45 Colt 45-90 Gallery Loads.

[scrat]

In the Fall edition of Guns of the old west. The author did a write up on Gallery loads. Said a little history of the loads. The proceded to do his write up. Basic is this. After firing the spent cases are cleaned sized (if that) (supposably in the old days a lot of cases were just loaded up). Then primed. The 45 colt cases were loaded up with approx 5-15 grains of black. A .454 round ball was press in. Then by using a wooden Dowel they were hit down until they met with powder. On top of the ball grease aka lube was put in place. then a wad was used over to keep the grease from spilling out. This was also done on both the 45-70 and 45-90. Difference was the 45-90 and 45-70 were loaded up with 15 grains of black. Amazingly the author says with the 45 colt shooting out of a revolver he was shooting 15 grains at 663fps and shooting groups within a 1.5 inch diameter.

All i can say is wow never heard of loading in such a way. Whats your guys opinion on this.

 

[Jeff F]

Sounds like it would work. I remember reading about some smokeless round ball small game loads in a 30-06 and a couple of handgun rounds. I think they used some size of buckshot for the rifle and seated it about halfway into the case neck and gave it a little crimp. It was said to be pretty accurate out to 100 feet or so.

 

[Jim Watson]

One source in my library says the old round ball down on a light load of black powder gallery loads were some of the nastiest ammo available. Apparently not enough pressure and "heat" (as the shotshell gurus say) to get a good burn. But it is safe and cheap. Give it a try.

 

[scrat]

ya the guy was saying you could load up a whole bunch of them for pennys on the dollar. I guess that would be good for shooting steel. not too sure about target though. So Jim you have heard of them.
Where can i get more information on these.