[loader]

Great topic. Good advice all around. I have a few observations:

1. Winchester pistol brass deforms more than rem or Federal.

2. I work with Lil'gun a LOT, and it is a very unusual powder. It gets its power from a
pressure curve that is flatter than traditional powders - a lot of area under it, but not such a high peak. It can show a lot of deformation in soft brass for the peak pressure listed.

3. Your loads sre 1-2 grs over Hodgdon's Max. They list 20.2 grs at 29,800 CUP. This is the limit for the Colt BRASS, but probably not your rifle.

I would trim some 454 Casull brass to Colt length, and try a few to see what happens. These cases are designed for 65000 psi, and very strong in the web. Work up your loads again, as the trimmed Casull cases will have a smaller capacity than the Colts. Remember, the Casull uses small rifle primers. Try for 1500 fps and stop there.

This sounds like a lot of work, compared to just buying the Colt brass, but the Casull cases will last forever at these pressures. If this approach does not work, try Jack's tape method.

Hope this helps.

 

[loader]

In looking at the Hodgdon data, my guess is that they don't want to go over 30,000 CUP in the 45 Colt for modern strong actions. It may be a brass restriction, not a firearm limit. I don't now enough about your rifle to assess the Colt in that application. Again, try the trimmed 454 Casull brass to cure your case bulging. If this works, find out the pressure limits of your rifle, and work on up.

If anyone out there knows the CUP or PSI limit for CUB's rifle, please pitch in.