Blowby using Titegroup on 45 colt

[Pappy Myles]

Hay Partners,

I'm using lymans 250 grain RNFP, lyman alox lube and 5.2 grains titegroup, WLP primers and RP cases in an OM vaquero.  I'm getting a lot of blow by on my cases and a lot of junk left in the cylenders, frame. Nice round, low recoil and accurate. 
But it is leaving more of a mess than I', happy with using smokeless.........

Any suggestions?

[Delmonico]

Hay Partners,

I'm using lymans 250 grain RNFP, lyman alox lube and 5.2 grains titegroup, WLP primers and RP cases in an OM vaquero.  I'm getting a lot of blow by on my cases and a lot of junk left in the cylenders, frame. Nice round, low recoil and accurate. 
But it is leaving more of a mess than I', happy with using smokeless.........

Any suggestions?

Yep, the pressure of the load ain't enough to seal the case, I'm guessing the load is right at the minumum charge with out looking it up, just keep putting in more powder, (with in the guidlelines of the makers data) till it seals.

[Ten Wolves Fiveshooter]

                                                  Good answer Del, right on, 

                                             

                                                               tEN wOLVES 

[Sky Soldier]

Yep.

[Abilene]

Hodgdon lists a range of 5.0 to 6.2 gr of Titegroup for the cast 250gr bullet, so like the others have said, you could stand to up the charge a bit.

[Will Blastem]

I don't think ya kin have it both ways...low recoil and no blowby with our CAS loads with them straight wall cases. 45 Colt, IMHO, is worse than 38/357. Learn ta live with it and enjoy the mild recoil...or ya might try those Cowboy 45 cases that Adirondack Jack sells...but since I haven't any personal experience with it I don't know how it does with blowby. I do have 500 cases that I'm getting ready to load in my next session sos I kin judge fer mysef, though .

[Adirondack Jack]

heavy bullets and the short cases can give ya VERY clean burns at modest levels.

Lighter bullets in the short cases at LOW velocity levels would require very fast powders to burn fairly clean.

ANY round CAN BE clean burning.  The larger the case capacity (in a given caliber), the faster ya have to run em to get enough pressure to make em burn clean.  Shorter case, rduced case capacity, gives ya enough pressure at a lower velocity level.  The Cowboy .45 Special is 'as good as it gets" in terms of modest loads in .45.  Now my personal C45S main match loads are still somewhat dirty, but I'm running 160s in the rifles and 120s in the pistols, neither of em very fast   My 200s run nice and clean at around 650 fps using 700X (a fast powder)

[Driftwood Johnson]

I don't think ya kin have it both ways...low recoil and no blowby with our CAS loads with them straight wall cases.

Howdy

That's the gospel truth. You can't have low pressure loads and expect the cases to seal the chambers. Particularly not with a heavy walled case like 45 Colt. With a thin walled case like 44-40 you can get away with it, but if you don't build up enough pressure to expand the case enough to seal the chamber, you will get blowby. Low recoil usually also means low pressure.

If you really like the load, just live with the sooty cases. You ought to try Black Powder some time if you think you are getting a lot of soot.

The other thing is that with a revolver, no matter how well you seal the chambers, some soot and gas will escape through the barrel/cylinder gap anyway, blowing soot all over the front of the cylinder and the nearby parts of the frame. There is no way this can be avoided no matter how stiff your loads are. A rifle is a different story, it is basically just a pipe, if you seal the chamber everything will go out the muzzle or remain in the bore. Not so with a revolver.

[Pappy Myles]

OK  Bumped it up to 5.8 tite group.  I use a little dandy powder thrower, #7 throws 5.2   #8  throws 5.8.   Lots better, still a little dirty, but with only about 1/4 of the blow by.    The recoil is only slightly heavier.    I can certainly live with it.