.44 & .45 Gallery Ball Handgun Loads

Using muzzle loading round balls in revolvers creates a low power indoor gallery round that can also serve as a low velocity pest control round. The data is all but forgotten, so I referenced Speer No. 11 Reloading Manual and interviewed a avid “Cowboy Action Shooter” so other interested Reloaders have this information.

.44-caliber .433 diameter 120-grain Muzzleloader Lead Round balls used for either 44 Special or 44 Magnum loads. Hornady #5127 or Speer #6030. Seating is to the “equator” of a round ball, crimp in place.

.44-caliber .454 diameter 141-grain Muzzleloader Lead Round balls used for .45 caliber revolvers. Hornady #5135 or Speer #6070. Seating is to the “equator” of a round ball, crimp in place.

45 Cowboy Special will load to 45 AR specs (based on case length .898 inches)

Black Powder can be a alternative. Here reducing a charge can be accomplished fairly easy and recommended. A 45 Colt case can hold 30 plus grains of powder, I like to use felt wads to take up space and if treated with “Bore Butter” (non petroleum-based lubricant) aids in reducing fouling. Format is powder charge-over shot cardboard was-several felt wads-round ball.

Another option is placing 1cc (or more) of cream of wheat or similar material as filler material. Some employ a card wad between powder and filler, others so. Once a ball is seated into place the layer of powder and filler will be locked into place.

The game plan is absolutely no space in the case so trial an error is involved. Try using less powder and more filler material, maybe a little more powder and fewer wads, do not go to heavy of a charge, velocity is not important just creating a fun round to plink with. My load was 15-grains FFg+ Card Wad + 3 of the Wonder Wads (felt wads). Basically a equivalent to a 38 Special round. FFFg works as well, here I elected for a courser grain powder because it is will not pack as tight and velocity was not my objective, just space. I learned finer powders do produce less fouling but the treated felt wads do help scrub the bore to some degree.

When my wife shot in SAAS events using a Colt Style SAA in the Black Powder class with the Gallery Ball Round mentioned above.. No problem hitting a large steel plate, still had the thunder boom associated with black powder, have smoke, same smell, virtually no recoil. Time consuming to build, VERY fun to shoot.

A controversy did develop with my recipe. At a SASS Match years ago, the theme was cockroaches on a wall that needed to be eliminated. This took place while sitting in a bath tub facing down range, at the end of the tub was the back stop and the targets were a series of large insect images (the cockroaches). This was a five shot event. When my wife finished shooting at that stage, she had 40 holes in the target! It looked like several well placed buck shot loads had unleashed upon the invading insect world. The setup for this stage was that the target was close – – so close, that the felt wads never dropped off. Plus, it was butcher paper stretched over an open frame, so there was no resistance to speak of. The match judge declared five misses – a zero score. I, on the other hand declared impossible, the bugs have been eliminated along with most of the target! She was eventually was awarded a perfect score, from the other judges. Mr. Grumpy did not concur.

What I learned from my range test in both 45 COLT and 45 COWBOY SPECIAL (pictured above). Using Winchester 231 powder 4.2 grain charge in the Colt brass, 3.5 grain charge in the Special fire from 4-5/8 inch barrel Ruger VAQUERO

Target was set at 20 feet, the Cowboy Special hit point of impact, virtually quiet and maybe some felt recoil. It was fun to let others shoot, the surprised look on their face-it is not what one would expect from a revolver. The full-sized cases was another animal for sure, hits very low, not enough pressure to keep primers from backing out and jamming cylinder and much unburnt powder. Too much case capacity, too little powder. I would suspect the same scenario will be duplicated when loading for .44 calibers, avoid using magnum cases.