Need Recommendations on .45 Long Colt Ammo

[stevemac]

[tmh1]

I was looking at a rifle in 45 Colt, but never bought it due to the cost of the ammo I was finding. At that time it was like 60 cpr for anything I could find, and I don't reload that caliber.

When I have been in a similar situation like you are now, I have defaulted to HSM Cowboy load ammo, and have not been disappointed. It shoots fine, isn't overly powerful and it allows me to generate some reloadable brass for possible future use (if I ultimately choose to buy the dies).

There is also Freedom Munitions' Leadville line, which is available in 45 Colt for about 51.5 cpr (plus ship). Some folks love FM, others not so much. I have shot a bunch of their re-loads in other calibers, but have stopped buying since I had a case separation (and since the price of factory new ammo has dropped).

Never heard of the brand you mentioned.

[packnrat]

45 colt is a great loading.
soft "cowboy" loading's up to good hunting rounds.
no mater what it is set up as it will not punish you even after a couple hrs shooting.

it is a bit hard on smaller live targets, like if you are trying to remove a group of pesky fuzzy tailed rats.
but drops yots right now.

sad it costs. buy the dies and a couple thousand cases from star. and live the life.

[joefrank64k]

EASY round to reload...and lots of options, too. Download for plinking, upload for more serious work. Buy some dies, brass, and bullets and don't look back

[orangeusa]

It's a low pressure (black powder pressures) round, so any or all ammo you can find will do fine.

As to reloading - It's like reloading a chapstick. Really easy.

.

[ARDude]

OP, What ever you find should be fine. With the New Model Vaquero I wouldn't recommend +P rounds. Standard or light loads only.

As others have said it is a great round to reload.

[orangeusa]

OP, What ever you find should be fine. With the New Model Vaquero I wouldn't recommend +P rounds. Standard or light loads only.

As others have said it is a great round to reload.

Not to mention a hellova lot of fun to shoot. It's my favorite. Noobs can shoot a real "Cowboy Peacemaker" that has large shells, little recoil. Very satisfying.

.

[MudCamper]

I save my brass, and exchange it when I buy, at Load-X, which is local to me in Santa Rosa. They ship but I don't know how much that costs.

http://loadxammo.com/retailcat.pdf

Look down in the "Cowboy Action" section. You can get 500 rounds for $190 if you give them your brass. ($0.38 per round)

Freedom Munitions is at $0.47 per round, but sometimes they have sales. Get on their spam list.

https://www.freedommunitions.com/ammunition/pistol/45-long-colt/45-long-colt-255-gr-fp-new.html

They also have a brass credit program, but I don't know how cost effective that is.

https://www.freedommunitions.com/brass-credit-program

[aspenvalley]

If you save your brass you should be able to reload for under .20 cents a round. Dies, c press, powder measure, scale and a few basic tools you should be good to go.

Find someone that has a tumbler to tumble your brass. If you save 20 bucks a box and shoot often you will brake even pretty soon and have another hobby.

I like reloading almost as much as unloading.

[stevemac]

OP, What ever you find should be fine. With the New Model Vaquero I wouldn't recommend +P rounds. Standard or light loads only.

As others have said it is a great round to reload.

It's not the new model if I understand correctly. The seller said he purchased it in 2000 and from what I've read the "new" models came out in 2005.

Like I said, never shot the load before so I'm excited!

[mikeyr]

even if I didn't reload, I would shoot .45LC and skip a few lunches for the ammo cost, its that much fun. Luckily I don't have to skip lunches because I reload. I will go up to the range with 2 magazines worth of 9mm but 200 45LC rounds and be happy.

Learn to reload it, if its the only caliber you reload you don't need a lot of investment or space.

[IVC]

Just remember that 45 Colt (LC is technically a mislabel, but we all call it LC from time to time) is practically two calibers: light cowboy loads with lead bullets and standard/+P loads with modern bullets.

The difference is not just in the ammunition, but in gun construction as well. Most Rugers will handle any load, but truer replicas of 1873 and other early revolvers won't. I have a lot of bulk +P I bought a while ago for my Winchester lever action (made by Miroku in Japan), but I keep it completely separate in order to avoid accidentally using it where I shouldn't.

[stevemac]

Ended up tagging along with my wife's grocery shopping trip and stopped by a LGS that had some in stock. No selection so I bought what they had which was 100 rounds of American Eagle 225 grain JSP.

There's some solid advice in this thread and I will be returning from time to time to reread the posts. I will buy what I need to reload. I would like to be able to reload 45 Colt, .357 Magnum, and .38 spl. Those are my revolver rounds and the brass is easy to save.

[TMB 1]

Reloading is best way to go with the 45 Colt.

[CGT80]

My preferred 45 colt ammo is around 6-7 cents per round. 6.5 grains of red dot under an RCBS 45 225 round nose boolit. It isn't a hot load, but the only 45 colt capable gun I have is the 460 magnum. Yeah, it's like a 22lr from that beast.

Did anyone mention it is a good cartridge to reload?

The boolits I use are also for the 45 acp and I cast them myself, usually from range lead, hence the low price to reload. Commercial made bear creek moly coated lead bullets cost me 6.5 to 9.5 cents per bullet. Add 2-3 cents per primer and a few cents per charge of powder and you could load them for 12-16 cents each. Bass Pro wanted a buck a round for any 45 colt that was on the shelf, last time I looked. Of course jacketed costs more than lead ammo. Buying cast lead bullets with wax lube can also get pretty pricey when you get into 45 colt or rifle bullets. Copper plated also works, as well as coated and powder coated.

A note, if you do reload, 45 colt can have multiple diameter bullets. Older pistols can be a 0.454" bore and newer ones may be 0.452" like the 45 acp. The 460 mag is setup to take 0.452" bullets, so I can run 45 acp bullets in the 45 colt cases to be fired in the 460. I don't know if your pistol is a replica of an older version and I'm not sure what diameter it would require, but it couldn't hurt to read up on it, even when using factory ammo.