Okay, I am not an amateur, I have been reloading for the better part of 45 years, but this is something that I can't seem to get. I mostly, with a few exceptions for hunting, load cast bullets in all my handgun cartridges, mainly .45 Colt, .44 Special and Magnum. So here is my question. I was given approx. 1000 Hornady 250 gr. HP jacketed bullets for .45 Colt. Most of the loading manuals, Hornady, Lyman, Speer, etc. give different load data for the 250 gr. cast vs. jacketed. With the modern cast bullets being very hard, possibly even more so than the copper jacketed, is it safe to interchange data for the two bullets, even though the manuals do not show same powder/charge weight for the two? And lastly, I was able about 6 months ago to pick up a couple of pounds of BE-86 powder when Unique was impossible to come by in my neck of the woods. It was reviewed to be a new "wonder" powder. The newest Lyman manual, 50th, list NO loads for that powder in any of the pistol cartridges in the manual, it is not even listed in the burn rate table. I haven't gone through the Hornady X manual yet, but still, anyone have some sources for data for the above cartridges? I went on the Alliant site...nothing. On the Hodgden site...3 loads only for the .44 Magnum,
different bullet weights, no starting/max data, just one load for each bullet. Thanks in advance/

You must have missed it:

http://www.alliantpowder.com/r...erid=38&cartridge=36

You can use jacket bullet data with the cast bullets but not the other way around jacket bullets normally have higher pressures

Jacketed bullets are "sticky" and the design makes them stiffer whether the lead inside is stiffer or not than your cast bullet. Your cast bullet has relief grooves, Lube grooves,think Barnes TSX, that we put Lube into. Normal cast bullet is much easier to push through a barrel than the same weight jacketed.

there ya go..two good posts.