Our fellow forum member Dustoff has a cool new toy.
I'm helping him to dial in some 45 Colt ammo for it.
We are testing BLUE coated bullets, Berry bullets, HP38 powder, CFE, and Inspectors Titegroup.

For some reason, factory 45 colt ammo was spraying all over the hill.
I think the bullets were tumbling.

Our fellow forum member Dustoff has a cool new toy.
I'm helping him to dial in some 45 Colt ammo for it.
We are testing BLUE coated bullets, Berry bullets, HP38 powder, CFE, and Inspectors Titegroup.

For some reason, factory 45 colt ammo was spraying all over the hill.
I think the bullets were tumbling.

The only problem here is the guy pulling the lever on the reloading press. 

But seriously, I know you know what you are doing here so I can only guess at what I think might be some issues. I’ll make a few suggestions.

First this particular gun has a very large over bore that the bullet has to go through before it hits the forcing cone due to the extra long cylinder. Plus the gun has a 2.5” or 2.75” barrel. These two things combine to make the gun a short distance SD gun. I read that accuracy is around 3” at 7-10 yards and 6”+ at 25 yards while rested. If this is the accuracy you are seeing with the factory ammo, I would think this may be normal. If factory ammo is much worse than this then maybe try different ammo.

I read there is little if any difference in Colt compared to ACP ammo in accuracy.

I also read that the rifling in the gun is a little slow (1 in 12”) compared to other Colt barreled guns. So I might suggest either slowing your 250gr reloads down even more or loading some lighter bullets. I have lots of Trail Boss I can donate to the cause if you want to try slowing down your 250 grainers. If you have some .45ACP already loaded, especially light loads with 200gr or 185gr bullets I would suggest trying these before loading some new ammo. While I doubt any of this would be a cause of tumbling/keyholing, it is all I can think of right now.

Okay, after further discussion with Dustoff, I have a better understanding of what is happening. I thought the reloads were tumbling. Just one brand of factory load was tumbling.

The firearm in question, S&W Governor SA/DA 2.5 inch cylinder, 2.75 inch barrel, 6 shot, 2 1/2 .410 bore, .45 Colt and .45 ACP with moon clips. I’ve had it for about 5 years now and that’s a full size iPad it’s on.

Did dustoff tell you that 45acp shot ok from the gov?

Did dustoff tell you that 45acp shot ok from the gov?

Nope. But that’s good to know info.

What did you reload? Powder/boolit/primer combo? Let me know how they shoot. I would think your reloads will do much better than the factory ammo. 

What did you reload? Powder/boolit/primer combo? Let me know how they shoot. I would think your reloads will do much better than the factory ammo. 

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I had Berrys and Blues 250 grain bullets.
I ran HP38 and Titegroup.
Higher charge weights yielded more consistent velocity.
Accuracy with the best loads was about 7 to 8 inches at 25 yds.
 I think the gov would do better with 200 or 230 gr bullets at higher speed.
 I'm going to load some #68 bullets for Dustoff.
They might exceed OAL spec but that shouldn't be a problem with that humongous cylinder.

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I had Berrys and Blues 250 grain bullets.
I ran HP38 and Titegroup.
Higher charge weights yielded more consistent velocity.
Accuracy with the best loads was about 7 to 8 inches at 25 yds.
 I think the gov would do better with 200 or 230 gr bullets at higher speed.
 I'm going to load some #68 bullets for Dustoff.
They might exceed OAL spec but that shouldn't be a problem with that humongous cylinder.

Sounds good!

Let me know how the lighter bullets work in the gun. Are you going to try CFE Pistol? I have some but I have not experimented with it yet. BTW, IMR Target works well for me in 45 Auto Rim with 250gr SWC boolit.

I don’t have much in the way of .45 supplies to offer up. But I do have 250gr hard cast SWC from a local source you know that shoot well out of my S&W Model 25 (45 Auto Rim) and my Ruger Super Redhawk (45 Colt). Let me know if you want to try.

Sounds good!

Let me know how the lighter bullets work in the gun. Are you going to try CFE Pistol? I have some but I have not experimented with it yet. BTW, IMR Target works well for me in 45 Auto Rim with 250gr SWC boolit.

I don’t have much in the way of .45 supplies to offer up. But I do have 250gr hard cast SWC from a local source you know that shoot well out of my S&W Model 25 (45 Auto Rim) and my Ruger Super Redhawk (45 Colt). Let me know if you want to try.

...
Thanks for the offer. There is another reason I wanted to try lighter high speed loads.
Point of impact was consistently high with the slow heavy bullets.
The faster lighter bullet should bring the poi down.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is not my gun.
I'm just fascinated by it.

...
Thanks for the offer. There is another reason I wanted to try lighter high speed loads.
Point of impact was consistently high with the slow heavy bullets.
The faster lighter bullet should bring the poi down.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is not my gun.
I'm just fascinated by it.

I know what you mean. I would like to spend some time shooting it with a variety of .45’s and .410’s.

Let me know how the lighter bullets work. I think you’ll see better results.

Any fouling from previous firings or plastic fouling from shot shell wads?

Any fouling from previous firings or plastic fouling from shot shell wads?

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 Now that you mention it, on the day that the Remington factory ammo was spraying all over the place, I did notice leading in the barrel.
 That could cause the wild shots.... Good point.

 I had not seen heavy leading since I first started reloading almost 40 years ago,
 I was using soft swaged Speer lead bulk bullets for light 44 mag loads....yuck
 

Made a few test loads for dustoff using cfe.

============
 Now that you mention it, on the day that the Remington factory ammo was spraying all over the place, I did notice leading in the barrel.
 That could cause the wild shots.... Good point.

 I had not seen heavy leading since I first started reloading almost 40 years ago,
 I was using soft swaged Speer lead bulk bullets for light 44 mag loads....yuck
 

I have a Blackhawk in .357mag, for some reason, even with powderpuff loads and hard lead bullets, I'd still get a minor touch of leading.  Groups would noticeably open after a few cylinder fulls.  Switched to powder coated, no problems after that. 

Made a few test loads for dustoff using cfe.

Pretty!

For some reason, factory 45 colt ammo was spraying all over the hill.
I think the bullets were tumbling.

So it was you...

So it was you...

heads