.45 Colt Cowboy loads in Classic Carbine

[Dusty Wheeler]

I'm curious if this has happened to others...
I was shooting my .45 Colt Carbine with 2 different brands of cowboy factory loads and had a fair amount of "spitting" back into my face (glad I was wearing eye protection!).  The cases showed "soot" from the case mouth back indicating a poor gas seal (something I have come to expect with .45 Colt light loads) but I didn't expect the "spitting."  I have several other Handi's in other calibers and haven't had this happen.  Any thoughts?

[dpe.ahoy]

I've got one and have not had that problem.  Can't see how you would get any blow-back in the face with the standing breach there.  should send it off to the sides, or up.  Did you see the path it was taking to get to your face?  If not something super simple, send her back, they should make everything right.  By the way, really like my barrel, but with stouter loads, I put a different stock on it to get the recoil pad back in the game.   Gettin old, and the metal butt plate does leave marks on your shoulder with the heavy loads.  DP.

[knight0334]

Possible problems:

1.  the loads are "bunny fart" levels =  there isn't enough pressure to seal the chamber.  Casings are gaskets, without proper pressure levels to expand the brass to seal the chamber you will get blow-by problems. 

2.  pressures are fine, but brass wasn't properly annealed.

[WILD_WEASEL]

I see the same "sooting" issue in my 45 Colt Ruger Blackhawk Convertible and H&R Carbine with Cowboy loads, but not as bad as you have described.  My home rolled Cowboy loads consist of 8gr of Unique with a 200gr Lead Round Nose Flat Point (LRNFP).  Heavier loads using 8gr of Unique with 250gr LRNFP do not soot as bad if at all.  With my 200gr LRNFPs I may bump up the powder charge to 9gr of Unique to increase chamber pressure to get a better seal with the cartridge case, as the 8gr charge is not enough to iron out cases during firing.

On the flip side, I also shoot 300gr Sierra JSPs in my Carbine over 18.8gr of 2400.  These cases stretch out quite a bit and have a hard time getting past the extractor once fired.  I've only shot a few of these and am not really interested in modifying the extractor to solve this problem.

Given these extremes I'd suspect that the Carbine chamber is in fact at the upper limit of whatever the dimension specification is.

My plan is to work up a load with 200gr LRNFPs using Unique until the cases are able to form an adequet seal. 

I use Winchester cases in my 45 Colt, which are the middle of the road in hardness.  Starline brass is harder while Remington is softer.  You may want to try Remington brass then for your loading if you want "bunny fart" levels.  I favor mid level / traditional loads myself pushing bullet at around 800 to 900 feet per second.

[Dusty Wheeler]

Thanks for the ideas.  I'll try heavier boolits and higher velocity to see if the "problem" goes away.  I'll let you know...

[dpe.ahoy]

Have you tryed the heaver loads yet?  Sure, all light loads will "soot" up, but spitting back in your face I haven't heard of.  No one else addressed this on your first question.  How can it get in your face?  DP.

[Dusty Wheeler]

I haven't tried heavier loads yet...got sidetracked loading .38-55 for a long range shoot (a 'bucket' isn't safe out to 500 yds!).  Rest assured I'll let you know the results. 

[dpe.ahoy]

38-55?  What size bullet did you use to get that good of a hit at 500?  MORE INFORMATION!  Yah, ok, junkie talking.    If I can't be shootin, I want to be hearin about it.   DP.