looking for cleaner pistol powder

12 April 2003, 09:03

I am new to this forum, Wish I would hve found it a lot sooner, my question is I have been reloading my 45 acp kimber with bullseye powder, boy what a mess to clean up at end of day, looking for a good load that is also a cleaner powder, shooting 200gr bullets????????
Thanks much

jamie

12 April 2003, 10:45

Shootshell

Try Accurate Arms #5. For loading data, go to Accuratearms.com.

12 April 2003, 10:58

Jacobite

AA#5 was very dirty in my .41 Mag. and .45 LC. Bigger case than .45 acp though. I like Blue Dot. It burns very clean in both the .41 and .45 LC
My Sierra disk says load from 8.3-10.7 grains of Blue Dot with their 200 grain bullet.

12 April 2003, 11:17

Johnly

Might want to give SR-7625 a try, as it's always burned real clean for me.

12 April 2003, 12:59

Ol` Joe

VV n320 or Clays are very clean in the 45acp with 200 gr LSWC in my Kimber.

12 April 2003, 13:09

Pecos41

Jamie - The powder that has done the best for me in .45 ACP, at least for full power loads, is Unique. But Unique is a pretty sooty powder as well. It sounds like you are using cast bullets? If so you will also get a lot of gummy residue and smoke from most bullet lubes.

I guess what I'm saying is pistols just seem to get dirtier than rifles. But I've never really had a problem cleaning them. My typical method is just hose a pistol down with WD-40, let it sit for a couple of minutes and then wipe the gun down good with a soft, absorbant rag. This pretty well takes out any powder/bullet residue. Then all you have to do is clean the barrel like you would anything.

12 April 2003, 13:20

onefunzr2

Try Hodgdon Titegroup. Produces low pressure and is frugal with the amount of powder needed...more shots to the pound. Super cleanburning.

12 April 2003, 15:47

Beau

I have had great luck with 4.0 gr. of clays and 4.2 gr. of Tightgroup using a 200 gr SWC. TG powder consistantly gives me standard deviations of less than 10. Accuracy is much better than with other powders as well. TG meters better than Clays.

Beau

13 April 2003, 08:02

Magnum Mike

A few years ago i switched to Winchester Super Field from W231. Depending on the type of bullet used (cast or jacketed) it made a BIG difference.

13 April 2003, 12:00

Alex V.

quote:
Originally posted by Pecos45:
Jamie - The powder that has done the best for me in .45 ACP, at least for full power loads, is Unique. But Unique is a pretty sooty powder as well. It sounds like you are using cast bullets? If so you will also get a lot of gummy residue and smoke from most bullet lubes.

I guess what I'm saying is pistols just seem to get dirtier than rifles. But I've never really had a problem cleaning them. My typical method is just hose a pistol down with WD-40, let it sit for a couple of minutes and then wipe the gun down good with a soft, absorbant rag. This pretty well takes out any powder/bullet residue. Then all you have to do is clean the barrel like you would anything.

I would much rather have to spend some time cleaning a gun in exchange for having a good accurate load. And, I have found Unique to be the best possible powder to load cast bullets with. I am not real happy with it when it comes to full power loads, but for medium and lighter loads it is my powder of choice.

As you mentioned, Unique is sooty, but properly loaded it will not leave behind any unburned particles. That is the definition of a dirty powder; one that does not burn all of the particles.

Ed's Red is probably the best stuff to use for cast bullet shooting. It cuts the soot, the lube residue, and will speed up any cleaning of barrel leading.

13 April 2003, 15:01

<El Viejo>

Has anyone used W231 on .45acp? I have been using it in .38 and 9mm with success, but I am about to start loading .45 acp.

The guy who taught me to reload used to use 3.x of Bullseye, but it was very dirty.

I am not adverse to buying more powder, but I have a good stock of W231 on hand.

13 April 2003, 15:09

Ol` Joe

jamief A good place to ask this and other questions on the 45acp or 1911 pistols is at

www.1911.com/forums/

Run a search on this and you`ll have the next 6 months tied up reading [Big Grin]

14 April 2003, 16:06

POP

win 231

15 April 2003, 06:22

hopper_64

5.5gr of Vihtavuori N320 works very well with a 200gr cast bullet for me.

16 April 2003, 03:57

Hcliff

Win 231 and Titegroup

20 April 2003, 01:06

Alex V.

quote:
Originally posted by El Viejo:
Has anyone used W231 on .45acp? I have been using it in .38 and 9mm with success, but I am about to start loading .45 acp.

I use Unique for my cast bullet 45ACP loads and will often use Win 231 when loading up jacketed or plated bullets.

The only thing we noticed about 231 was that it was a bit fast burning for heavy bullets in the 45ACP. The 230 grain bullets were OK but when we were developing some loads for 250 or 255 grain bullets their were some real accuracy problems with the 231. Otherwise it is a popular powder for the cartridge.

20 April 2003, 02:39

boondocker

Jamief
I found that Titegroup and Clays where the cleanist in my 200 gr cast loads. Unique and AA was very sooty in my Colt. Never tried 231 so I can not comment. Boon

20 April 2003, 05:02

JerryM

My favorite for less than full power loads is AA 2. I also use 231 and HP 38.

I don't like Unique personally. I much prefer Universal Clays.
I had some fairly old Unique, but when I got a new can I found that the same loads did not give close to the same velocities. It is a dirty powder.

I will use the Unique I have on hand, but will use Universal instead from now on.

Jerry