Thread: Charge problem
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Old July 11, 2018, 09:08 PM   #1
Aguila Blanca
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Join Date: September 25, 2008
Location: CONUS
Posts: 18,434
Charge problem

For those who may not know (and I didn't, until a couple of months ago), the pre-1873 Colt Richards-Mason cartridge revolvers weren't chambered in .45 Colt, they were chambered in .44 Colt. Basically, that meant a case about the size of a modern .44 Special, topped with a heeled bullet having a bullet diameter of .451" or .452" and a heel diameter of .430" to fit into the .44 caliber brass.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.44_Colt

https://www.chuckhawks.com/44_Colt_original.htm

It's a long story, but I have a modern conversion clone with a .44 black powder barrel, which means it takes .45x diameter bullets, but the cylinder is bored for .44 caliber cases. Starline makes the correct brass, and I found a source for the proper, heeled bullets.

My first attempt at loading .44 Colt Original has been a moderate success: they shoot, they're moderately accurate at typical handgun range, and I didn't blow up the gun. But the cases come out absolutely black -- they're clearly not obturating. Today I ran five rounds through a chronograph to see where I stand.
Average velocity: 546 fps
Highest velocity: 635 fps
Lowest velocity: 493 fps
Extreme spread: 142
Standard deviation 59
I'm disappointed in the consistency (or lack thereof), but I'm still working the kinks out of what is for me an experimental cartridge. To crimp a heel bullet I had to have a special roll crimp die made just for this cartridge. Seating and crimping are a bit problematic.

But ... the bottom line is that the velocity is too low. My load is 4.9 grains of Winchester 231. The heeled bullets are 220-grain, lead round-nose. The 220-grain bullet falls right in between load data for .44 Colt on the Hodgdon web site -- they have loads for 200-grain and 240-grain bullets.

I'd like to bump the velocity a bit, but I load on a turret press with a Lee Autodisk powder measure. That means I can't bump the charge in increments of 1/10th of a grain. At a guess, the next larger aperture will probably dispense about 5.3 grains. 5.3 grains of Winchester 231 is what I load for .45 ACP, behind both 230-grain and 185-grain bullets.

Is that too much of a jump for the .44 Colt?

Last edited by Aguila Blanca; July 11, 2018 at 09:13 PM.
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