The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting Handgun Hunting Mid frame Blackhawk - 45Colt or .44Special?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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One of Us |
Got an itch that's really starting to bug me. Question is, what kind of prudent maximum loads would the Lipsey Flat Top Blackhawk handle in .45Colt? Basically, would it be safe to run a Colt Flat Top to the same ballistics as Keith's .44 Special loads (250gr@1200fps)? Keith states that a 4 5/8" Blackhawk is about as balanced as a SA gets. How about the balance of a 4 5/8" Flat Top in Colt? A FA Model 97 is a few too many sheckles at this point. | ||
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I have a stainless flattop 4 5/8" version in each caliber and consider them excellent handguns. I consider 1200 fps with 240-250's to be too much for sustained use in them. I will stay with 1000-1050 fps max. for my use. Brian Pearce did an excellent article on the .45 flattop convertibles, arriving at the conclusion after talking to Ruger that they are good to 23,000 PSI. The large frame .45 blackhawks are good to 30,000 PSI. Get one of those for heavy loads. | |||
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As John Linebaugh has said, there aint much you can't do with 250gr bullets at 1000 FPS. If it were me (and it may be soon) I would get a new Colt New Frontier in .357 Magnum and send it to Linebaugh or Bowen to rechamber to a tight .45 Colt. But then again the same gun in .38-40 with an extra cylinder for 10mm would be perfect for deer | |||
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Hodgdon's website lists a number of loads that run 20-23 kCUP with jacketed bullets in the "Ruger/FA" section. They show a 325 LFN going 1100 fps at 18 kCUP. A good place to start for data. | |||
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I don't come to this forum much because of the self-righteous, punctilio but there is good info here and I do appreciate the excellent replys. Thanks guys, you've answered my questions exactly. I'll probably go ahead and get the .45Colt and run it moderately as suggested.  | |||
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Brian Pearce recently did a good article in Handloader about the Lipsey 45 flattops that addressed their potential. I took the earlier suggestion and had a ended up with a Colt New Frontier that Jim Stroh converted from 44 Special to a tight 45 Colt. Alan Harton then fit a 45 acp cylinder and made a bisley spurred hammer for it and for me, it is just about the perfect packing pistol.  | |||
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Also very nice! "Ignorance you can correct, you can't fix stupid." JWP If stupidity hurt, a lot of people would be walking around screaming. Semper Fidelis "Building Carpal Tunnel one round at a time" | |||
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rbrbrb6, That is a fine lookin' pistol. | |||
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I used to shoot the +20 kpsi loads in my basic Old Model mid-frame 45 Colt conversion that I had Harton put together many years ago. Any more it sees the RCBS 270 SAA (283 grs) at ~950 fps which run at standard SAAMI pressure of ~14 kpsi. Plenty of thump.  | |||
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Well, I found a Lipsey's 4 5/8" FT .44Special at a price to good to pass up. First 50 rounds averaged about 8moa. Not bad! It's a little heavier than ideal, something in the mid 30oz range would be better. Don't need that much weight to handle 250gr@1000fps. I see that Ruger lists the .45Colt/45ACP convertable as 36oz. Might be interested in a trade after playing with this Special for a bit. Gotta say I really like the grip frame! It's got the danty hard rubber checkered panels. It fits my hand well and doesn't squirrel around or bite anywhere (unlike the smooth Super Blackhawks I've fired). Love the customs you guys post! That route is a bit too much $$ for me at this point though. | |||
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Hey Ken & Boxhead....what does punctilio mean? Is he swearing? I have 3 midframe 44 specials & they are wonderful shooting & packing guns. I'm sure a 45 would be just as good. Like the others I just shoot midrange 44 special loads in mine nothing over 1050-1100 fps, usually less. I'll use my 44 maggie's for the serious stuff, these midframes are enjoyable! Alan does super work, sure do like mine. Gotta look up punctilio! I know he swearing! Dick | |||
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My preference will always be the 45 over the 44 special. There is just something special about a 45 on the smaller frame. Here is one built by a member over on rugerfourm.com. I purchased it from my friends widow and it holds a special place in my heart. This one was built before they were offered in 44 or 45.   | |||
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Dick, I haven't found a lot of punctilio here, but I have found plenty of annoying lack of civility ... which is going at least one step further. PWS was probably trying to be nice. I don't think you have punctilio in Soda Springs. I think it's mostly found in Washington, D.C. PWS, one of the nice features about the .45 convertible flattops is the ACP cylinder, which is often blessed with even more accuracy than the .45 Colt cylinder. | |||
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That is gorgeous, tek!! Very nice! "Ignorance you can correct, you can't fix stupid." JWP If stupidity hurt, a lot of people would be walking around screaming. Semper Fidelis "Building Carpal Tunnel one round at a time" | |||
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Dick, Not sure but it sounds good in a tortilla. | |||
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No, PWS isn't swearing and he's got too much class to ridicule others that don't think the way that he does. Not that that ever happens here.  I had the pleasure of meeting PWS last Fall while hunting with Phil Shoemaker. Taj Shoemaker had flown me from Phil's base camp back to the King Salmon airport to pick up my gun case that had arrived in King Salmon one day after I did. On the way back from the airport, we landed on the shore of Becharof Lake to drop off some supplies for PWS (who was guiding for Phil) and we visited for a bit. PWS is a very accomplished handgun hunter and a modest, down-to-earth kind of guy. He has accomplished a feat that few ever will with a single shot from an iron sighted, premier grade Freedom Arms .454 Casull. (hint: it's brown and squared 10'  ) | |||
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Haha! Would love to see and hear all about it!!  "Ignorance you can correct, you can't fix stupid." JWP If stupidity hurt, a lot of people would be walking around screaming. Semper Fidelis "Building Carpal Tunnel one round at a time" | |||
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Likewise! | |||
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I have a "full" frame Blackhawk and I have never run "Ruger only" loads in it. When you can push a Hard Cast bullet 1000+ Ft/sec with standard pressure loads there is very little reason to. All that said this weekend I just loaded my first 250g Speer jacked Ruger only loads, mainly for my M92 but I will shoot them from My Ruger too. Snake | |||
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Got a few more rounds down range. One of the first was Lyman's 429421 over 15gr of 2400. After seeing so many suggestions of 16 or 17 grains or even 18.5 (Keith and baloon head cases), I figured 15grains would give me around 1000fps. Nope, try 1200fps! That was definately TOO MUCH for this pistol. 13gr of 2400 will send a 230-250gr SWC right at 1050fps and that seems to be the top end of easy shooting comfort. A few other loads such as 6gr of 700X and 5.5gr of Clays are idling along about 800-850fps and are starting to cluster in the 1-2" range at 25 yards. The left side of the front sight ramp is not perfectly square so there's a little bit of indistinct glare off that edge, making it hard to index. Getting a lot of horizontal strings as a result. Still, it's a lot of revolver for the price! It does have me thinking about something a little smaller like a 696 with a 4" barrel with a Mountain Gun profile. Now that would be a cool "packin' pistol"! Thanks for the shout-out X-Caliber, mostly I just try to lay low and not get into arguements over things like whether Winchester primers are magnum or not...   | |||
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LOL, PWS!  Thanks for posting a pic of the bear. Please keep us posted on your load development for the new toy. I have recently purchased a smorgasbord of pistol powders with the intention of working up some reduced cast loads for a few of my smaller in stature revolvers starting with this 4" .45 Colt Redhawk and a 4 3/4" .44 Mag FA 83.   Good to hear from you! | |||
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Clays is a good powder in all kinds of handgun cartridges.Say thats a mighty fine bear right there.Congrats!!! | |||
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After seeing how far a lil ol deer can run after taking a 475, I'd be nervous as hell dropping the hammer on something like that!!! Maybe that is why all the bear pics have the hunter behind the bear....hiding their pants  | |||
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Hahaha! You're probably right, tek!! PWS -- that is one awesome bear!! Congratulations sir!! Yes indeed, there have been some really dumb arguments here. "Ignorance you can correct, you can't fix stupid." JWP If stupidity hurt, a lot of people would be walking around screaming. Semper Fidelis "Building Carpal Tunnel one round at a time" | |||
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Another point to consider is that PWS did this solo; no one was backing him up with a large caliber rifle. | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Hunting Handgun Hunting Mid frame Blackhawk - 45Colt or .44Special?
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