Can anyone tell me if 45 LC is .452 or bigger? I am breaking in a new caster/reloader and he wants us to cast for 45LC for his Ruger Vaquero.

The 45 Colt is kind of a bag of worms. Early guns ran .454" in the bore and who-knows-what at the chamber mouths. Best results came with bullets sized .454" or a smidge more.

Then bores were tightened (likely due to the fact that having a single dimension number for all "45" guns made economic sense) they were more or less standardized at .451". Mostly.

Ruger guns (and most reloading dies) have run the gamut in dimensions, but almost all of the current examples will run .451" in the bore and perhaps .452" at chamber mouths. That's good, as it promotes good accuracy.

Your friend can anticipate good results with bullets cast and sized from .452 to .454" if his dies are recently made. In short, as long as the dies and bullets suit the gun, he'll be fine. He will not need hard bullets with this low-pressure round. Straight wheelweights will be plenty hard enough.

Thanks Rocky. The reason I was asking is because the LEE book says its 454 but the only LEE moulds I could find for 45LC were 452. His is a newer Ruger Vaquero, so I figure that should be fine.

Measure the cylinder throats. Rugers are all over the map in my experience, from 0.448" to 0.456." I measured a 3rd gen Colt SAA that was 0.458," no fooling! There might be some other cartridges with a 0.010" spread in dimensions over the years, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I haven't bought a new Ruger .45 Colt in several years, so perhaps there is some hope they have finally gotten it right. Getting undersized cylinders reamed out is no big deal, though.

All of my Ruger's that shoot 45 Colt use the same bullets, that is 200 grain, 452 diameter, lead bullets. They all shoot fairly accurately once the sights are adjusted. These cartridges are loaded light and shoot about 4" below a factory load at 25'. For my Vaquero's I had to file down a portion of the front sight to shoot to point of aim. In Cowboy Action Shooting you are always shooting from a known distance. 45 Colt is correct terminology, there is not such thing as a 45 LONG Colt.

Roger that Nite Ryder. Thanks.

My Ruger New Varquero likes .452" cast bullets best.

Chris.

I've got a bucket full of 45 Colt revolvers and one 45 Colt lever action. One Ruger Blackhawk, one Colt Anaconda, Four S&W 25s and 625s. They all lead with .452 no leading with .454.
I use .454.

Jim

You want to slug the bore and cast the bullets 0.001-0.002" over the bore diameter. Most gun makers switched to 0.451" groove diameter for the bore after WW II, but because there were so many 0.455" and 0.456" lead and cast bullet .45 Colt cartridges and bullet molds and whatnot still out there for the old 0.454" groove barrels, many kept the chambers and cylinder throats original size to accommodate the older cartridges, and just let the barrels swage the bullets down.

There is no correct or incorrect about the names .45 Colt vs. .45 Long Colt these days. The original cartridge was .45 Colt, but in the late 1800's the military started referring to it as .45 Long Colt to distinguish it from the shorter .45 S&W Schofield ammunition they also had. They didn't want the troops to requisition plain old ".45's" for fear of a mix up. In recent years, Colt itself has been calling the chambering .45 Long Colt (http://www.coltsmfg.com/products-c1-q43-Colt_Revolvers.aspx) in its single-action revolvers. So, the term, though not originally proper, has over a century of usage, and has now stuck as an acceptable synonym.

Original dimensions with maximum tolerance bullet.

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/4794/45lc.gif

I have a Vaquero made in 2000 and I size @ 452. I'm sure that YMMV but as mentioned, in order for you to know what to size at, will be determined by you measuring the throats of your buddies revolver. If any of the throats measure larger than any other, then go with the largest hole (throat) size. As long as a round will chamber, then it is not too big.