45 cast bullets in remington 44

[cmdrted]

Here's a strange question. I have an Umberti 1858 and a R&D cylinder in 45 colt. Anyways I was loading some cowboy loads, mild lead tonight and was wondering if I cast the same bullet 255 or even a lighter one in pure lead. These usually come out @ 454 unsized. Could these be loaded directly into the black powder cylinder, using black powder of course, kinda like a conical except a heavier solid. I could use a wonder wad. This seems to be linda like a black powder cartridge except no cartridge. Any thoughts on this.

 

[R.M.]

On some guns, the loading port is too short for a conical to be inserted. Also, the conical takes up a lot more room, so you have less room for powder.
I have ground out the port to make room on one gun, but the results were poor.

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

The original conicals varied in weight but 219 grains is about as heavy as I've ever heard mentioned. They take up much more space than the ball loads and have a correspondingly lower velocity. Most find that range and accuracy are negatively impacted too. You might get that heavy bullet into the chamber by loading the cylinder while it's off the gun. But the whole thing is probably not worth the effort in the end.

 

[Long Johns Wolf]

I have experimented with conicals in Colt Army clones.Obtained best results with hollow base conicals of ca. 200 gr. Accuracy was better with round balls.
Long Johns Wolf

 

[Blizzard of '93]

it's do-able but keeping the slug straight when loading is hard, the Lee mold slugs have a reduced diameter 'heel' on the base to aid losing into the chamber. you might give those a try - I use them w/good results.

 

[cmdrted]

thanks guys. I was just rolling the idea over. I'm very happy with the roundball results, and today I'm going to try the R&D conversion. As its that other powder I'll only post with your permission. may explore loading up the cases with the holy black later!

 

[Raider2000]

Like what Blizzard mentioned, if the conical bullet has a heeled base "slightly smaller than chamber size like the Lee Conicals" it'll load straight & by my experience with my 220gr. Lee Cast Conicals you should be able to load them with 25 - 28 grains of FFFG Goex & have a healthy accurate load.

Uberti's loading window is radiused better than Pietta's for conicals but Pietta's can be worked to accomodate this.

 

[biermeister]

:thumbsup: I cast and use 150 grain EPP bullets from Dick Dastardly on the CAS city website, www.biglube.com The EPP bullets are shorter than the heavier bullets, load with ease and shoot to POA out of my Pietta and Euroarms 1858 Remingtons. I also load them in .45 Cowboy Special cases with American Pioneer Powder or Pinnacle in my 1872 Open Tops and my Remingtons with the R&D cylinder the combination they are tack drivers and they shoot to POA out of those revolvers too. Hope this helps.