tuarus thunderbolt rifle hand loads
Posted - 10/01/2010 : 12:19:06 AM
Hi, hope someone can help me here.I posted this very same message in the reloading forum and only had one reply so I am trying to see if this forum can present me with a few more ideas, comments or experiences. I have a thunderbolt 45 colt that suffers from the poor fit of the bore. Factory loads are not strong enough to expand the brass and seal the breech so powder blows past the brass. This seems to be common with these, some say the bore is a little out of round and a hotter load will usually seal. I have an older 1892 (late 1890's) and I use an old lee loader, it has a rife charge. I use a 200 gr bullet with a measure of 23.9 grains of 2400. I have been using this for over 30 years. the 92 is still firm and smooooth as butter. Since the 45 is similar in size and case capacity will this 23.9 grains of powder with a 250 grains of lead be okay to use in the weaker thunderbolt? I will be using a lee loader to make the rounds so we are talking a hand crimp not a crimp from a press. I appreciate any help here, thanks and happy shooting.
Ambrose has kindly given his thoughts, expertise in the reloading forum.
Has anyone in the CAS circles played with 2400 in the turaus? I also have a supply of reloader# 7 I use with my 45-70 rifles. Anyone experiment with that in the turaus?
Hi, hope someone can help me here.I posted this very same message in the reloading forum and only had one reply so I am trying to see if this forum can present me with a few more ideas, comments or experiences. I have a thunderbolt 45 colt that suffers from the poor fit of the bore. Factory loads are not strong enough to expand the brass and seal the breech so powder blows past the brass. This seems to be common with these, some say the bore is a little out of round and a hotter load will usually seal. I have an older 1892 (late 1890's) and I use an old lee loader, it has a rife charge. I use a 200 gr bullet with a measure of 23.9 grains of 2400. I have been using this for over 30 years. the 92 is still firm and smooooth as butter. Since the 45 is similar in size and case capacity will this 23.9 grains of powder with a 250 grains of lead be okay to use in the weaker thunderbolt? I will be using a lee loader to make the rounds so we are talking a hand crimp not a crimp from a press. I appreciate any help here, thanks and happy shooting.
Ambrose has kindly given his thoughts, expertise in the reloading forum.
Has anyone in the CAS circles played with 2400 in the turaus? I also have a supply of reloader# 7 I use with my 45-70 rifles. Anyone experiment with that in the turaus?
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I haven't had any experience with a Taurus Thunderbolt, but years ago I gave 2400 a try for reloading. It a real slow burning pistol powder that works best for/with maximum loads.
From your explanation vis a vis the oversize bore of the Taurus, I would try the fastest burning pistol powder that's available in hopes that it was hot enough to upset/expand both the brass cartridge case and the lead bullet enough so that the amount of gas blowby is reduced. Of course it helps if the lead alloy the lead bullet is cast of is soft enough to promote this expansion.
I've gone to AA 2 powder which is the fastest burning powder in the Accurate Arms line, because I had similar problems loading 10mm lead bullet loads. Using slow burning powders in less then full case charges, just wasn't working out for me.0 -
My gun's SerNo prefix is a 'Z'. That is beyond the time when they had the out-sized chambers (chambers fixed by the 'Z' prefix).
The original Colts had generous chambers to ease case extraction, and were using thin copper folded cases. They sealed well.
Taurus did a mimic on the original Colt Lightning Rifle chamber dimensions, and then 'tightened them up' as the modern [read: thick] brass would not seal properly.
Now, all I run is Win. and Rem. 250-255gr factories through my Taurus. Works Okay. Best reloads to focus on are the 'factory duplication loads' for the 250gr bullets, and you should see less gas seepage, as I noticed you are using lighter bullets. The 250 grainers will seal the chamber a little better.
Stay with the standard loads. If the loads listed in your initial post is less than factory, boost it up. You will get greater gas-seal with the 250gr bullets than with lighter ones. Taurus will ingest any loads that a Winchester Model 1892 will. Hope I helped. Joe0 -
Thanks guys! This taurus is a Y serial #. I am using 250 lead bullets. What concerns me is that everything listed for the 1892 is hand gun loads. My rifle loads are 3+ times that and I would never attempt them in a revolver. Still think the taurus can handle that? I have no doubt that this 23+ grains of 2400 will seal the chamber, its hell on the 44-40 brass (3 to 5 reloads and its done). So can the taurus handle that or should I just experiment with a different powder like one that has been suggested? Has anyone had success custom loading for a Y serial # taurus and if so what combo(s) did you succeed with? I have to go a bit out of my way and it may be weeks for me to get to a store for powder when they are open so I am trying to gather as much intel as possible. Thanks for all your ideas/experiences and opinions. 0 -
You might have better luck with oversized bullets also. When I was reloading for the Judge, bought Remington .455 Dia. graphite coated lead bullets for reloading. They were the only accurate loads I could work up for the Judge, with a relatively small charge of powder. I estimated the velocity to be no more the 700 fps.
Maybe that part of your problem, your shooting to hot a load through your Thunderbolt. Give oversize lead bullets a try with small charges of fast burning powder. Granted because of the trajectory, their not going to be long range loads though.0
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