Hot round ball load???

[powderhombre]

Well it shouldn't be. Being impatient to shoot my new Pietta 1873 saa while waiting on some cast bullets to arrive I thought I would have a little BP fun and load some round ball loads for plinking. I had all the components on hand so here is what I loaded. New sized Remington .45 colt case. CCI large pistol primer, 35 grains by volume fffg Goex BP, a white poster board wad.023 compressed about 1/8" a SPG grease cookie about 1/8" thick. .45cal, .454 swaged Hornady round lead ball seated to overall cartridge length 1.505. Did not seem to have any air space inside. roll crimp. I fired one shot. Wow! holy cow Batman! Now I never fired a .45 Colt but that gun recoiled like a .44 Magnum! The case was stuck in the chamber and had to give the extractor a sharp action to get the case out. The primer appeared to look quite flat. I have been a little afraid to shoot the remaining 9 loads. I made a different batch using 28 grains and a little pufflon filler and they are great shooting. Any thoughts on the 35 grain load?

[wildman1]

Try it with a 250g bullet, then you will have a little noticeable recoil. Probably the most noticeable part of that shot was the 50+% of the powder that burned AFTER it exited the barrel. That 454 rb weighed less than half what a 45 colt bullet weighs. I regularly shot 457 rbs for plainsman out of a trapdoor with 45-50gs of 2f. It moves.
You did say you used 3f, that is usually loaded in smaller calibers and can be quite sharp in a full load 45.
wM1

[greyhawk]

I had a SAA replica in 44/40 - full case blackpowder loads in that under a 225 grain boolit got a lot of peoples attention at the local club - the 45 colt is just a bit more better again --------it was most of a century before anyone came up with a more effective handgun/load combo than the old colt.............

[Drydock]

Nothing of your load sounded unreasonable.  I will say that a full case load of BP can flatten a primer, as the primer is firing into a solid mass as opposed to the air space of a smokeless load.  The chamber might have had some fouling in it, though I suspect the RB might not have generated enough back pressure to seal the case, allowing fouling to dirty the chamber, making extraction more difficult.

I also suspect part of the reason for the .44 magnum impression is the impressive fireball and blast from that load, with a portion of the powder finishing it's burn at the muzzle.

Load up the rest and enjoy them.

[powderhombre]

Thanks guys. I didn't think it was unreasonable either. The recoil caught me by surprise I guess. You know that Pietta is 1.7 oz. lighter than a Uberti Cattleman I have. I imagine that contributes some to the felt recoil.

[Bunk Stagnerg]

one time i loaded some plinking loads using about 20 grains of FFFg, a lube wad, and filler with the circumference of the ball crimped which is about the same load as used in my percussion 1860 Army.
It was a satisfactory load but labor intensive and I went to a 160 grain bullet as I recall.
If I am going to go to that much trouble the cap gun gets the nod.
Bunk

[Dick Dastardly]

Here's a 45 Cal. bullet that will lessen your recoil and give you great accuracy.  The 45Slim Big Lube® bullet weighs in at 170 grains and carries all the lube your hand guns or long guns could want.

http://www.biglube.com/BulletMolds.aspx?ItemID=86ed5460-f67c-42de-b95f-01a2d16ba04f

Hold center!

DD-MDA