- Will Cowboy .45 Special work in my lever action rifle?
- Cowboy .45 Special was initially designed to overcome the problems associated with
CAS and target use of .45 Colt in revolvers, derringers, and single shot arms. Cowboy .
45 Special cases will NOT cycle in lever actions chambered for .45 Colt unless the rifle is
modified to feed the short round. At present the Cowboy .45 Special is in use in
specially prepared Marlin rifles, as well as in toggle link with specially modified carriers.
- To get the Cowboy .45 Special feed in MARLIN rifles, the rifle is custom-fitted with a new
carrier, short stroked, and receives a full race action job by Spur's Inc. The result is what
has been called "the ultimate .45 for CAS". The "Spur Special" marlin is far and away the
best Marlin ever. It really must be experienced to be understood. Ten round shot string
times are cut by as much as HALF compared to a stock Marlin in .45 Colt.
- Use of Cowboy .45 Special in '60 Henry, and '66 and '73 Winchester clones requires a
modified carrier. Happy Trails at The Smith shop has modified carriers. See www.
thesmithshop.com for detals.
- How can I get some Cowboy .45 Special brass? Who sells it?
- Cowboy .45 Special brass is produced exclusively for Adirondack Jack's Trading Post.
We ship directly to your door, using USPS Priority Mail. Click the "price info" link at the
top of this page for details.
- What about cost?
- Although Cowboy .45 Special is a custom case, and that means tooling costs and higher
costs per piece to manufacture than common cartridges, BUT we have done our
very best to keep overhead low, and prices fair. Despite rising costs and so
on, we're sticking to the old adage "Be fair to your customers if you expect
them to be fair to you." It's been working good so far.
- . When you buy Cowboy .45 Special brass, you will get your investment back over time
and then some. Here's how. You're gonna use a LOT LESS POWDER!
- Yeah, how much can I save on powder, a few pennies?
- Powder costs are cut by as much as half! With Black powder or subs, you will see a
cost savings of around 40 to 50% compared to using full case .45 Colt loads. And that's
not counting the wads and fillers you won't need! With smokeless, cost savings will be
less dramatic, but in time, the brass will pay for itself. Here's an example. My .45 Colt
load was 23.5 grains (weight) of Triple Seven. In cowboy .45 Special, I load 13.2 grains
(weight) of Triple Seven. At 2007 prices, That means every time I load 100 rounds of
Cowboy .45 Special, I save ALMOST THREE DOLLARS compared to the cost of .45 Colt.
That means, if I load the brass 10 times, I have saved $30!!! Now I don't know about you,
but any time I can save enough money to essentially get the brass to pay for itself and
give me a bonus for using it, I'm a happy guy.
- What about black powder and subs?
- Shooters who compete in Frontier Cartridge all know the old .45 is a boomer with black
powder, and gets really snappy with the otherwise great BP sub, Hodgdon's Triple
Seven. Again, the culprit is case capacity. By creating a case with about half as much
vertical column under the bullet, the Cowboy .45 Special tames BP and subs to levels
approaching a .38.
- What about the new SASS smoke rule?
- As it happens, the SASS "minimum smoke" 15 grain (we use Goex FFG) BP load JUST
fits under a 200 grain bullet without compression, and with a 250, requires a good bit of
compression. Of course you CAN run a few grains more just to be sure you're above the
minimum, but even at that, recoil is so mild, shot to shot times are trimmed significantly.
- So how about triple seven? What kinda velocity are we talking? It better be a lot less
than full house .45 Colts?
- With Hodgdon's Triple Seven, a loads of 13.2 grains (weight) which is around 18 grains
VOLUME, or 40% less than a .45 Colt load, runs a 200 or a 250 grainer in the 700-730 fps
velocity range, which is a whole bunch milder than full house .45 Colts. What's more,
these soft shooting and consistent performing loads can be cranked out on a
progressive press just like smokeless. No muss, no fuss, no expensive wads, no
messing around with fillers, just load em up and go.
- What about performance with real black powder?
- Black powder loads are so mild, you'll swear you're shooting a .38! What's more, since
there are no fillers or wads, with a proper black powder approved powder measure,
black powder rounds can be loaded progressively, just as easily as subs or smokeless
- What about smokeless load data?
- WARNING!!!! .45 COLT LOAD DATA MUST NOT BE USED WITH Cowboy .45 Special
brass!!!!!!! The shorter case builds higher pressures with a given charge, so powder
charges must be reduced accordingly. Safe data is available from powder and bullet
makers listing .45 Autorim and .45 ACP load data. We supply data we have found to be
safe and produce excellent results, , and the powder and bullet makers all supply data
for .45 Autorim which is very useful (case capacity of the autorim is a hair less than the
Cowboy .45 Special, so any data safe in autorim is safe in Cowboy .45 Special. Data for
TARGET LEVEL .45 ACP may also be used for action games, and for other use, any .45
ACP data may be used, (even +P in strong guns such as Ruger's fine Vaquero and Black
Hawk revolvers).IMR supplies data for Trail Boss powder in the .45 ACP section of their
online handloading guide. (A typical CAS level load of Trail Boss is almost 100% charge
density, and a double charge would just about run over the top of the case. You can't
load smokeless any safer than that.)
- What about other subs and real black powder besides those listed?
- Black Powder and subs may be loaded using standard practices, using a charge
sufficient to fill the available space under the bullet with slight compression. You will
find black powder and subs go a lot further with these short cases.
- What about loading dies? Updated 12/15/06
- Cowboy .45 Special is designed to use ordinary "off the shelf" dies. Using a .45 Colt
shell plate and sizing die, and expander and seat/crimp dies from a .45 ACP or autorim
die set. While any ACP/Autorim dies will work, along with a .45 Colt shell plate, the very
best results to date have been achieved using Hornady New Dimension .45 caliber dies
no. 546554. Note Hornady uses the same dies for .45 Colt, ACP, Autorim, and win mag.
They produce a proper roll crimp, and use a sliding bullet guide that aids in seating even
very short bullets straight. The sizing die is also a bit larger than typical ACP dies, which
provides proper bullet tension for .452-4 cast bullets, and requires less effort to size and
expand. This makes the press run smoother, and works brass less as well. Personally, I
only neck size fired cases, adjusting the sizer so it resizes the part of the brass where
the bullet seats, but not the lower aspect.
- What dies will work?
- If you already have .45 ACP dies, and don't care to get Hornady dies, your ACP dies will
work, together with your .45 Colt shell plate. BUT, there are ways to make "better" ammo
by using a bit more intelligent die setup. Since we are loading for .45 COLT chambers,
which are notoriously roomy (the old SAAMI numbers are sloppy, and chambers cut to
SAAMI max are prone to burnt powder blow-by) we need to think about the actual
dimensions of our cases if the goal is to limit blow-by, especially at typical CAS levels.
The Cowboy .45 Special has much less blow-by at middle of the road CAS loads, but if
you like em reallly light, or load with BP or subs, read on.
One way to help reduce blow-by at low velocity levels is to use a .45 COLT sizer die instead of
the slightly smaller ACP sizing die. Even better is what is known as "neck sizing" our fired
brass. When a case is fired it expands and "bounces" back part way, ending up a few
thousanths bigger than "resized" brass. Since we are working with very roomy chambers,
we can leave the brass in the "as fired" state, sizing ONLY the case neck where the bullet
seats, and sizing that only as much as needed to get decent neck tension on the bullet.
Typical pistol dies are designed to "full length size", but can be set up to partially resize or
"neck size". To do this, take a .45 Colt sizing die and adjust it so that the decapping pin JUST
knocks out the spent primer. Note how close the die mouth is to the shell plate. Most often it
is still going to resize more than half of the case. Now, loosen the collet holding the
decapping pin, and using a small drift, push the decapping pin about .150 below the top of the
die such that only the bottom portion of the collet holds the pin, and retighten the collet. Now
adjust the die until it JUST knocks out the old primer, and note how much of the case is up
inside the die. Likely you can get the die adjusted to a point where ONLY the case mouth is
resized (the area that grabs the bullet) and no further. Now, as long as you can reliably knock
out old primers and you're resizing the top .200 in. or so of the case neck, you've done all the
sizing CAS brass needs. Load a few fired, neck sized cases with your favorite bullets and
make sure they chamber ok in your pistols (mine do with ease) and compare the diameter of
the loaded once fired, neck sized cases to those which have been full length resized. You'll
likely see about .005 or .006 inch diameter difference at the point of the bullet base, which
means when you next fire them, these neck sized rounds will seal much better during firing,
leave little powder residue in the chambers, and still extract just fine. This is especially
important as we load for minimum recoil with light bullets. Cowboy .45 Special develops more
pressure than .45 Colt at a given velocity and that means LESS blow-by at modest levels, but
if ya push the lower limits of velocity, it's still possible to get smoky cases. Neck sizing with a .
45 COLT sizing die will reduce the smoky cases.
- What about light bullets in Cowboy .45 Special? How light can we go and still get good
accuracy?
- Cowboy .45 Special works very well with bullets as light as 150 grains (maybe even
less), and will run accurately and consistently at velocities well below those needed with .
45 Colt using any similar bullet.
- What about my Automatic case feeder? Will it work with these cases?
- Cowboy .45 Special brass is the same rim diameter as .45 COLT, and the same LENGTH
as .45 ACP. You will likely need to mix and match feeder parts, using the pieces that
have to fit the case LENGTH for .45 ACP, and the pieces needed for specific case
diameters as you would use with .45 COLT. I use a Dillon 650, and mixed and matched
parts out of a .45 ACP caliber set with those from a .45 Colt caliber set. Other feeders
will likely need to be similarly set up.
- What about loaded ammo?What about loaded ammo?oming Spring '07 Adirondack Jack's Trading Post has teamed up with Ten-X
ammunition to offer loaded Cowboy .45 Special BPC ammo. See www.tenxammo.com
or visit your Ten-X ammo dealer.
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