Been meaning to ask...Old West Loads...

[Nightcrawler]

Now that TFL is shutting down, I'd better jump on this.

I'm not talking about light modern Cowboy Action Loads, either.

Say it's 1895 or so. What kind of loads would you see in various cartridges? What bullet weights, at what velocities, out what length barrels?

Specifically, I'm interested in:

.45 Colt
.45 Schoefield
.44-40 WCF
.45-70 Gov't
.45-90
.45-120
.38-55

And anything else. .45 Colt and .44-40 most especially, though.

Thanks!

 

[Mike Irwin]

Well, IIRC... The rifle velocities are what I SEEM to remember, but I may be slow on them.

.45 Long Colt, 255 gr. bullet, about 45 grains of black powder, about 850-900 fps.

.45 Schofield, I THINK a 230-gr. bullet, about 38 grains of BP, about 800 fps.

.44-40, about a 230-250 gr. bullet, 40 grains BP, about 800-850 fps.

.45-70 Gov't, different loadings, but a typical one was a 405 gr. bullet, 70 grains BP, and about 1500 fps.

.45-90, again various lodings, typical was a 405 gr. bullet, 90 gr. BP, and about 1600 fps.

.45-120, various, typical 500 gr. bullet, 120 gr. BP, about 1800 fps.

.38-55, 220 gr. bullet, 55 gr. BP, about 1500 fps.


The funny thing about black powder is that a LOT of cartridges from that time frame gave about the same velocity, between 1,500 and 1,800 fps.

Getting a round from 1,500 to 1,800 fps took a TREMENDOUS amount of extra black powder.