.45ACP and Unique?

adriel

adriel

CGN Regular
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Edmonton
I'm throwing my first charge. I've read and re-read my materials; it's time to throw out a newbie hail-mary.


I'm reloading .45 ACP with 230 grain CMJ's using the Lee Anniversary Kit. My powder of choice, aka. one of the pistol powders in stock at wholesale sports, is Unique. The charge is to be .66 cc's or 6 grains.

I tried to set the powder measure to .66 cc's, threw a charge, and weighed it. Wayyy too low. I continued to adjust it until it threw 6 grain charges. By this time, the indicated was at almost 1cc. Slightly disconcerting.

I then tried to throw the charge using the .5cc scoop, figuring that I should get somewhere around 4.5 grains, but in fact I got less.

In an attempt to place some sanity on the situation, I cut out the little square of paper that comes with the Lee safety scale. Sure enough, it read exactly 1 grain.

I did some browsing online and found that Unique was crap for measuring by volume. So I trusted my scale and threw a few charges.

This all leads me to my current dilemna. This is what I assume to be a small charge of quick powder. Pistol rounds are supposed to be easily double-charged, yet I see no way that someone could double up on this one, as it takes up about half of the case. If anyone out there is reloading .45 ACP with the standard 230 grain jacketed bullets AND is using Unique, please take a look at these pictures and tell me if I'm totally out to lunch.

Reloading1.jpg



Reloading2.jpg
Reloading3.jpg
 
My auto disks always comes in low for unquie and Titegroup, but the pistol still works fine, in fact the M/V I got with Unique in 9mm with less powder than indicated was almost bang on the book value, same velocity with less powder is fine with me.
 
If you have the Lee Anniversary Kit, you have a scale and a powder dispenser with it. Why are you messing around with scoops? WEIGHT is more accurate than volume.

I have the same kit as well as a Lee Pro 1000 progressive press. To answer Colin, my .40 powder die gives me 4.7gr Titegroup bang on.
 
I just double checked my manuals, and as I suspected 7.0 grs of Unique is maximim for 230 gr FMJ bullets, and gives a velocity of about 830 fps. Do yourself a favour and get a scale check weight set.
 
I load 6.2 (allowable variance from 6.0 to 6.4) of Unique under a 230 FMJ, you shouldn't have any trouble with pressure, and that's exactly what my cases look like when charged--roughly half-full. Go for it! Don't look back!
 
Bishopus said:
I load 6.2 (allowable variance from 6.0 to 6.4) of Unique under a 230 FMJ, you shouldn't have any trouble with pressure, and that's exactly what my cases look like when charged--roughly half-full. Go for it! Don't look back!
Click to expand...

yes but fmj and cmj are two different things. Plated bullets are loaded to lead bullets loads, ussually a grain or two down on FMJ
 
adriel et al; welcome to the real world of volumetric powder measurement versus gravimetric measurement. Now, before I dive into this, I do 97+% of my powder charging volumetrically and use my gravimetric scale in conjunction with reference weights to verify my volumetric measures; and I use Unique exclsivley in my service type calibers (9mm, .45 ACP, .357 mag).
For the full-on big magnums (.44 mag, .45 Win mag) I use WW-296 a ball powder which meters volumetrically like water. Back to Unique, a flake powder, the other powders such as WW-231, Bullseye, Power Pistol, etc. are all flake powders, and will result in the same volumetric performance as Unique, nothing wrong with your powder choice here. ALL the manufactures of volumetric measures are on the conservitave side of the specified charge weights for obvious reasons..........this IS the way it IS. You must make up your own calibration charts for your measures with each powder type you will use, again this is the reality of applied volumetric measuring devices.

I utilize two RCBS Little Dandy volumetric powder measures (one for Unique, and the other for WW-296) for my pistol charging. The fixed volume charge rotors ALL delivered less than the specified gravimetric quantity of powder, and I carefully and methodically 'adjusted' the rotors to meter close to their nominal charge weights. The point being, dilligently sweat your balls off now with your calibration set-up work, and you will be able to glide on your ass thereafter, as a properly calibrated volumetric measuring system PAYS HUGE DIVIDENDS IN BALLS TO THE WALL PRODUCTION CAPACITY versus weighing all charges.

For my bench rest/target rifle powder charging I use a Redding BR-3 micrometer volumetric measure in conjunction with WW-748 ball powder; meters like water, very consistent.........no further elaboration necessary.
 
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Cocked&Locked said:
yes but fmj and cmj are two different things. Plated bullets are loaded to lead bullets loads, ussually a grain or two down on FMJ
Click to expand...

FMJ/CMJ/lead all shoot to the exact same POI with that load (from my pistol), no excessive leading, no gas cutting, no pressure sign, plenty accurate. Fire at will!
 
I am using unique, with 230FMJ's, and i find it a bit hard to measure as well, with the lee powder measure and scale, i find a variance of around .2GR . It doesn't flow smooth out of the measure. For my first 50rds, i weighed every charge, now i weigh about every 5-6 one, usually only if it looks different.
And my charged cases look exactly like yours, about half full......
Rob
 
For my lighter loads of 4.8 to 5.2 I use Unique, Green Dot, HP-38 & use an RCBS Uniflow to a make unknowen. You see I have three turret preses, over the yrs of reloading, & get decent loads. Never the little scoup.

Have to admit that my bullet tips are cast 185gr SWC & they do well.
 
unique

I've been banging away with 6 - 6.5 grains of Unique under a 230 cast bullet in several 1911 .45 pistols for years. I have been pleased with the power, accuracy and reliability. Some say that it burns dirty but I've always been satisfied. I load Unique in .45 acp, .45 Colt, .455 Webley, .44 WCF, etc. Great old powder and the new Unique is even better. I'm not much of an experimenter I guess!

Regards,

Outdoors
 
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