Actual diameter being .429", 43 is closer to the mark. Or perhaps .43 Mauser, or .43 Spanish, or .43 Egypt, loaded Elmer Keith's way.

papajim2jordan wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 11:06 am Actual diameter being .429", 43 is closer to the mark. Or perhaps .43 Mauser, or .43 Spanish, or .43 Egypt, loaded Elmer Keith's way.

Ha! And were he alive today, he just might try that, too! :-) After all, he did help come up with the .338 KT, better known today as the .338 Weatherby Magnum.

CowboyT wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:11 am

Buck13 wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 4:29 pm I was hoping to go to the range today (didn't happen) so last night I loaded 35 rounds of .43 Magnum with 240 grain Noslers and 12.1 grains of Longshot. I had a few of those left from a previous batch, so that would have made a nice box of poppers. Not the hottest load out there, but a bona fide magnum round, and they shoot pretty well. Being penny-wise and pound-foolish by nature, I was tempted to cap them with plated bullets, but I know that on a good day, I can almost see a valid difference between group sizes from those and the Noslers, so I repeated several times "life is too short to shoot cheap ammo" and opened the box of good bullets.

I'll make up some with the plated bullets later to give away to guests.

".43 Magnum"? I've heard of .41 Magnum and .44 Magnum, but not .43 Magnum. Is this a new one?

Just my little truth-in-advertising joke.

Some fans of the .45 Colt hot-rodded in the Ruger Blackhawk make a huge deal over 23 thousandths of an inch. Not something I remember seeing on the LGC forum, but it can be found in the wild.

I once made up some Redhawk-only loads based on an article in Handloader issue #265. With H110, I got 300 or 325 grain GC bullets (don't have my notes with me to verify which) up to just a tick under 1400 fps. Case ejection was only a little draggy! I labeled those ".434 Casull." It was interesting and it's nice to know they're there, if I ever want to go handgun hunting for moose, but not something I feel the need to repeat often.

Buck13 wrote:

CowboyT wrote: Tue Oct 24, 2023 10:11 am

Buck13 wrote: Sun Oct 08, 2023 4:29 pm I was hoping to go to the range today (didn't happen) so last night I loaded 35 rounds of .43 Magnum with 240 grain Noslers and 12.1 grains of Longshot. I had a few of those left from a previous batch, so that would have made a nice box of poppers. Not the hottest load out there, but a bona fide magnum round, and they shoot pretty well. Being penny-wise and pound-foolish by nature, I was tempted to cap them with plated bullets, but I know that on a good day, I can almost see a valid difference between group sizes from those and the Noslers, so I repeated several times "life is too short to shoot cheap ammo" and opened the box of good bullets.

I'll make up some with the plated bullets later to give away to guests.

".43 Magnum"? I've heard of .41 Magnum and .44 Magnum, but not .43 Magnum. Is this a new one?

Just my little truth-in-advertising joke.

Some fans of the .45 Colt hot-rodded in the Ruger Blackhawk make a huge deal over 23 thousandths of an inch. Not something I remember seeing on the LGC forum, but it can be found in the wild.

I certainly guilty as charged of doing that here!!! There are a few of us .45 colt “magnum”
Aficionados here and we are not shy.

The .45 colt having a bullet diameter of .454 you are actually getting an extra .004th if an inch than advertised!

In all seriousness - it probably better to standardize on .44 magnum as there are more platforms available; and factory ammo is more widely available. (I’ve never shot any factory ammo through my .45 colts.) .44 mag is also a more modern cartridge design with a wider rim.

I just decided to go with .45 colt because you can share a decent amount of the reloading components with .45 ACP.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh, nothing wrong with either cartridge, and I enjoy both. Admittedly, I do shoot a lot more .44 Spl out of my .44M wheelgun, just because it's easier on my hands.

Now, to be fair, my ".45 Colt Magnum" wheelgun is a Ruger Super Redhawk in .454 Casull. The load is definitely a boomer...but it's controllable with that heavy hunk o' stainless steel. You do need a big, strong handgun (or rifle, e. g. Winchester 92 action) to shoot those loads comfortably.

Actually, I got into .45 Colt years before I ever got into .45 ACP. The .45 Colt, and the .357 Magnum, are the first cartridges I ever reloaded, and I continue to enjoy 'em to this day, along with some others.

Been doing a fair amount of .45 ACP recently in the 1911 because I got a bunch of cast bullets from an ol' reloader that passed earlier this year. Still working my way through them. And I think of that ol' man every shot I take and thank him and his (still living) wife. He also left a bunch of .38 Spl full wadcutters. Need to develop a load for those, too, which naturally will be the traditional Bullseye powder. They also will get tumble-lubed with Liquid Alox, since they're store-bought and use that blue hard wax lube (way too hard to do any good).

I really prefer the .45LC over the acp. There's enough room in the case for all kinds of powder, and if you have a Ruger, you can load that bad boy big time. However: I still have six rounds loaded with 10.5gr of Unique under a 250fr LRNFP in case I encounter a T. Rex anywhere. I shot I think three of them. Saved the rest. Whew.

But for the last couple days I have re-enjoyed the feeling of researching a load for which I have no idea about. This is the 8x50r Austrian for my very first gun my dad got me when I was eight or seven, around 1960. I've not shot it for decades because I ran out of surplus. But now that the dies have arrived, I hauled out my manuals and have been perusing all the web sites. I have three or four powders that would work. I've not settled on the first go 'round yet. It's a great feeling, delving into the unknown. It's been a while since I've felt that. Maybe since the last time I tried to clean the bathroom. He he.

CDFingers

Oh, that is fun, isn't it? I felt that way when delving into the 7.62x54R the first time, and the .30-06 some years later. Good times.

The .45 Colt can be loaded very warmly, indeed, if desired. My hot load--for Ruger and T/C guns only--is 22.0gr of 2400 under a 255gr LRNFP. It clocks at just above 1,300 fps out of a 7.5" revolver barrel. I haven't yet chronied that load out of a rifle, but I estimate it probably will be hitting about 1,700 fps or so. Another recently developed load is 27.0gr of that new Accurate 11FS powder. Don't know the velocity yet, but it's said to be very much like H110/W296, so I'm guessing another 50 ft/sec out of the revolver, maybe 100 ft/sec out of the rifle. These loads also work well out of my Winchester 92 action and a Henry Big Boy, but as always, Your Mileage May Vary.

Trigger warning: loading outside standard data

Finally did my first reloading of the year in the last couple of days. Made 50 .44 Magnum Lite with recently acquired Zero 240 gr JSPs over 11.4 grains of Longshot, 11 (all the remaining .44 brass I had prepped) with 200 grain Nosler JHPs atop 28 grains of H110, for when it absolutely, positively has to be extremely loud, and then 50 .38 +P+ plinkers with Zero 158 grain JHPs on 6.3 grains of Longshot. (Don't do this if you own any non-magnum 38s. I have no .38 Special guns and have an excess of .38 brass and Longshot powder, which gives more consistent results if used at 25 KPSI than 20 KPSI, based on calculations someone did for me on Quickload, so I'm coloring outside the lines for my convenience.)

Next up will be a half-box of .357 with the Zero 158 and a max charge of H110, and maybe a few more with 125s and heavy (but published) charges of Lil'Gun in case I find time to take my .357 lever gun out this summer.

Also prepping some more .38 and .44 brass to fill with more reasonable and unreasonable loads to be designated later, but almost certainly to include some 200 grain wadcutters in the .44 and some .215 grain SWCs in the .38, because OF COURSE we load heavier bullets in our .38s than in our .44s.
.

Here's a bit of Longshot and .38+P info. Looks like you're having more fun than I am at the moment.

https://www.handloadermagazine.com/bullets-brass-26

Finally cleared the 30 rounds of .357 with the Zero 158 and 16.5 grains of H110 off the loading block, where they'd been sitting since the evening of my last post, and packed them away. Haven't been to the range since then, despite one of the professors at work talking a lot about it. (We actually had a plan to go one day in July and found that the range was closed for maintenance that week!)

My kid wants me to introduce a couple of her friends to shooting so some milder ammo is needed for their first step up from .22LRs. Last night I loaded up 100 .38 +P in brass I'd primed and set aside a few months ago. HP-38 would have been the ideal powder (of those I have), but I used 5.5 grains of Longshot under the 158 grain Zeros because that should be closer to a load with Universal that shot to point of aim in my Rossi 92 with the rear sight bottomed out. At least that's my hope... Longshot seems to like more pressure than .38 +P allows, but maybe in a 24" barrel it will all have time to decompose. In the revolvers it will probably be dirty and maybe a little inconsistent.

For a while now, I've been sitting on a test project. Comparing the .45 ACP and Colt rounds for efficiency. I have loaded the same bullet, Berry's 230 HP, primer, Federal 150, powder, 800X (need to do something with it), and same brand case, *-. Loaded on a couple of Green Machines' but they came out all looking pretty good. Shooting from same gun, a Ruger ,45 convertible 5 1/2" barrel. Starting with 10 rounds apiece, was going to clock them with my old Oehler 35, then I went out and bought a new chrono and am still playing with it so I can know what the heck I'm doing.

papajim2jordan wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 5:45 pm For a while now, I've been sitting on a test project. Comparing the .45 ACP and Colt rounds for efficiency. I have loaded the same bullet, Berry's 230 HP, primer, Federal 150, powder, 800X (need to do something with it), and same brand case, *-. Loaded on a couple of Green Machines' but they came out all looking pretty good. Shooting from same gun, a Ruger ,45 convertible 5 1/2" barrel. Starting with 10 rounds apiece, was going to clock them with my old Oehler 35, then I went out and bought a new chrono and am still playing with it so I can know what the heck I'm doing.

Cool idea. What is the definition of "efficiency?"

Based on the issue of powder-forward vs powder-back about which I posted today regarding Longshot (and have done one or two tests of myself in the past, with HP-38 IIRC) it would also be interesting to compare the two cases by that metric. Of course, you'll need at least twice as many loaded rounds to get good statistics. It seems almost certain that the .45 Colt will be way worse than the .45 ACP in that analysis, but how much worse would be interesting. That would also open a real can of worms, in that it would be exciting to test that difference with multiple powders.

How much 800X do you have? Some people seem to love the stuff and lament its demise. You might be able to find someone wanting to trade you some other powder if you don't care for it.

Buck13 wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2024 2:23 pm

papajim2jordan wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2024 5:45 pm For a while now, I've been sitting on a test project. Comparing the .45 ACP and Colt rounds for efficiency. I have loaded the same bullet, Berry's 230 HP, primer, Federal 150, powder, 800X (need to do something with it), and same brand case, *-. Loaded on a couple of Green Machines' but they came out all looking pretty good. Shooting from same gun, a Ruger ,45 convertible 5 1/2" barrel. Starting with 10 rounds apiece, was going to clock them with my old Oehler 35, then I went out and bought a new chrono and am still playing with it so I can know what the heck I'm doing.

Cool idea. What is the definition of "efficiency?"

Based on the issue of powder-forward vs powder-back about which I posted today regarding Longshot (and have done one or two tests of myself in the past, with HP-38 IIRC) it would also be interesting to compare the two cases by that metric. Of course, you'll need at least twice as many loaded rounds to get good statistics. It seems almost certain that the .45 Colt will be way worse than the .45 ACP in that analysis, but how much worse would be interesting. That would also open a real can of worms, in that it would be exciting to test that difference with multiple powders.

How much 800X do you have? Some people seem to love the stuff and lament its demise. You might be able to find someone wanting to trade you some other powder if you don't care for it.

I guess velocity per grain, ultimately. Clean would be nice also. The ACP brass is cheaper also, but I have so much brass, that doesn't really matter to me. Same with powder, primers, bullets. Probably about 3 1/2 # of 800, and an embarrassing amount of other powders. I continue to draw down on my gun inventory, unsure how far I'll go. That leaves more and more stuff behind. At least there are local reloaders and a home for this stuff.

"Efficient", according to Hornady, is the most power you can get out of the muzzle with the least amount of powder. The .325 WSM rifle cartridge is noted to be especially efficient by this standard.

The .45 ACP will be more efficient, if you're using SAAMI-spec loads, due to both the space in the case vs. the .45 Colt and the higher pressure of .45 ACP loadings vs. the .45 Colt's. That changes, though, when you start using something like Trail Boss, which does fill up the case, though you're still dealing with lower pressures in the .45LC. It changes quite significantly, though, when you start using the higher-power loadings of .45 Colt, as I do. My charge of 2400 doesn't quite fill up the case, but it ain't far from it. Same for when I use H110/W296, or its flash-suppressant version, Accurate 11FS. Pressures are in the 30,000 to 32,000 PSI range, extrapolating data from Lyman's and Lee's books, which do list pressures.

In preparation for taking some first-timers to the range and wanting to lure them to the .43 Redhawk with some gentle gateway-drug ammo, I primed 35 Starline .44 Mag cases with CCI MLPPs, measured in 5.1 grains of HP-38, checked carefully with a flashlight that none of them had more or less powder than the others, and capped them with some 200 grain Saeco wadcutters and a modest crimp.

And for a step up from the gateway Redhawk fix, last night I did another 35 with 8.5 grains of HP-38 and Zero 240 grain JSPs. These fall on the .44 Magnum load data table, but barely. The starting load is 8 grains with a claim of something like 1020 FPS, which is probably from a test barrel, not a revolver with the cylinder gap bleeding off pressure. These should be comfortably subsonic, I think.

The plan is to hit the range with the moppets today at noon, so hopefully they'll all burn a few of these.

You are doing the FSM's work by getting them into marksmanship. Your light ".43" (LOL) load is similar in concept to my "powder puff" .38 Special load. It's a nice, lightweight "gateway load" to getting people to enjoy the sport of marksmanship. Let 'em try something that doesn't kick like an angry mule.

I did this with an 8-year-old boy, with his mother's consent (of course). Momma was proudly watching through the ballistic glass as her young son was firing my Ruger Security-Six and hitting the 8.5x11 paper at 4 yards. First time he'd ever shot a gun, and it was with this powder-puff load. This was his reward for having done well following the Four Rules of Firearms Safety with the Ruger 10/22 earlier. I'd told him that if he did well, I might let him try out the "police gun" (my Security-Six happens to be an old police trade-in from the 1980's). He thought I meant, "if he does well by hitting the target". Nope. I actually meant, "if he did well following the safety rules", which he did. Oh, and he also did pretty decently hitting the target, too. :-)

And thus, after the 10/22, following my instructions, he carefully took up the "police gun" and had a great time with it. Like I said, his mother was quite proud.

That was in 2011. He still has that target today.

And that, folks, is the power of reloads!

CowboyT wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 7:13 pm You are doing the FSM's work by getting them into marksmanship. Your light ".43" (LOL) load is similar in concept to my "powder puff" .38 Special load. It's a nice, lightweight "gateway load" to getting people to enjoy the sport of marksmanship. Let 'em try something that doesn't kick like an angry mule.
<snip>
And that, folks, is the power of reloads!

Yep, a good time was had by all. The newbies shot up most of the powder puffs and then the heavier HP-38 stuff in the .43, and the young man (who's bigger than I am) graduated to "real" magnums with 11.4 grains of Longshot behind 240s. Not quite the same as max loads of H110, but definitely stepping out above the speed of sound. (edit: I found my notes on 11.8 grains of Longshot under either Nosler JHP or Xtreme plated RN 240s. Noslers averaged about 1270 FPS and Xtremes averaged about 1230 FPS with an extreme spread of 70 for both. So a few tenths less and a different bullet, I figure around 1200 FPS is pretty much certain. (edited again to correct my mis-remembering of the load in this batch))

I'll put more deets in a post to the "range report" subforum in a little while.

Ramen

Knocked out another 50 rounds of 9mm yesterday.......Berry 124 gr. hybrid hollow points over 5 gr. of Unique with CCI small pistol primers and once fired brass. I'd have done 100 rounds but I'm out of bullets. Ordered 1K of the 124 gr. 9mm and 1K of the 100 gr. .380 bullets of the same configuration. I'm trying to build and shoot 100 rounds a week now.

So far, so good while keeping a 600 round stock of all pertinent calibers except 6.5 Creedmoor which is for the precision rifle.

VooDoo

CowboyT wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 7:13 pm And that, folks, is the power of reloads!

Pfft. 32 is all that and a bag of chips.

wooglin wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2024 12:50 pm

CowboyT wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 7:13 pm And that, folks, is the power of reloads!

Pfft. 32 is all that and a bag of chips.

One problem with .32s is they are not so common.

Oh, wait. I have a .32-20 Colt PPS made in 1916. It's why I got into reloading in the first place. It's a pretty gun, but the sights are tiny, the grips are tiny, and the trigger pull is about 27 pounds, and that's in single-action! It's not a very easy gun to shoot well for all those reasons (in increasing order of difficulty), and I haven't taken it to the range in almost a decade. In fact, I'm not even sure where it is in my safe. I hope I haven't lost it!*

I shot a friend's .32 ACP in Colorado quite a while ago. I think it was an oldish Walther. Also pretty challenging to shoot well, but more due to the short sight radius. No better or worse than my Bersa 380CC, roughly.

Former forum regular Michael "Tinker" Pierce has or had a .32 Long revolver that was pretty appealing. (He has a YouTube channel now, too, but I didn't search it for .32s)
https://tinkertalksguns.com/2020/08/17/ ... 2-sw-long/

*edit: After a moment of reflection, it bubbles out of my murk of memory that I stuck it in the hard plastic case my GP100 came in, so probably that's down in the bottom corner next to the rifle buttstocks. The case containing my .45 1911 is likely sitting right on top of it and I never even notice.

wooglin wrote: Fri Aug 30, 2024 12:50 pm

CowboyT wrote: Sun Aug 25, 2024 7:13 pm And that, folks, is the power of reloads!

Pfft. 32 is all that and a bag of chips.

The endearing quality of the .43 is that it's one gun that does it all: With light-for-caliber bullets, you can download it to be non-threatening to anyone who's hands are strong enough to lift it (admittedly not the lowest of hurdles, given the egregious weight of the Redhawk), and when you want or "need" to have massive muzzle blast, a dead moose, and a sprained thumb, it can do that, too. edit: OK, so concealed carry is not its strong suit. *Almost* does it all.

My biggest objection is that the trigger of the original Redhawk is pretty mediocre. Assuming they're the same as the GP100's, the Super Redhawk should be better in that regard. My GP100's trigger isn't as sweet as on old K-frame's, but it's fine. The SRH isn't the most beautiful gun, but you can't have everything...