45 Colt pin load suggestions needed

Bob R

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We have a small group of people here who get together on a semi-regular basis and clean up public ranges so that we can keep them open. After the clean up we usually have a BBQ and a lot of shooting. It is amazing the different guns you can see and use when there are 20-30 people bringing out their toys.

Well, we are planning a pin shoot at our next outing. We have been collecting pins and trying to figure out what we need and I think we are good to go.

Now all I need is the voice of experience to let me in on a good load or two to try. I have a Austin Behlert Model 25-5 that is just begging to go to the pin shoot. I figure it will be the nearly perfect gun for this. Plus, everyone else will have their wunderGlocks and other semi's to shoot with. I may as well act my age and show up with a wheelgun. :)

So, who has a 45 Colt load that will hit with authority yet still give lowered recoil? If it helps, the gun is magna-ported so that will help tame the recoil a little bit.

I figure a decent load and a few speed loaders and I should be good to go. Hopefully I can school a few of the young whippersnappers who think wheelguns belong in museums.

The gun I plan on using:

DSC_0400-1.jpg


TIA

bob
 
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You can use any cast bullet in the 250 gr range and 7 or 8 grains of Unique. The old 45 hits with authority. If you have some 200 or 230 grain cast bullets for the acp you can use the with the same powder charge. I have loaded 200 grain cast swc's over 7.0 of Unique and they are accurate and low recoil.
 
Believe it or not the .45 colt isn't that hard to load for. There are many powders that will work well in the .45 Colt. For the .45 Colt with either a 250gr RN or a 255gr SWC I charge 10.5gr HS-6 which makes a great load. If you don't have any HS-6 around you can charge 7.2gr W231/HP-38. Another good load is 10.5gr AA#5. I haven't loaded any Universal yet but I'm told it is a lot like Unique but not as dirty and it meters well.
 
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For years my "do everything load" in the .45 Colt was 8.8 grs. of 231 with a 255 gr. SWC, which was good for 944 FPS out of my 4" Redhawk. I used it at a pin match once and actually won some money.

Dave Sinko
 
Bob

I used to shoot a lot of bowling pins back when it was popular, using a 1911 .45 acp. Key to it is moderate bullet speed, say 850fps range (to minimize recoil and recovery time), and a sharp shouldered bullet to help "catch" the pin, and clear the table. Spinners that stay on the table don't count. In a revolver, I would be tempted to use full wadcutters. They are slow to reload with speed loaders, but if you have to reload, you have probably lost anyway. SWC would also be a good choice. Good luck, and show em' what a revolver can do..:)

Larry
 
All the loads mentioned should work well.

I used to shoot 230 grain RNL bullets from my custom .45 pin gun at 910 fps. They worked but 215 or 225 LSWC bullets from a .41 Magnum moving at around 1,000 fps worked better.

If you can shoot 1,000 fps loads fast, and accurately, enough I'd go with them. If not, loads at around 850 to 900 fps should work too.
I shot at the Second Chance Bowling Pin Shoot in Central Lake, MI for 10 years. Still miss that match a lot.
 
I used to shoot pins with an M25. I was using factory-duplicate loads with a 255 gr bullet but that was really more than needed.

If you figure the .45 auto boys were doing OK with 200 gr bullets, I would try that. 200 gr at about 800 fps ought to do the trick nicely and recovery time would be better than the loads that approximate .45 Colt factory loads.
 
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