In another topic area I laid out my rebuilding of an original 1877 S&W Schofield revolver. Having completed everything but the front site I gathered components to load some ammo for it. Starline cases were acquired and as I had everything else needed I began.
As I didn't want to stress this old revolver I decided to go with the lowest load data I could find. That decided as a starting point I slugged the cylinder throats and bore. As I usually hear about oversized chambers and bores I was VERY surprised to find the throats at .449 and the bore at .4485. The chambers were not under sized in the least, taking the new cases easily.
As my cast bullets were .452 this was going to be an issue. First getting them thru the throats and bore without undo lead shaving or swaging down and possible increased pressure issues involved. Solved that with a scrounge thru the bullet sizing dies on hand and found a .450. Ran 100 thru that die and they were ready to load.
The brass of course was not prepared to hold a bullet that small. Some experimentation followed with various dies at hand. 45 Colt would not size them small enough at the mouth area. The 45 ACP would so the cases were sized the depth of the seated bullet to hold them. A 45 expander just negated the previous sizing work so the search was on for a solution to that issue. A 44-40 expander was used to put a slight bell on the case mouth the ease the bullets start into the case.
Trail Boss was used as powder and the resized bullets were loaded and crimped using a 45ACP seat die.
Will test fire some in the next few days. The Schofield seriously needs a front site tho!
As I didn't want to stress this old revolver I decided to go with the lowest load data I could find. That decided as a starting point I slugged the cylinder throats and bore. As I usually hear about oversized chambers and bores I was VERY surprised to find the throats at .449 and the bore at .4485. The chambers were not under sized in the least, taking the new cases easily.
As my cast bullets were .452 this was going to be an issue. First getting them thru the throats and bore without undo lead shaving or swaging down and possible increased pressure issues involved. Solved that with a scrounge thru the bullet sizing dies on hand and found a .450. Ran 100 thru that die and they were ready to load.
The brass of course was not prepared to hold a bullet that small. Some experimentation followed with various dies at hand. 45 Colt would not size them small enough at the mouth area. The 45 ACP would so the cases were sized the depth of the seated bullet to hold them. A 45 expander just negated the previous sizing work so the search was on for a solution to that issue. A 44-40 expander was used to put a slight bell on the case mouth the ease the bullets start into the case.
Trail Boss was used as powder and the resized bullets were loaded and crimped using a 45ACP seat die.
Will test fire some in the next few days. The Schofield seriously needs a front site tho!
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