44’s shoot ball MUCH better but it was a fun experiment. In my Ruger the ball felt like shooting a 22. Lots of smoke and soot with Unique. Velocity was 560 FPS, a real magnum. Have fun. http://data.hodgdon.com/cartridge_load.asp __________________ It was a sad day when I discovered my universal remote control did not in fact control the universe. Did you hear about the latest study.....5 out of 6 liberals say that Russian Roulette is safe. Last edited by Ozzieman; February 12, 2017 at 06:27 PM.