Part 3 of the Ruger Old Army projectile test

[duelist1954]

In this final episode (thank God!) I tested Kaido's custom 255-grain conical bullets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkcvwP342Lg

 

[nkbj]

A bit heavy for my use but it's surely a whooper stomper.

 

[rodwha]

I recently ordered Kaido's 240 grn conical, but now I'm curious about the 255 grainers. I was skeptical about being able to load it with the loading lever. Kaido gave me some rather large caliber numbers for that one (.4605").
I'm thinking that I'll be needing to try out some of these...

 

[Bon Sauvage]

Thank you. I enjoyed all of the videos.

 

[MSW]

I was surprised that the lighter conical gave the tightest group ... been wanting one of those molds for years and that might just have cinched it ... looks as though, as a practical matter, this is in the light 44 special as far as terminal ballistics ... (i think it was Elmer Keith who said he wanted his bullet to let a lot of air in and lot of blood out).

i'll keep the ROA on my hip in the woods.

by the way, why did we go with the 'Buntline" and not the much more common 7 1/2 barrel?

 

[rodwha]

dualist: I'm curious whether or not the 35 grn powder charge behind Kaido's 255 grn conical was a full charge.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

If you listened to his explanation, he felt that 35 grains was an excessive charge, 30 grains would have been better. He had considerable difficulty in compressing the powder enough to fully seat the bullet and felt that the excessive compression contributed to poor accuracy.

 

[CoyoteJoe]

Thank you very much for your efforts! I hadn't known you were doing this series so now I'll have to backtrack and watch the first two, thanks again. :hatsoff:

 

[rodwha]

To me it appears as though it was seated a bit deeper than just under flush. And with the effort needed to push a conical of that size in there I can see how it would exceedingly compress the powder.

I also notice there is no groove lube...

 

[CoyoteJoe]

We must have watched two different videos. :haha:
At the very start there is nothing on the screen but the bullet and it looks very much like a standard .45 Colt flat point with two lube grooves. It seems that in this series of tests he just arbitrarily used 35 grains with all three projectiles even though the ball could have used more and the 255 grain should have used less.
Since it was intended to compare performance of three different projectiles it does seem reasonable to use the same charge for all but then again it may make more sense to test each projectile with the optimum charge for each, but that would have been a more involved test and I appreciate the effort already put forth here.

 

[Dphar]

In this final episode (thank God!) I tested Kaido's custom 255-grain conical bullets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkcvwP342Lg[/quote]

I suspect that a pure lead bullet would have loaded more uniformly and allowed more careful compression of the powder.
This has been my experience with trying to shoot hard bullets from C&B revolvers in the past. The "breakover" when the hard bullet finally shears in causes inconsistent compression.

The 255 would make an excellent bear load where penetration is the key with a handgun. Some friends are making 45 colts with long barrels (10-12") to use as "pocket rifle" bear guns in YNP. It will allow having a gun under a coat that is not visible to the tourons.
A tube over the loading lever as a "cheater" to give a longer lever helps too, easier to control.

Dan