A friend of mine has inherited his fathers Colt Double Action revolver chambered for the .41 Long Colt which is quite obsolete. Does anyone have some reloading data so that I might help my friend resurrect this old gun. Brass is available from Starline...any leads on the oddball bullet?
The oldest manula I have is a 1967 Lyman and this cartridge is not in the obsolete or any other catagory.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Randy

Start here.
Reloading the 41 Long Colt.

I recall Midway carried heel based bullets for the .41LC, I don't know if anyone carries a hollow based bullet or not. I do have a mould for one, but it's not for sale.

If he wants to use it for accuracy he will probably want to slug the bore. As the hollow based bullets gained in popularity the bore sizes got smaller to suit them better.

Ideal (Lyman) manuals 38 and 39 have data for this cartridge using both a 200gr. hollow base and a 196gr heel base bullet. The only powders they list that are still in production are Bullseye and Unique, which is one of the reasons these powders are my favorites.

Anyway, for both bullets they list 3.0 gr. of Bullseye and 5.0 gr. of Unique. In case you don't plan on running out and buying a copy of the above manuals.

Buffalo Arms has components:
Black Powder Cartridge & Smokeless Powder Cartridge Emtpy Brass Cases .41-.439 Caliber

Targetmaster in Garland, Texas has Ultramax .41Colt ammo in stock. 214-343-4545

Fill case to rim with blackpowder, scrape off excess, insert bullet and your good to go, Colt reloading manual from 1881. Just kidding.

Greetings
I have 2 41 Colt revolvers and they both shoot the heavier bullets better. You first want a bullet that is at least cylinder diameter and + .001 is better.
40-1(soft) is a better bullet. You do NOT want anything that is hard cast.
A soft bullet and as mentioned a case full of 2F works just fine.
If you are going to use BP use all natural material for lube.. NO petrolium based products.
If you are going with smokeless the fast powders are best. Bullseye, Acc#2..
If using a hollow base bullet again get the heaviest available. The 170 grainers or less are next to worthless. 185 plus is far better.

I intend to be handloading for .41 Long Colt soon. Jellybean's powders and charge weights look to be THE place to begin on assembling safe, factory velocity duplication loads for .41 Long Colt. That's were I'm starting.

Meanwhile, here's some chronographed data for three different original factory .41 Long Colt loads I tested recently using a circa 1901 Colt New Navy with a 4 1/2-inch barrel. One is a Remington 195 grain load, one is a Western load, and one a Winchester Western load from a special run of the cartridge, made for L. M. Burney back in the 1970s. Some idea may be gained of the kind of performance to aim for when assembling handloads for the old round. I'm not "hotrodding" my .41 Long Colt handloads at all since they will be used in the wheezy ol' Colt New Navy.

The old Colt revolver may not look like much but, surprisingly has a perfect bore and locks up pretty tight for one of these types of Colt revolvers. It also gives really amazing accuracy which isn't suppose to be a characteristic of the .41 Long Colt round. A Colt Army Special or Official Police (they made a few) in .41 Long Colt would be much stronger revolvers than the New Army/New Navy models or the even earlier and creakier Colt Model 1877 "Thunderer."



Remington .41 Long Colt 195 grain lead round nose

692 fps muzzle velocity
207 ft./lbs. muzzle energy
48 fps extreme spread
18 standard deviation


Winchester Western "white box"

709 fps muzzle velocity
223 ft./lbs. muzzle energy
107 fps extreme spread
46 fps standard deviation


Western ammunition in the yellow box:

720 fps muzzle velocity:
230 ft./lbs.muzzle energy
16 fps extreme spread
6 fps standard deviation

10-shot averages, fired over an Oehler Model 12 chronograph.



Both Western and Winchester Western ammunition were headstamped the same, had bullets that appeared exactly the same, and gave the exact same appearance. Strange how the Western ammunition gave one of the most consistent performances I've ever seen of any factory load or handload and the Winchester Western gave rather poor consistency. The Western ammunition was the older of the two. Perhaps storage condition of the Winchester Western "white box" ammunition prior to my acquisition were less than optimal.

Here's a link: Reloading the 41 Long Colt.

I've had good results using Gad for some other obsolete components. I'm going to try his .41 bullets
Gad Custom Reloaded Cartridges and Shell Reloading Services

Never mind the gun, that chronograph is an antique.
I got my Oehler like that in the 1970s.

Yep, so did I. But then I'm an antique.