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Unique powder you should be around 9gr for 200gr bullets and 231 around 7.5gr. Unique is dirty if you load bunny farts same will happen with blue dot if loaded light. The case isnt expanding fully and you're getting bypass back into the chamber. The 250's with HS6 should be more like 11-11.5gr not going to clean up unless you get the case to expand. Maybe just load a batch to mid or mid high and see if the case expands using a caliper to check, along with how dirty it gets vs others. If you want to run reduced loads you're going to end up cleaning more often, just gonna have to teach the ol lady how to clean your gun.........uh I mean rifle.
I'm running a little lower than that. I will increase it some next time around. Get the old lady to clean guns you say? :s0113:
I had to do this with lever loads vs Ruger only loads when I was shooting them. The older Ruger Blackhawks and vaquero's I had could handle a much hotter load than the Winchester's could. Had some pretty hot 300gr loads for the pistols.
It's not likely I'm going to have a hogleg in the safe anytime soon. Also, I don't make/keep 100s of rounds on hand of most calibers. The loads I've done are still within the specs for handgun anyway.
tightgroup, H110 i would have to get out my book for others

and after reading about molly coated bullets and what the end result can happen more often then not
i do not shoot them in any gun
Yeah, I just caught an article about that dirty moly stuff in the last couple days. I'm not sure H110 would be appropriate. My understanding of that powder is it getting loaded with good case fill for magnum handgun with magnum primers. I've taken to using H110 in .357 mag for the Winchester M94 I have. And a 686, M19 revolvers. And one other being .30 Carbine. Which is why I have a good amount of it.
 
One thing about 45 colt is it has a long thin brass case. When I was shooting a lot of Cowboy Action, I was getting more and more soot with the same power level loads. After a bunch of loadings, I annealed the whole batch of cases and for the next few loadings the soot was much less. The thinner cases seem to work harden faster than most pistol cases I have loaded. Now I anneal after around 6 or 7 loadings.
I also load my pistol and lighter rifle loads with Tight Group powder. It's a very fast powder that burns much cleaner in light loads. I have also gone to Powder Coated bullets and was surprised at how much less smoke and soot I got without the soft wax lube I had been using.
Those three changes are leaving my guns much cleaner. Good Luck DR
 
I started out with a midrange load of Unique under 200 gr poly coated. Also did some old 250 grain moly coated that I had pulled from someone's reloads. We shot those through a new stainless Rossi M92 w/20" barrel. Dang they were dirty little Fockers. Left the brass and action really dirty. Unique was one of the powders I used when I started loading back in 2011. I didn't use it for long because it seemed dirty compared to cleaner powders like W231/HP38 and HS-6.
So I put the Unique back in the closet and loaded 50 200gr poly coated W/25 each 6.7 and 7.2 grains of W231. AND, just to finish up the thirty of those nasty moly coated 250 grainers I put 10gr of HS-6 under those. Even with the other faster powders I still get some pretty dirty brass (dirtier than I think it should be anyway) and the inside of the receiver is filthy. I'm wondering if the chamber is oversized/sloppy? I'm using a good firm crimp into the canellure. I'm just beginning to wonder if .45 Long Colt is just a dirty round?
Don't really care that much about the brass, but like to keep a reasonably clean chamber and receiver. Don't want to have to do a deep clean after every 20-50 rounds, y'know?
Unique will always burn dirty until you get up to the top end of your load range. For light to medium pistol loads you'd be better served by a faster burning powder like hp38 or bullseye.

BTW, where are you finding .45 Colt Brass? My FIL picked up a nice Vaquero in .45 Colt. I quickly assembled a stash of bullets and some dies but cannot for the life of me find any brass anywhere.
 
The annealing is pretty easy to do a test batch of 10 cases and shoot them alongside your regular batch. DR
That's a heck of good point there! Never thought of that. But it makes complete sense. This brass I'm using happens to be all new Starline.
 
I use tite-group But I am also doing this out of a ruger blackhawk, so my loads run a bit on the warmer side. Fairly clean brass.
And a, what? 6" barrel? I don't really think it's appropriate for me to use in a "20 barrel. I probably could, just don't care to. I used Titegroup when I first started loading handgun. I didn't care for how little it took and how little range of weight the data said.
 
And a, what? 6" barrel? I don't really think it's appropriate for me to use in a "20 barrel. I probably could, just don't care to. I used Titegroup when I first started loading handgun. I didn't care for how little it took and how little range of weight the data said.
7.5 and 18 inch barrels actually. While I dislike the low powder weights, it does burn clean and the other guns other than the blackhawk I run it in are a tc encore and a BHA 460 magnum. All of these are considerably overbuilt. Actually considerably more accurate than factory loads. I am running hardcast bullets I cast out of them.
 
7.5 and 18 inch barrels actually. While I dislike the low powder weights, it does burn clean and the other guns other than the blackhawk I run it in are a tc encore and a BHA 460 magnum. All of these are considerably overbuilt. Actually considerably more accurate than factory loads. I am running hardcast bullets I cast out of them.
What's the hardness number you're getting with those? I don't know how the formula relates to hardness. I have a grasp of BHN though.
 
And a, what? 6" barrel? I don't really think it's appropriate for me to use in a "20 barrel. I probably could, just don't care to. I used Titegroup when I first started loading handgun. I didn't care for how little it took and how little range of weight the data said.
One of the reasons I have stuck with Tight Group is how little it takes for each load. I get well over a thousand loads from a pound. DR
 
That's a heck of good point there! Never thought of that. But it makes complete sense. This brass I'm using happens to be all new Starline.
Thin brass a holdover from the BP days of 8-10K pressure. 22LR runs at 24K with just that thin folded head, but there is not a whole lot of that 24K to stretch things. Annealing makes good sense.
 
hey Mike n J.
I shot my 1st 250 grain slugs in a long time, today with 5.8 Trail Boss, it sealed WAY better then my 200 grainers and was not that much more recoil.Overall fairly mild.
a bud had some 250 gainers loaded with a powder I threw rocks ata several years ago...turns out if u load it to at least med power,TITEGROUP of all things burns darned nice ,even in big cases like our .45 colt. !!
and the good news there is ,powder valley has been having tons of it lately. Give it a shot if u have some just don't load it for wimpy loads, mkay ?
 
hey Mike n J.
I shot my 1st 250 grain slugs in a long time, today with 5.8 Trail Boss, it sealed WAY better then my 200 grainers and was not that much more recoil.Overall fairly mild.
a bud had some 250 gainers loaded with a powder I threw rocks ata several years ago...turns out if u load it to at least med power,TITEGROUP of all things burns darned nice ,even in big cases like our .45 colt. !!
and the good news there is ,powder valley has been having tons of it lately. Give it a shot if u have some just don't load it for wimpy loads, mkay ?
You are talking about the Titegroup in a rifle right?

I used Titegroup when I first started loading. I'm thinking my issue is I need to boost the load a bit. Then again, a guy can't have too much powder can he? I see members here with some Titegroup from time to time. I don't want to spend a bunch to make shipping and hazmat worth it and end up sitting on a bunch.
 
You are talking about the Titegroup in a rifle right?

I used Titegroup when I first started loading. I'm thinking my issue is I need to boost the load a bit. Then again, a guy can't have too much powder can he? I see members here with some Titegroup from time to time. I don't want to spend a bunch to make shipping and hazmat worth it and end up sitting on a bunch.
correct rifle today and also my pieta hand gun, my bud should call soon with the load we were shooting, it was not harsh and his cases looked good, Iv've never known him to anneal but I'lll ask him about that.
 
Titegroup from time to time. I don't want to spend a bunch to make shipping and hazmat worth it and end up sitting on a bunch.
You wouldn't ! Id take whatever you didn't want!

Seriously though, I bought a lb of TG a few years ago and didn't get around to using it for a while but when I did I really liked it in 9mm/.38/.45 ACP.

It burns clean and accuracy is really good. I like the fact it loads just a bit hotter than say Bullseye and in most loads gives a few more FPS.
 
You wouldn't ! Id take whatever you didn't want!
! I've been looking for a reason to get back over there this May, other than it was damn fun last year and I want to do it again! Only this time drive around and see more the cool touristy stuff.
 

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