CFE Powder Temperature Sensitive?

The Cold Lake Kid

The Cold Lake Kid

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A friend brought me some CFE and 160 grain .452 sized lead bullets and asked for help loading, as he had never loaded before.
I had never used CFE.

He has a RUGER Blackhawk that uses the .45 Colt cylinder and a .45 ACP cylinder.

I looked up a load on the Hodgdon site and found 6.7 to 7.6 grains of CFE using a 160 grain bullet, for the .45 ACP, so I loaded 5 rounds each at 6.7; 7.0 and 7.3 grains. I did not load any .45 Colt with CFE.

He shot them the other day and had squibs he pounded out for the 6.7 and the 7.0. He didn't try the 7.3
Any ideas?
 
The bottle reads CFE Pistol (FMJ Approved) and mentions it as ideal for 9mm; .38 Super; .40 S&W and .45 ACP
Additional calibers on the website, where I pulled the load data.

I didn't know anything BLK or 223 and I didn't see anything about those when I was on the Hodgdon site.

This was the only powder available when my friend went shopping and he was told it would be fine for his .45 Ruger and lead bullets.

I think I better be careful, as I just found out another friend was sold LIL GUN, by the same store, for his .45 Colt for use in his SAAs and his 1866 rifle, used for CAS.

Oh how I miss Trail Boss and Clays.
 
Use CFE Pistol in both 9mm and 45ACP with good results, plated, FMJ and cast lead in 45. Just plated in 9MM. Hodgon online data shows for a 155 grain SWC shows 7.9 to 8.6 for CFE Pistol, the data you are using is for a Barnes copper bullet. Should of worked though.. Wonder if there is a primer issue?
 
what primers were you using? We had squibs using CFE and Ginex primers in our 357 reloads the other weekend when the temps got around -2C. The warehouse where the ammo is stored is not heated, so the rounds got pretty cold. We had no problems with that batch of reloads the month prior, when the weather was >10C
 
VanMan, I think you've hit it.
He used some .38spl. loads, with the same primers and CFE a few months ago and had good results, in the milder weather.

I just looked at the primers Roger bought for his reloads and they are "GINEX" made in Bosnia.
I'm used to Winchester, CCI etc. primers and didn't give them a thought.
Thanks.
I just dumped the brass he saved and noticed a number of the primers were perforated, by the firing pin.
I guess that suggests very soft primers???
 
I noticed the Ginex to have a very soft primer cup, maybe softer even then Federal. They don't seem to be as hot though. We had to up our powder charge .1-.2 to maintain the same speed in our 9mm & 45acp loads using Titegroup & CCI (when we had lots of both lol).

We found the Ginex didn't seat consistently on our 1050's as well, so gave us a few light strikes. No problem when I reloaded on my 650 though. We ended up switching over to Fiochi. Even though more expensive then Ginex, they seem more reliable.
 
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