45 Long Colt Brass

[Lucky Eddie]

What is good brass either new or once fored? What brands should I avoid? I am concerned about case expansion or lack of and blow by. Also whtr brands seem to last longest reloading?

[Vernon/IN]

Howdy Lucky.

Welcome aboard.  You will find this online community to be full of friendly and helpful citizens.

For 45 Colt, I use Winchester brass.  Case life is not too much of an issue for me, I only load black powder (the real thing, no subs for me).

You would probably get more of a response in either the "Shooter's Meeting" or "The Darksider's Den" sections.

Vernon

[Wills Point Pete]

 The Remington nickel plated splits like crazy. The Remington unplated lasts pretty well.The Star Line lasts forever. The thinnest brass I know of is the Top Brass, although it splits fairly soon, compared to the Star Line. The Winchester is a kind of middle of the road.

Any of the .45 Colt can be tough on blowback if your chamber is way oversized. Mine is not so as long as I go above 30 grains of The Holy Black and a 230 or heavier bullet I get little blowback.

Watch out for Nosler or Federal brass in .45 Colt. That stuff is built for the Magnum level smokeless loads and can smoke up your action. That is what folks like Ross Seyfreid load those five shot revolvers with so they can shoot buffalo on the far side of yonder bank vault.

I use Starline, mostly. I like the nickel plated because my '92 clone tends to throw my brass pretty far. This can be a pain when the weeds and grass turn brownish-golden and I'm shooting unplated brass. Still, I have plenty of unplated for the revolvers and for when the grass is nice and green. The Starline doesn't seem to notice if I'm loading light to heavy Black, light smokeless or the Ruger only loads with H110 or Lil Gun. Those last can exceed that old Remington 300 grain .45-70 load in my '92 clone.

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy Lucky Eddie.

Welcome to the campfire.  Pull up a stump and sit a spell.  Glad to see you here.

It might help a mite if you would say what guns yer goin' to run 'em 45 Colt cartridges thru.  They all are enough different to be part of the equation.

If I had a 45 Colt rifle and had blowback questions I'd see if it might better run Cowboy 45 Special brass.  Nothin' wrong with 45 Colt brass but ya got to load it up full with Holy Black else it won't puff up and seal the chamber and blowback happens.  The shorter C45 Spl brass is easier to get black powder pressures up to par with and it seems to seal up the chamber some quicker.

Were I to shoot a 45 Colt chambered rifle I'd soon do a chamber casting and get a sizing die made for that chamber.  For reasons I can't explain, manufacturers seem to run all over the place for 45 Colt chambers.  Not so with the much newer 44 Magnums.

FWIW, I  shoot both 45 Colt and Cowboy 45 Special out of my ROAs via Kirst Konverter cylinders and don't have a whit of a problem with either of 'em.

DD-DLoS

[Kinda Sudden]

#1 Top Brass
#2 Starline Brass

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy

I usually buy Winchester when I buy new 45 Colt brass. Starline is very good too. Other than those two brands I have a big bucket of 'assorted brands' of 45 Colt brass and just about every headspace known to man is in that bucket. I'm not aware of any that I have been particularly unhappy with. Except nickel plated brass. I avoid all nickel plated brass because some of it splits easily as already has been mentioned. I only shoot 45 Colt in my revolvers, not my rifles, so sealing the chamber perfectly is not as important to me as it would be with a rifle. In a revolver fouling escapes from the barrel/cylinder gap and gets everywhere no matter how well the case seals in the chamber.

[sundance44`s]

It is really nice if all your brass is of the same make ..a mixed bag is hard to reload on my Lee Turret ...slows me down . I never throw out other brands , I just keep them seprated .

[Cuts Crooked]

Well the pards have pretty much told it as it is, it's all acceptable brass!!!!

But I have a comment to add...iffin yer shootin it in a lever gun you'd be well served to go with Winchester for all yer 45 needs.
The other brands are fine, even great, but Winchester brass is thinner and obturates better. Which is what you need in a rifle chamber. It will help keep blow baclk outta the action better than any of the others. As noted, not a problem with yer wheel gunz, but it can be in a lever gun!