Are all the Hunting Stories in ?

Well, I guess I'll have another year, if the good Lord lets me live that long, without enjoying the good taste of venison backstraps & burgers, as I had my chances but didn't get one.  On the positive side, today, I scored a Uberti Cattleman Colt S.A.A. clone in .45 Colt with a 7 1/2" barrel. Being that I was very particular about what ammo I used in my old original black powder frame Colt that was made in 1883, & rebarreled with a Christie .45 barrel & cylinder, that I recently sold, now I can use anything that is "Colt" safe in this one. I watched & bid on their "Cavalry" marked model last night on GB, but would not go above retail price for a 17 year old used model, that eventually sold for over $900 + shipping. I found mine on Dixie Gun Works site, (they only had 2 in stock) after calling the importer, who told me that Uberti's firearms deliveries are very unpredictable, & might take over a year if I order anything. Mine might be here Saturday.

Hello Michael.

My new "toy" arrived today. If I didn't know better, I would think that it was made by Colt. The blueing & case hardening colors are very nice. Now, I can load & shoot anything that is safe in post BP Colt SAA's with smokeless powder & not worry about damaging an original BP Colt frame. This one, after breaking it in, will be my "next to the bed" firearm, loaded with either Keith style wadcutters, or hollowpoints.  My question, now for breakin, what do you, Mike, Daniel, Todd, Grasshopper, Jr, & anyone else advise to use, lead or jacketed ammo? I don't have that much experience with starting from scratch with a brand new firearm. Most of the many that I've owned over the years, were made before I was even thunk of. I am ready to learn something from all of your experiences.  Thanks.

Hi Todd.  I will check them out.

We have some revolvers that have and will only have cast through them.
Lead of the correct diameter can only make them better.

Ok so while reading your post Gary so many things popped into my head that I wanted to say but being an old guy I forgot most by the time I finished. On the points I do recall I wanted to say that with a revolver you have a unique situation where there are two critical dimensions one being the cylinder throat diameters and another the barrel bore groove diameters. Ideally what I like is a .001" step down in diameter from the bullet diameter to the cylinder throat diameter then a .001" diameter step down from cylinder throat diameter to barrel groove diameter.
Wanting that ideal situation and getting it are sometime miles apart. One thing I can tell you with certainty is that if your cylinder throat diameters are smaller than you barrel groove diameter accuracy accuracy will be iffy. Also it is not uncommon to find a choke in the forcing cone due to a tight fitting thread and the barrel machine turned into the frame. This create exactly the same situation as when the cylinder throats are smaller than barrel groove diameter.
       Hopefully none of these will be an issue with your gun. Now for the one size fits all load for your 45 that for me is hard because for me my whole being with guns is in the versality that handloading provides so its hard to pick just one load for everything. One thing I should say is that with the velocity you will be limited to say about 900 fps with a 250gn bullet using a hollow point is kind of a moot point unless they are cast in pure lead I say this because with any type of lead alloy a hollow point will act pretty much the same as a solid point.
    Now about bullet weight and especially with your relatively fast rifling twist rate at 1/16" and in my experience the heavier bullets shoot best. Something about 300gn to 330gn should shoot good but that could lead to another problem. That problem could arise from the fixed sights where the heavier slower bullet may strike higher than the sight can compensate for. There is only one way to know though and you know that is to try.
       For all my travels in Alaska I did settle on one favorite all purpose load in the 45 Colt but it is a Ruger only type load pushing the 300 gn Saeco SWC-GC bullet to a muzzle velocity of 1000 fps. I used that load to drop a caribou that a client had wounded but refused to shoot again as it was slowly walking straight away at maybe 70 yards. The shot entered the rear vent and exited the chest as confirmed by my packer that was watching with binoculars. After that incident I never again questioned the lethality of that load.
Its really hard to say just what type of load you sights will regulate to without modification. As I understand the early revolver were given a front sight blade that was or should be too high for most loads and it was up to the owner to make adjustments when a desired load was found.
So now that I have thoroughly muddied up the water I guess what you should glean from this is that you are at a premature point in ownership to decide on something so important and only time can tell. If it were me I would start out by shooting a whole pile of one of the proven old loads like with a 250gn cast with about 8gn Unique. After about 500 rounds fired with those the gun should be well broke in and you should have had a chance to listen to the gun telling you what it may prefer a revolver whisperer if you will.

A favorite light load suitable for all vintage 45 Colt revolvers is with the Lyman 454190 the traditional 255 gn bullet that mimics the original arsenal bullet in profile is loaded with 5.8gn Trail Boss for about 800 fps. My gun shoots good with this bullet at .454" diameter but that is just my gun and may be too wide for some. Some guns may even prefer a larger diameter as I have measured cylinder throats as large as .457". With this type of load something around 9 BHN + or - seems to work best.

Howdy Gary
If those bullets are on the softer side measure the diameter of a couple.
Now tap one through one of the cylinders from the back side holding the cylinder in your hand. Then check the size.
Now see if it will pass through all the cylinders with the same resistance.
Will give you a good idea what you have on a cold day.

That does sound like an interesting store to look into.
I never did do any "reliving" any era. I do go to re-enactments and so forth but I just was never living up there long enough. But I do enjoy flintlocks.

I think since the cylinder throats are .454" that is what I would try first for bullet diameter. If you go with bullet diameter at barrel groove diameter the bullets will have no guidance in the cylinder throats so have opportunity to tip in the cylinder throat and enter the forcing cone off center of axis. That would likely have a deforming effect on the bullet.

As I recall you mentioned that the rifling twist rate is 1/16". If that is correct I would expect fairly long bullets to shoot well for two reasons. #1 consider that the TD Springfield in 45-70 uses a 1/20" twist and can stabilize the arsenal 500gn bullet out to two miles according to the Sandy Hook trials. With that you can see that with a 1/16" twist will handle a longer bullet than can possibly fit the cylinder. The fast twist should be more compatible with longer bullets. #2 is that a longer bullet will help compensate for cylinder misalignment with the barrel when the cylinder is in the fired position. The idea here is that there will be some small amount of play in the cylinder and with a long bullet that as it passes from the cylinder into the forcing cone at some point is in contact with both cylinder and forcing cone. At that point the cylinder can align with the barrel if the misalignment is not too great and the cylinder play is enough to allow alignment when in the fired position.
So this way as long as your bullet fits the cylinder throat closely and at the point described your bullet should be looking down the center of the bore. If the bullet is undersize to the cylinder throat all bets are off because as it contacts the forcing cone the bullet will tip inside the cylinder and even if the cylinder comes into alignment with the bore the bullet will not be.
I think I would first try the 330 Keith design and I would expect it to shoot well but there is the possible issue of not shooting to point of aim. If that happens then I would go to a more traditional weight but would seek a design that has the most bearing length to still have a chance to aid with the cylinder alignment. That likely means some type of semi wad cutter design or even a full wadcutter design if possible. Main thing there is that they be a snug fit to the cylinder throat diameter.