Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Powder suggestions in .45 long colt?

I hand load .45 long Colt and have been using Unique brand pistol powder the last 2 years in my Ruger Super Redhawk, with 200 and 250 gr. bullets. Getting low and am thinking of trying something different as Unique is so dirty. I read that Trailboss would allow me to use lighter bullets too, Unique loading data shows the heavier bullets.

The problem is that this pistol powder uses such a small charge, 8 gr. per load, that it stays around for years so do not want to stock up with all that powder. And I only have one gun that is chambered in .45 LC. My accuracy is very good with the Unique, but sooo sooty. The can evens says "Cleaner Burning", ha, ha. I used Unique 30 years ago to load .38 special and it was so dirty it locked up my Smith and Wesson, had to do a major cleaning to fire it at a gun range.

Anyone have a favorite powder for .45 LC, and possible use in .38 special as well because I am thinking of picking up some dies for that cartridge too?

Trail Boss comes in a 9 oz. container rather than the usual 16 oz., you can use it for .38 Special and light bullets in .45 too. Keep in mind that this is a powder for fairly light loads, you won't be able to get as high velocities with it as you would with Unique (if that matters to you). I also don't think it should be used with jacketed bullets, it was designed for lower velocity lead. It's real value is that it fills that monster .45 case so you can't double-charge it.

For a cleaner powder very similar to Unique I'd suggest Hodgden Universal, but there are other good choices.

I use the old Hank Williams Jr. load in my Colt SAA 45, 20.0 grs. of H-4227 with the 255 gr rnfp bullet shoots to the sights and chronos around 1000 fps.

Gunner

I've been using unique for years and have stuck with it due to the wonderful accuracy it's provided.

What I've noticed about powders that burn dirty is that they do so when they are loaded on the lighter end. You can go up to 10gr of unique in the colt with 250gr bullets, and you'll likely find that your groups will tighten and your gun won't be as dirty.

Yep. Increasing the charge/pressure of Unique loads makes it a lot cleaner-burning.

If you want to stick with lighter loads for your 45 Colt, you should look at TiteGroup and Universal Clays. Both are very clean-burning. TiteGroup has proven itself to me in a number of bigger calibers, including 45 Colt, 45 ACP, and 44 Special. It seems to be very "position-insensitive" in those big cases. U-Clays has worked well for me in 44 Special and 44 Magnum.

I don't have any experience with Trail Boss, but I know a lot of cowboy action shooters who love it in their 44's and 45 Colts.

The Unique you've been using, is it older than 10-15 yrs. ? If so, it's probably the older version that doesn't burn as cleanly.
I've had great performance with Ramshot's True Blue which can be loaded in a very wide range of loads for the .45 Colt. E

I use Hodgdon's Universal for light to medium loads in .45 colt. It's real close to Unique in that chambering but I've found it a little cleaner. I get loads as accurate as I can hold with it. I don't load a lot of .38 special, but when I do I use Universal and get target grade accuracy at book velocities.

Faster than 8.5 grains of Universal, I tend to switch to 2400 in the .45 Colt, which seems to give the best accuracy/speed results for the smash loads. H110 is reputed good but requires careful work up as it does poorly at under max load. I'm talking Ruger et al only loads here, not for use in older, weaker actions.
I'm just recently trying some blue dot for higher horsepower loads and results look promising up to so far, but all votes aren't in.

Ella

Thanks for the info guys, I will save your input to use when I switch powders. I have 250 rounds loaded in Unique so ok for a few months. The Unique powder propellant has been accurate so wanted to keep those tight groups at 50'.

I also did some shooting at 50 and 100 yards, here my loads suffer badly, getting all 6 on paper at 50 yrds, but spread out. At 100 I had to hold over, then only like luck to get it on paper. Using open sights. I regularly shoot 9 MM, .357 magnum, and .22 rimfire out of my handguns at 100 yards, so I figure I would need some hot .45 LC to get it out there. Might so some hog hunting with this gun, would like to hit a piggy properly at 100 yards, I keep some factory Plus-P loads just for that.

17.5 grains of 2400 and a 255 swc cast bullet has been my hog load for years. Heavy crimp makes all the difference as far as accuracy is concerned. Somewhere I have velocity numbers. My max range with that load is more like 50 yrds w. a 7.5" Blackhawk, open sights. I doubt I've had occaision to want to hit a hog futher than that. Worked out my max range by shooting at a couple gallon sauce pan hung on a fence. Certainty of hits dropped off abruptly around 75 yards for me....


Ella

Just a note, there is Hodgdon Universal Clays which has a burning rate nearly identical to Alliant Unique, and there is Hodgdon Clays, which is a very fast powder in the Alliant Red Dot and Bullseye burning rate.

Sometimes people refer to Universal Clays as Universal, and sometimes even as Clays. It's important to check a load manual to make sure what they are casually referring to actually matches published loads.

As to Alliant Unique vs. Hercules Unique, I honestly haven't found much of a difference in regards to Alliant being cleaner burning. The key is to up the charge to the point that you get a good fire lit and it will burn clean. It really should be referred to as a medium burning rate powder in terms of handgun powders. If you want to back off the throttle and having something that will burn clean at lighter loads, look at a fast powder such as Bullseye, Red Dot etc.,

This acts like clean Unique.



I don't have any plain "Clays"....

Ella

I always thought that it was kinda neat that a 250 gr lead bullet over about 9 gr of Unique in 45 Colt from a 4" barreled revolver would give about 900 fps.

8 gr of Unique would give about 800 fps, and so on... thereabouts.

I've probably used more Unique than anything else. I use W231 quite a bit too. I've used Bullseye, W296, and Trail Boss, the latter being my latest.

Kind of off-topic, but last night I was reading through old shotshell load data as I begin preparations for the dove opener in a couple weeks, looking for my "fast" #8 shot load that I used on partridge back in the day... and lo and behold, my load uses 25 grains of Unique!!

Now I just have to find that bag of paper hulls out in the garage, and I can start loading up a big batch of the sweetest-smelling hunting shotshells a man could ask for!

Power Pistol burns cleaner than Unique, in my experience, and covers most of the velocity/bullet weight range that Unique does in the 45 Colt.

I am a big fan of Titegroup for my lower to mid range loads in the 32 H&R through the 500 Linebaugh. It is accurate, clean and "frugal" to use. Keep the powder cool and dry and it will last for decades. Get a bit warmer with loads and HS-6 is my choice.

Blue Dot works well for me in both .45 Colt and .38 Special.

Actually I use Blue Dot in the 45 Colt and 45 ACP

Different amounts of course.

Snake

I use 8 grains Unique as my light load but suggest 8 grains W 231 or 13 grains Blue Dot for 255 grain cast SWC and WLP primers. The CCI 300 primers don't give the same consistent velocity.

Agreed, I have the bullets sized to .454 and use a CCI-350 mag primer and a good roll crimp and it stays pretty clean.

But, the Power Pistol loads with the 270 gr Thunderhead bullet burn very clean.

Gunner

I use Bullseye or Unique and have done so since the late 60's. Either does all I ask of it in all my straight wall handgun calibers.