EMAIL    

WARNING!

Data ONLY for revolvers which have been specifically and individually nitro proofed at a proof house.

This information is as supplied to me or discovered by me. Neither I nor those who informed me offer any guarantee or warranty that these loads are safe or suitable for use in YOUR gun. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE for safe loading practices and checking that the load is safe. You assume ALL risk, responsibility and liability whatsoever for any and all injuries (including death) losses or damages to persons or properties arising from the use of this information. NEVER use maximum load data as a starting point. ALWAYS determine a lower point (at least 10% lower) to start and work up. Maximum loads are not best for target shooting. Lighter than maximum loads produce the tightest groups. If you have not loaded with nitro powder before then get a friendly experienced member of your club to show you how to stay safe! Read the information given in the following link: Reloading Safety. Enjoy your shooting, and stay safe!

Loads for .45 Ruger Old Army, original barrel.

If you don't want to read the blurb, here are the quick data sheets: DATA

How to load a muzzle loading pistol.

How to prove a muzzle loading pistol clear/safe.

Firstly I was advised by Alan Westlake who made the cylinder (so who better to advise?) to use Alliant Powder. That is not to say that there are not other good, reliable, accurate powders available. I intend to start with Alliant though, as advised. Later on I may be tempted (go on, will be tempted) to experiment with other powders, and I will record my findings here. If I come across data for other brands then I will add it (see DATA above). If you have data which you would like to add to this site then please email it to me; details on the contacts page.

The specific powder suggested by Alan was Herco. This is sensible, because it is a slower burning powder than for example Bullseye. It will provide a longer gentler push on the ball (if a slap in the face can be thought of as gentle, try the comparison between a Bullseye kick in the face and a Herco slap in the face?) and, since the round ball has little bearing surface compared with a bullet, it will be less likely to damage the bearing surface and reduce accuracy or cause leading. The ball is not jacketed, the ball is made of soft pure lead, not a hardened lead alloy. A slower burning powder will be more similar to Black Powder than a fast burning powder (if a Herco smack in the face could ever be similar to a Black Powder push in the chest!) Furthermore, more powder is used in the cylinder than with Bullseye and according to www.reloadbench.com the aim should be to almost fill the space between the primer and the bullet base. Having said that there are several loads for fast powders in the DATA link. It would also be more obvious if you had accidentally double loaded the chamber with Herco than with Bullseye. Some people prefer Bullseye because you get more shots per pound of powder!

NOTE: all ball/bullet will need to be lubricated with something like Lee's Liquid Alox or use a lubricated wad under the ball to leave a trace of lubrication for the following projectile. Do not put grease over the ball. The ball travels faster with smokeless than with black. (? I will get some chronograph data to substantiate this?) It is too fast just to rumble along pushing the grease in front of it and tries to overtake it. This is like aquaplaning, but it happens in two dimensions at once and generates big hydraulic pressures which can be big enough to cause a nice ring bulge in the barrel when the bullet does go over the grease and pushes the grease and barrel aside to get past! Ruger [Instruction manual For Ruger Old Army P.15 para. 3F] recommends grease over the ball on black powder, but on page 36 part 4 warns that mud, snow or even excess grease in the barrel may lead to bulging or bursting on firing. A bit of an anomaly?

If you are worried about chainfire / ringfire / flashover between one cylinder and the next then use a wad under the ball. It is considered unnecessary by many. This is much less likely with smokeless than with black since smokeless is harder to ignite. If you do use a wad then just remember to ALWAYS use a lubricated wad under the ball as you work up your load to keep things consistent.

The other consideration is to try a conical bullet. Bullets have a larger bearing surface than ball (at least 3x since it has 3 contact rings to the balls 1) and flashover is eliminated. Sam Colt said (and Nick.A says) that it is difficult to get the bullet into the chamber straight, they tend to deform and fly crooked. I find the Allwood bullets have a double diameter, .452" on the base so they are easy to set straight in the chamber on the narrower diameter, you can push them in up to the second ring under finger pressure and line them up, the fatter part .454" has to be rammed in and makes sure it is a good tight fit. Allwood bullets are manufactured by Allwood Stocks & Mouldings, the one labelled "Ruger Old Army & 44 Remington bullet" (171 grain) was recommended by Alan. [These bullets are sold cheap, straight from the mould. I sort them into competition/best grade and plinking/training/seconds. From one batch of 500 I had 72% best and 28% seconds. I use a knife to remove the excess lead imperfections from the seconds and use them for training. Some of the imperfections are small. All the imperfections are acceptable for plinking. You could always sort yours and sell the seconds on, they still work out quite well priced compared to swaged heads.]

You may wish to cast your own bullets? This is even cheaper. The conical bullet mould below is copied from the Lee website, but since it is a screendump the blue links aren't active here. Other bullets may be found on the bullets and ball page.

It was suggested to use the data for .44 special. The lightest heads shown in the table are 180 JHC. (We are using .457" 143 grain ball, or 171 RNL bullet) Remember that the powder charge suggested (9.8 grains) is a MAXIMUM load for the cartridge. Using 10% less as Alliant recommends to start with, suggests starting at 8.82 grains but.............

WARNING..... we are also using shotshell primers which are hotter than the small pistol primers used in pistol cartridges, (?? unsubstantiated information. I am checking with CCI.... no reply in 12 weeks!!) so we need to reduce our powder charge even more to be safe. We have no test data to compare the difference between the primers but we will make a guess, say another 10%, so down to 20% of recommended max. Using 20% less suggests starting at 7.84 grains, but see below......

If you look at the tables you see a trend that as the bullets get lighter the charges get bigger (keeping pressures in the same ball park). Our .457" ball is 143 grains which is 20% lighter than the listed head. The 171 grain RNL bullet is 5% lighter. By sticking to the data for the heavier head we are giving ourselves a bigger safety margin against extra high pressures.

Notice the information about minimum overall length of cartridge (1.600"). The Alliant website warns.... "Most pistols and revolvers function best when loaded with a quick-burning powder such as Bullseye. Since peak pressure is reached very quickly, the SEATING DEPTH of the bullet is very important; the deeper the bullet, the higher the pressure. If the bullet is seated too deeply, dangerous pressures will be generated, which could burst the gun and cause severe personal injury (including death)." N.B. We don't have a cartridge! We have a cylinder chamber, a ball and a rammer with no constant depth gauge! Seat the ball just deep enough to be below the rim of the chamber-mouth by 1 or 2 mm. Do not seat the ball to the maximum depth of the rammer using data for .44 special! (However, two of the guys who sent in loads do seat the ball to the full depth of the rammer on the pistol with loads 30% to 50% below the maximum load data for the .44 special cartridge using Alliant Bullseye powder).

It was suggested starting at 7.0 grains (28% below max) of Herco and working DOWN not up. Alan said that when the charge was insufficient to stabilise the ball/bullet there would be flyers outside the group. I started with 7 grains and found it grouped well enough in my gun to initially sight it in. There were no signs of undue pressure on the fired primers. (The primers are convex rounded when new and unfired. After firing they become slightly flatter and have a dent in the middle, that is normal. The flatter they become the higher the pressure was in the chamber.) Now begins the task of weighing out batches of different charge weights, shooting and recording the outcome, measuring the group size. I'll record my findings here when I have completed the task. (Don't hold your breath!)

I found that Remington 209 shotgunshell primers fit my conversion better than CCI. I haven't tried other brands yet. The Remington seem to be flatter or less domed, the CCI make the cylinder tight to the frame and difficult to rotate. They still worked, and I would happily use them in training/plinking, but in a competition I would always use Remington out of the two.

WARNING........ Guard AGAINST multiple charges when reloading. Certain cartridges (notably .38 Special) have been reloaded accidentally with double and even triple charges, with catastrophic results when fired in the gun. This means paying attention to what you are doing! Don't chatter while reloading. Develop a routine. Stick to it.

Example 1. Miss a charge in a cylinder and fire only the primer... this will result in the ball not leaving the barrel. If you fire the next cylinder which has a single powder charge, the second ball will stick behind the first and the barrel will be bulged. Throw the barrel away! Buy a new barrel! Kiss goodbye to some hard earned cash! This happened last year to one of our club Remington .44's. I find it helps to have a small torch to shine into a cylinder to see if I have put any charge in before I seat the bullet, especially on a poorly lit firing point.

Example 2. Pour a powder charge in the cylinder, be distracted and then "Where was I?... Oh yes..." and pour a second charge in the cylinder. This will result in dangerously high pressures which as stated above could burst the cylinder and destroy the gun, perhaps destroy your hand, perhaps even kill you. I have two colleagues who have suffered burst guns through double loading of charge. Fortunately neither was injured. One of the guns is mounted on a plaque in the clubhouse as a reminder to others! If you are distracted then pour out the charge, dispose of it safely, and start again. (I am told that if you pour it on the grass and water it in, it makes a good fertiliser!)

My routine is to weigh out the powder charges into glass phials at home. You need to be within 1/10 of a grain for consistency. I use a Lyman 1200DPS II combined powder trickler and weighing scale. At the range I look into the chamber first to check it is empty, then I put a small funnel into the cylinder and tip the contents of one phial in. Then I remove the funnel and seat a bullet in that chamber. I repeat for each of the chambers. I prefer this to pouring a charge into each of the 6 cylinders before seating any ball. I think you are less likely to miss a cylinder and less likely to double charge. I have colleagues who disagree! I don't care! It is MY routine and I'm sticking to it! Whatever you decide to do, do it consistently.

Alan has some wise words....."Remember that you are reloading on the shooting bench and so must take great care that everything you do is exactly the same as the time before. Once you have a consistent size of group, then this becomes the "Standard", any changes to the load must be compared with the "Standard", and only adopted if it improves things, this then becomes the (new) "Standard".

"Once you have achieved the best "Standard" you think you will get with one bullet (and powder combination), you will have to go through it all again when you try a different bullet. Or a different anything for that matter. Oh and make notes of what you do, or you will have to repeat things when you forget exactly what it was that you did last time."

National Shooting Centre Bisley