Monday afternoon bump, in case Supe didn't see this. That, and a photo of my own handloads, showing the range of performance available in the .45 Colt.
Here are three different loads, with three different levels of performance. On the left is the traditional, original load, dating from 1873, but with a slightly improved bullet design. It's still pretty much the old 250 grain "round nosed flat point", but with two notable improvements. First, the flat point is much larger than on the original, improving terminal performance. Second, it has a crimp groove, now making this design suitable for smokeless powder. With black powder we simply crimped the old design over the bullets' ogive, since all we had to do was keep it from jumping out of the case. There was no chance of it getting pushed deeper into the case, since it sat over a compressed load of black powder.
I load this one over either 9.0 grains of Unique or 40.0 grains of FFFg black powder. Either load just breaks 900 fps from a 4 3/4" Peacemaker. This load will shoot to the sights in most guns. It's my standard plinking load. Wouldn't be a bad defensive load, either.
The one in the middle is a "Keith" type semi-wadcutter weighing 270 grains. This one is designed by Dave Scovil, editor of
Handloader and
Rifle magazines. He determined this was about as heavy as we can go and still have most guns shoot reasonably close to their sights.
I load this one over 16.5 grains of 2400 for just about 1,000 fps from a 4 3/4" gun. This would be considered a "+P" load, so we don't use it in older guns. This is my every day "go-to" load for general woods bumming, back packing, day hiking, or going into Seattle. Pretty darn effective for hunting as well - I've killed a bunch of deer, some antelope, one black bear, one elk, and a caribou (of all things...) with it. Oh, and a pretty good pile of rock chucks and coyotes, too, just because it's what I usually have on me when I see them.
On the right is a pretty specialized load. It won't even fit in the New Vaquero or a standard Peacemaker. It's too long, by design. It would probably be considered a "+P++++" load, suitable only for a very narrow range of stronger guns. I use it in my full sized Ruger Blackhawk and Bisley, which are built on their Super Blackhawk frame. I also use it in my Virginian Dragoon (long out of production, one of the finest, strongest single actions ever made).
This one weighs 300 grains. I load it over 24 grains of 296 for about 1,300 fps. Its only purpose in life is for hunting and, even at that, it's not really necessary. I don't even know why I load them anymore. Yes, I've killed a bunch of stuff with it over the years, and used it exclusively as my hunting load for far too long, but finally decided things hit by it weren't much deader than stuff hit with the far more pleasant to shoot 270 grain load.
Anyway, there you have it. Two loads that are eminently useful in the New Vaquero or Colt, and one that just kind of shows how far this old cartridge can go.