I am new to cartridge reloading, I have been shooting muzzleloaders for thirty years and casting my own for them. I have seen bullets in 451, 452, 454 diameters does anyone know what the Uberti SAA uses? I cast some in 454 but they seem to distort the case a little, at this time I do not have a seizer. Also I have read that casting from straight wheel weights was expectable, that the difference in hardness (from 2%) was nothing to worry about? Thanks..

Uberti pistols and rifles for 45lc are all sized for .452" lead bullets. Some slug out at .453", but, those are a rarity from the factory.

Get a Lee sizer if you are gonna be cheap. (I use one myself)

You might want to look into either pan lubing for black powder or to help with speeding things up.

the Lee liquid Alox is also a good choice. Use the Lee microgrove bullets for best effect.

The TL452-200-SWC and TL452-230-2R are excelent micro-band bullet molds from lee that are designed to work best with Liquid Alox lube methods.

http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/bullets/l452200s.gif
http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/bullets/l4522302.gif

Another good one is the 452-255-RF. Its great for pan lubing as well.
http://www.leeprecision.com/graphics/bullets/452255rf.gif

Thanks for the info Devers, I spoke with the people at Midway that is how I wound up with the 454 mold looks like they were wrong with their advice? I purchased the Uberti 1873 SAA and their 1866 Yellow Boy Winchester both in .45 LC these are the first cartage arms I have owned other than a .22 plinker. Has anyone loaded Black powder or Pyrodex in these types of arms? What load would you suggest?

If midway folks say ".454", then I guess they would know.

I have never seen them that large, but, I have only heard from 5 or 6 folks about them.

Again, nobody I know has slugged out at .454"

Take a .454" soft lead ball (from a muzzle loader) and see for yourself, or, get a "slugger" kit from Midway to be sure.

Its worth the extra investment if you are going to go ahead and cast for yourself.

For BP, you are going to want to avoid the microgrove bullets.

Go with the 452-255-RF and pan lube with some form of BP lube. (either home made or SPG or DGL)

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=689293
(just as good as SPG, IMHO)

The two groove bands on the 452-255-RF make it a natural for BP shooting.

Things to consider:
1) Use a good tight firm roll crimp
2) Use a softer alloy. 20:1 all the way upto 30:1
3) Use 2Fg equiv...Pyrodex RS works pretty darn good.
4) After you shoot, just NECK RESIZE!!! Once you have a few hundred fire formed brass, your lever action 45lc rifle will not have nearly as much blowback as before.
5) For BP 45lc in a levergun, use Winchester brass only. Starline and Top Brass and others are WAY WAY WAY too thick. (unless you anneal your brass...which is an extra hassle I have yet to perform with my 45lc guns)

The 45lc was never designed to shoot in winchester leverguns with black powder. We are all fighting an uphill batter here.

But, it sure does make for an interesting challenge!!!

I have had problems with Midway people telling anything just to get you to buy something they had. That is one reason I try my best not to deal with them. I don't cawboy action shoot much these days but I have found that the Lee products are hard to beat for casting and sizing your bullets. II tend to use Molly coat over other bullet lubes. That is one of the few things I get from Midway. When I was doing the cowboy action thing I sized my bullets to .452 and they shot real nice out of my Ruger Vaquero's I used the Lee 255 RF bullet mold. I loved the shooting and talking with people at shots I miss it alot and wish I had then time to do it more.

Most modern Colt replicas have barrels of .451" to .452", but the important part is to fit the boolit to the cylinder throats. An undersize (for the throat) boolit will cause leading and poor accuracy. If you were lucky, the throats will be .452" to .453". If they happen to be be undersize, the best thing to do is have them reamed.

Most modern Colt replicas have barrels of .451" to .452", Original first generation Colt SAs were .454" bore diameter however shortly after WWII, Colt changed the specs to .452" and the clones followed suit. Why Midway would suggest a .454" mold is beyond me unless they thought you had an early SA or a well-worn later model. Just make sure you have a good sturdy lubricater-sizer and a .452" die and your bullets should shoot just fine.

Thanks for the info Devers, I spoke with the people at Midway that is how I wound up with the 454 mold looks like they were wrong with their advice? I purchased the Uberti 1873 SAA and their 1866 Yellow Boy Winchester both in .45 LC these are the first cartage arms I have owned other than a .22 plinker. Has anyone loaded Black powder or Pyrodex in these types of arms? What load would you suggest?
Hogden 777 is a great powder for the 45LC. Lots of smoke and easy cleanup. Look at Loco Cerveza's reloading data for the loads we use. I believe he has them posted (if not, just ask him). Loco and I have experimented quite a lot with 777 in several pistol cartridges (9mm para works fine but way too much smoke for an indoor range). Load 777 the same way (by volume not weight) you would for black powder.