Making blanks for a .45LC Carbine

[Capt. Texas Elliot]

My wonderful wife has bought me a .45LC Carbine for my Birthday. BEST WIFE EVER 

As I will beusing this for re-enactment as well as at the range I would like to make blanks for it.

I am sure I read and article/thread here about using 44.40 brass and using a blank crimping die to give the brass a 'nose' to feed through the action??? Am I correct in thinking this will work in a .45LC action?

Many thanks.

[Two Flints]

Capt,

Try a search on SSS - Spencer Blanks 45LC   and you will get a number of threads on this topic

Two Flints

[major]

Elliot
Except for using the 5 in 1 blanks there isn't any cheap way to make blanks for a Spencer in 45LC.  There is a way to use a Spencer in 44-40 to make cheep blanks using cut down 410 hulls but they will not work in the 45.  You might want to read this article about the subject. http://www.9thnycavalry.webeditor.com/publications/spencer_article.html
Terry

[Capt. Texas Elliot]

Thanks Gentlemen, I think I have the blank situation sorted. I am having a machinist friend turn me up a solid brass copy of a loaded .45 round. This brass 'blank' will have a primer pocket and a large hole drilled down the front centre of it.

Primer in, powder and floral foam wad down the large hole and we are ready to go.

Being as it will have a rounded nose it should feed and chamber.

Of course I will have to keep an eye on where they go when I eject them so I can pick them up and reuse.

If they work he will also make my a custom decapper for my press so I can punch the primers out.

[Crossdrawnj]

Capt. Elliot:

I am a civil war reenactor. When I started in the hobby, our safety officer was using an oringinal Spencer carbine. He was also using brass machined cartirdges. After awhile, he found they were somewhat heavy when carrying his carbine fully loaded. He decided to go to aircraft aluminum. I have using the same blanks, machined to resemble a Spencer cartridge, for 9+ years now in my original Spencer carbine. A 209 shotgun primer, black powder some masking tape and bang! You might want to consider the aluminum alternative.

I am considering retiring my Spencer carbine and getting a reproduction. I'll go the same route with the aluminum blanks. They just need to be machined a bit shorter to chamber in the repro.

Crossdraw
SASS 6929

[gevens]

I've got a .45 Schofield repro and use .454 Casuall brass that I run through a star crimper.  The result is a blank cartridge that is the right length to feed reliably through the action and is rounded over to also allow reliable feeding.  Not sure how this would work in your .45 Long Colt version, but you might try it.

Reb

[major]

Reb
I did some checking and I found that the brass you are using costs about 50 cents each.  With a primer at 4 cents and powder at 6 cents, each bang cost about 60 cents.  If you shot 100 for each battle and there are usually 2 battles per weekend then you are spending $120 for just ammo for the weekend.
If you had a Spencer in 44-40 you could use cut down .410 shotgun shells and be spending less than 20 cents per bang.  Quite a savings.

[gevens]

Major,

Yea it is expensive, but not as bad as you show.  It cost me $22 for 50 rounds the last time I bought any .454 Casull brass.  Of course, for most of my Civil War re-enacting I don't use my Spencer--I'm an officer commanding an infantry company and have been a major for two different infantry battalions, so it is usually a sword and revolver for me.  I primarily use the Spencer during "militia" portrayls.  I used it during the big 2006 Morgan's Raid event in eastern Ohio, were I fired about 50 rounds all weekend when we were ambushing Morgan's cavalry as they rode across Meigs County.  Back then the brass was a little cheaper, about half of what it is today, and I was able to stretch out the 200 or so rounds that I put together back then to last for 3 years.  However, I had to replenish my stockpile recently and had to acquire another 100 rounds of brass.  Fortunately those should last for another year or two at the rate I expend rounds--mainly during cowboy scenarios where a single magazine full is all that the scenario requires before everyone is "shot down".

I would have gotten a .44-40 Spencer had they been available when I bought mine.  Unfortunately the only versions then available were the .44 Russian and .45 Schofield ones and they were just thinking about coming out with the .56-50 version.  Since I already had one of S&W's reproduction Schofield revolvers--they made a special run of them in the S&W Performance Center in 2000--the .45 Schofield version made sense at the time.  The .44-40 and .45 Long Colt versions weren't even on the drawing boards then.  I suspect demand from cowboy shooters probably made those calibers a reality--and the challenge getting blanks for them.  (I do understand that the guys that got the .44 Russian version were able to make up blanks by using .44 Magnum brass.)  It is probably impractical to "upgrade" to one of these newer calibers because I would take a beating on what I could sell mine for vs. what it would cost to get one in .44-40 or .45 LC.

I happened to think some more about the challenge of making .45 Long Colt blanks.  You might be able to use .460 S&W brass--but that is probably even more expensive than the .454 Casull brass is.  The brass is a little longer so when crimped it might be closer to the LOA for an .45 LC round.

Reb

[12 th Illinois]

I use the 45 Schofield for reenacting and am currently using the 5 in 1 blank. The brass is 32 cents a piece. I've been thinking about trying the Casull but wasn't sure if they were long enough. You can get them from Midway USA for 26 cents each.

[12 th Illinois]

Mistake in last comment. I get my brass at Starline Brass, not Midway. Sorry!