Dutch,
Just got back from the range, er gravel pit, and unlimbered the 45 Colt Redhawk. I got a call from the guy that sold it to me a couple of days ago and thought for sure he was wanting it back, nope, he had a box of Corbon 335 gr hardcast +P loads he had bought for it and was wanting to know if I wanted them too. Said they were free if I'd stop by and pick them up. I did. Anyway, back to the range. The Corbon loads are 335 hardcast with a velocity listed on the box of 1050 fps. I'm assuming that's from a 7.5 inch barrel as most are measured. I loaded those and shot a full cyclinder into a group at 25 yards from the sitting position of about 1.5 inches. Not bad for factory loads in an unfamiliar gun, I'd say. They shot high and right of the sights, so I adjusted and repeated the performance with the next cyclinder full and the next. The Corbon's are pretty strong, and come back about like factory loaded 44's, at least in my hands. Oh yeah, the Corbon had a sticker on the box of $24.00 for 20 rounds. Kinda spendy. No leading was evident to my eye looking through the barrel, though powder fouling was very evident. I gave it a quick field cleaning and everything was shiny again, except around the mouth of the cyclinder.
Now on to the Buffalo Bore loads. I have to admit, I'm kinda partial to these, though I can't afford to shoot them too much. At a dollar and change per pop, it gets expensive pretty quick, though these were gifted with the gun. Without adjusting the sights I touched off the first round and compared to the CorBon, it felt like the revolver exploded. Yes, these are some very stout loads. Low and left. I touched off another round, and it touched the first shot. One more for group, and I had a nice ragged hole, low and left. I adjusted the sights for the BB loads and fired one off. Just a touch high in the orange above the black square. That's fine with me. I loaded the cyclinder full. Boom, boom....uh-oh what's that blood all over my shiny new revolver? The curl on the grip sliced the web of my hand open pretty good. But the groups are really, really good. Back to the truck for some bandage. Back to the target. Six shots into a great big ragged hole, hard, heavy, gritty, jumpy trigger and all.
These Redhawks will shoot, make no mistake about it. I'm not a great shot, and kinda surprised myself today with factory loads that kick like the Buffalo Bore's do. The Buffalo Bore loads are the 325 grain hard cast LFN at 1325 fps (per the box) and I did notice quite a bit of lead fouling and the revolver is soaking as I write this, trying to get it clean. Great gun, great ammo (both the Corbon and Buffalo Bore) and Great FUN...
I won't be shooting a lot of these two types of ammo and wouldn't recommend shooting these types of loads regularly, they have to be hard on the gun. I don't think they are needed either. I can't wait to load up some cowboy type loads to see what happens. By the way, there is room to seat the bullets out a bit further than either the Corbon or Buffalo Bore, but I'm not sure why anyone would want to. Considering the loads I shot today, I think the gun handles recoil really well and is very accurate. I do think the front sight needs to be wider and will replace that right after the trigger job. Shooting DA, it is very easy to tell when the gun will go boom. There is no "where's the ka-boom, there should be a ka-boom". Pull is heavy, then about where "half-cock" would be lightens noticeabley, then right before it bottoms out gets very heavy. It's fairly easy to control once you get the feel for it, but is not a good trigger by any stretch of the imagination. Oh, by the way, no duds and all fired when they were supposed to.
I think you will be happy with your decision to get the Redhawk. It is a fine instrument with a fine cartridge to go with it. I'm really tickled with mine. Let us know how yours does when you get it.