bainter1212
Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2012
- Messages
- 1,175
Hey y'all,
I just wanted to share my recent experiment with loading .45acp using Titewad.
Components used -
Mixed headstamp brass
Winchester LPPs
Berry's 185gr plated HBRN bullets
Tested using a Kimber Pro Carry II
......so, these Berry's bullets are designed to mimic standard 230gr roundnose bullets in profile....as such, an OAL of 1.270 is called for.
Hodgdon has only ONE load listed for Titewad at this bullet weight.....using a Hornady SWC. Because this was about the only data I could find for the .45 and Titewad, I used this data as a starting point.
The minimum load listed on the Hodgdon site is 3.0 grains, so I started at 2.8.
I loaded 4 rounds each, moving up .2 grains at a time to 3.6 grains. My first range trip started out as a failure. The bullets flew downrange just fine, however reliability ran the gamut from failure to eject all the way to stovepipes at the 3.6 load level.
Back to the bench I went.......
This time I loaded from 3.8 in .2gr intervals all the way up to 4.4gr.
Surprise! All the rounds functioned perfectly. The 3.8 rounds were fine but because my sample size was small I have settled on the 4gr load just to play it on the safe side as far as reliability goes.
The sweet spot as far as accuracy went seemed to be the 3.8 and 4 gr loads.
I fired all of the loads paying close attention to recoil and pressure signs on the brass. I observed no signs of overpressure which can be a concern with faster powders loaded "hot".
The recoil increased sharply once I fired the 4.2 and 4.4 loads, needlessly IMO since the lighter loads were perfectly accurate and reliable.
Why Titewad you may ask? Well, it was the only powder I found in stock during the depths of the "panic". I think this is going to be a great choice for me in the future as well....due to the economical amount used per round as well as the fact that this powder burned very clean with almost no smoke.
Sorry about the long winded report. Wanted to be as detailed as possible.
I just wanted to share my recent experiment with loading .45acp using Titewad.
Components used -
Mixed headstamp brass
Winchester LPPs
Berry's 185gr plated HBRN bullets
Tested using a Kimber Pro Carry II
......so, these Berry's bullets are designed to mimic standard 230gr roundnose bullets in profile....as such, an OAL of 1.270 is called for.
Hodgdon has only ONE load listed for Titewad at this bullet weight.....using a Hornady SWC. Because this was about the only data I could find for the .45 and Titewad, I used this data as a starting point.
The minimum load listed on the Hodgdon site is 3.0 grains, so I started at 2.8.
I loaded 4 rounds each, moving up .2 grains at a time to 3.6 grains. My first range trip started out as a failure. The bullets flew downrange just fine, however reliability ran the gamut from failure to eject all the way to stovepipes at the 3.6 load level.
Back to the bench I went.......
This time I loaded from 3.8 in .2gr intervals all the way up to 4.4gr.
Surprise! All the rounds functioned perfectly. The 3.8 rounds were fine but because my sample size was small I have settled on the 4gr load just to play it on the safe side as far as reliability goes.
The sweet spot as far as accuracy went seemed to be the 3.8 and 4 gr loads.
I fired all of the loads paying close attention to recoil and pressure signs on the brass. I observed no signs of overpressure which can be a concern with faster powders loaded "hot".
The recoil increased sharply once I fired the 4.2 and 4.4 loads, needlessly IMO since the lighter loads were perfectly accurate and reliable.
Why Titewad you may ask? Well, it was the only powder I found in stock during the depths of the "panic". I think this is going to be a great choice for me in the future as well....due to the economical amount used per round as well as the fact that this powder burned very clean with almost no smoke.
Sorry about the long winded report. Wanted to be as detailed as possible.
