Vintage .45 Colt black powder ctg's. in a 24" barrel

[w44wcf]

As we know, the .45 Colt was an original black powder cartridge. I was curious to see what velocity some early original .45 Colt b.p. cartridges would have achieved in a rifle, had one been available way back when. After some searching, I located some early, headstamped U.M.C. .45 Colt black powder cartridges which cost $3.00 each (!).

The reason I sought U.M.C. (Union Metallic Cartridge Company) cartridges was, that since back in the late 1800's -early 1900's Marlin worked closely with U.M.C. on ammunition development and my test rifle was a Marlin Cowboy Ltd. (24" barrel).

Previous to this, I had tested full 40 gr. charges of Goex FFG and Goex Cowboy and achieved average velocities of 1,131 and 1,155 f.p.s. respectively. As I recall, Mike Venturino reported similar velocities in a past issue of Black Powder Cartridge News.

To continue:
I discovered that the primers were dead, so I needed to replace the mercuric primers with fresh Remington 2 1/2's. To accomplish that, I pulled the bullets with an inertia puller, and removed the powder which, as it turned out, ran pretty close to 40 grs. by weight and was polished in appearance. I then removed the primers, and annealed the cases to keep them from splitting. After seating the new primers, I reloaded the powder and the bullets, after replacing the dried up lube with SPG.

At the range, I chambered the vintage b.p. UMC .45 Colt cartridges in my .45 Colt Marlin Cowboy Ltd. and fired them over my chronograph. The average velocity at 15 feet was 1,241 f.p.s. and the bullets cut a very nice 1" cluster at 25 yards. 

Interestingly, U.M.C. had used a "Sporting" burn rate  b.p. in these cartridges so I then tried 40 grs. of SWISS FFG ignited by 2 1/2 Remington primers under a Lyman 454190 bullet to see if it would come close to that velocity. That combination averaged 1,220 f.p.s. @ 15 feet from the muzzle.

It was neat  to step back in time and shoot those vintage cartridges in a modern rifle.........just as our forefathers would have done, if the Marlin .45 Colt Cowboy or a similar rifle had been in exsistance back then........................

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[Rusty Spurless]

Very interesting!

Sounds like a good time.

[Hoof Hearted]

Very COOL project
How about the same for some other calibers as well?

It is interesting that Swiss was so close in velocity (my favorite). Do you plan on trying the same thing with fffg?

Thanks for the report!

[Paladin UK]

Fer w44wcf ...........

Mayhaps ya should change yer moniker ta TIME LORD!!

Musta been a Great feelin pard!!

Paladin (What also Lurvs 45LC  ) UK

[w44wcf]

Hoof Hearted,
I was very interested in what the .45 Colt b.p. would have done in a rifle barrel with original ammunition since there were no ballistics (because there were no .45 Colt rifles back then) as there were for the .44-40 and other rifle cartridges.

The factory loaded b.p. .44-40 was reported to push a 200 gr. bullet to 1,300 f.p.s.  Several years ago I did acquire some vintage .44-40 cartridges for the purpose of chronographing them. I also had to replace the primers. They averaged 1,286 f.p.s. @ 15 feet from the muzzle. Pretty darn close I'd say.   40 grs. of Swiss FFG produced an average of 1,330 f.p.s.

Regarding Swiss FFFG in the .45 Colt, 36 grs. will duplicate the ballistics of 40 grs. of Swiss FFG. I would expect the velocity to exceed 1,300 f.p.s. with 40 grs. of Swiss FFFG in the .45 Colt with a 250 gr. bullet.  Since I am more of a traditionalist, I'll be sticking with FFG in the .44-40 and .45 Colt.

Paladin UK,
"Time Lord" ....interesting moniker! Yes it was a great feeling

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