45 Colt BP question

[Cliff Fendley]

Cliff, in my case it boils down to having just picked up a pair of Uberti El Patrons in .45 Colt. I have been running Schofields and they are not BP friendly. So it is really just a matter loading using a different press system for the BP. Having heard many folks complain about blowby, I figured I would ask here from folks that shoot it. Strangely enough having shifted last summer to wet tumbling, using Armorall Carwash and Wax, I don't have the need to give the cases a spritz of One Shot anymore either. As far as 44-40, I love the cartridge but am not running it right now, but now you have me thinking about using the BP in that instead of bothering with the 45!

I know it's a matter of being careful and not mix up ammo for the rifles and pistol but it seems worth it to me. Another thing I've found when shooting black powder is I use 45 schofield brass if I am shooting 45 colt pistols. This provides a reduced load and it's very noticeable between the 44-40 and the short 45 schofield to help prevent a mishap at the loading table.

Very interesting on the carwash wax. Do you not lube 44-40 cases either using the armorall? or is that just for straight wall cases.

[Bunk Stagnerg]

well Cliff I sort of put the cart  before the horse and had the rifle first. And like the man said a bag of brass was less costly that having the '66 re-barreled to .44-40 or adding another rifle to the collection..
A lot less expensive and gave me one caliber for rifle and handgun.
Pretty simple ain't it? More buckskins to buy other shiny  things.
And that is what I did.
Yr' Obt' Svt'
Bunk

[greenjoytj]

I did not want the wrong (44-40) headstamp on my brass that will be used in my 45 Colt chambered Win/Miroku M73 or Ruger NV's.  So  I choose to learn to anneal my 45 Colt brass.

Annealing proved to me that it works, blow back was stoped.  No blackening down the case sides.
Cases do still feel slightly lube slimed the ejection is an easy push of the revolvers ejector rod.

First don't use Starline brass, it excellent bass for smokeless powder use which I've segregated to smokeless use only.
It is very strong tough brass, still I anneal it for use with smokeless.

I did use Starline brass with 35 gr. charges of GOEX then moved on to Old Eynsford brand  2fg but even at this charge level Starline brass really allowed a lot of blow back.  So I anneal it and blow back of black soot stopped.  I tried 3fg but the rifle liked 2fg better so I just buy 2fg for simplicity of inventory.

Now I have been using Hornady and Winchester brass but both brand must still be annealed.
My technique for annealing 45 Colt brass is to use:

Cordless drill - for its speed control and in case it is accidentally dropped (into water bucket).
13mm deep socket - to hold the 45 Colt case.
An adapter to convert the square drive socket to quarter inch hex to fit the drill chuck.
5 gallon plastic pail.  A white or orange colour work best.
Propane torch.
Work bench with a vice mounted on the end of the bench.
A room to work in that can have the lights turned off.
Anneal in a dark room.

Half fill the bucket with cold tap water.
Cold water removes the heat from the brass quickly before it migrates too far down the case.

Clamp the propane torch in the vice,  gently don't crush the cylinder just to hold it securely so it doesn't fall out while lit and set your house ablaze.

Assemble the socket to adapter to drill.

Light the torch reduce the torch flame to a medium small flame.

Turned off the room lights, work in light provided only by the torch flame.
This is so you can see the subtle colour changes while the brass is heating.

Put a case into the socket, about 15mm of case neck sticks out unshielded in my deep socket.

Spin up the drill and put the case neck into the torch flame.

I like to heat the case neck until it glows a dull red colour.
This only takes a few seconds I go by colour rather than a exact second of time.

I have heated the necks a much hotter bright red till it spat zinc sparks.  That much heat is not required.
It didn't hurt the case at all, other than the case neck looks a bit pink later when the water is dried off.

These over heated cases maybe the the one that sealed off blow back the best.
The point is, how much heat is not that critical as long as you try to take all the case to the same heat level so the metal is softened to about the same degree.

Tumbling the pink necks cases in polishing media restored the golden brass look.

As soon as the case glow a dull red colour tip the case down so it slides out of the socket into the cold water bucket to sizzle and cool.

Repeat for each case you want to anneal.

Don't over heat the socket I dip it in the bucket to keep it coolish and dry it.

Dry the cases on a towel.

Log how many firing and re-sizing cycles it takes to work harden again and develop your first split case mouth.  I'm still case cycle counting.
Anneal the batch of cases again to save them from further splitting.
In the future anneal the batch of cases again 3 firing re-sizing cycles sooner to prevent any further case mouth splits.

Annealing works wonders.