.45 Cowboy Special loadings

[Ysabel Kid]

So, my new lifter for the .45 Cowboy Special round arrived yesterday. Going to install this on my Uberti 1860 "Henry" rifle currently in .45 Colt. Basically trying to make a centerfire, .45-caliber version of the original .44 Henry rimfire round - and you enablers convinced me to do it!

Anyway, I will certainly load up some 200-grain lead bullets with holy black. But I'd also like to load up some smokeless rounds for convenience. Again, my plan is to use 200-grain LRNFP bullets, plus try some 160-grain lead bullets as well. For those who load this round, what recipe do you like best?

Thanks!

[samsi]

Any good 45 ACP loading will work well, the main two I currently use are 5.5 of W231 with a 200SWC, and a 225-230 truncated cone over 5.8 Unique.

Brian Pearce did an article on 45 Auto Rim +P in Handloader some years ago, and I've used one of his loads with the Keith Auto Rim bullet in the Cowboy Special brass as well. It was an impressive little thumper.

[Griff]

In my toggle links I'm a little more cautious using 45ACP data. For my social load, I'm using a 200 grain Speer HP and 6.3 grains of Hodgdon's CFE, which is a minimum 45 ACP load, and according to their data develops 14,900 PSI @877 fps. (I can't find my rifle data). My plinking, (cowboy action) load is 3.4 grains of Clays behind a 160 grain cast. Again, that's a minimum 45ACP load with a jacketed bullet, but the lead moves easier and has much less pressure, although in the big 45 Colt chamber, I believe it's even less, as my loads run in the high 700s from the 18-½" 1873 and the low to mid 700s in the 1860.

[samsi]

Good point about the pressure drop in the Colt chamber Griff. I've chrono'd the same Cowboy Special load in both cylinders of my Blackhawk and it's 100 fps slower from the Colt cylinder.

[2ndovc]

I made up a couple dozen last summer with my favorite .45AR load: 3.8 grains of Bullseye and a 230 gr LRN. Turns out the Ruger I was shooting them with has some forcing cone issues that need to be resolved so the groups were pretty bad. Along with everything else I've run through it. I shot a hand full of what was left with my little Taylor's 1860 conversion at some bowling pins last summer and they were spot on. Need to make up some more and put them on paper.

jb

[Ysabel Kid]

I made up a couple dozen last summer with my favorite .45AR load: 3.8 grains of Bullseye and a 230 gr LRN. Turns out the Ruger I was shooting them with has some forcing cone issues that need to be resolved so the groups were pretty bad. Along with everything else I've run through it. I shot a hand full of what was left with my little Taylor's 1860 conversion at some bowling pins last summer and they were spot on. Need to make up some more and put them on paper.

jb

Thanks Jason!

[Ysabel Kid]

I made up a couple dozen last summer with my favorite .45AR load: 3.8 grains of Bullseye and a 230 gr LRN. Turns out the Ruger I was shooting them with has some forcing cone issues that need to be resolved so the groups were pretty bad. Along with everything else I've run through it. I shot a hand full of what was left with my little Taylor's 1860 conversion at some bowling pins last summer and they were spot on. Need to make up some more and put them on paper.

jb

I forgot to ask - do you have the case dimensions and cartridge OAL for the .45 Cowboy Special? I've found a ton of conflicting data on this.

[Griff]

I forgot to ask - do you have the case dimensions and cartridge OAL for the .45 Cowboy Special? I've found a ton of conflicting data on this.

As far as OAL is concerned in pistols it won't matter and for your rifle measure from the stop in the carrier to the front of the carrier. Leave a couple of thousandths for clearance. I've never seen any specs on case dimensions beyond 45AXP length & 45 Colt rim.