.45ACP Hardball Duplication Loads with Case-Filling Powder & LRN 230gr

[reddog81]

Trail boss would be a great powder for starters, but you’ll never reach 850 FPS. Blue Dot loads will do a good job of filling up the case and a midrange load will get you in that velocity range. Otherwise Unique works well like many others have mentioned.

 

[Toprudder]

Like what? Just curious...

Large extreme spread when doing a powder-forward test.

 

[Charlie98]

Large extreme spread when doing a powder-forward test.

No, I gathered that... I'm axing which particular powders.

 

[Dudedog]

For me HP38/W231 works well in both.
AA#2 also seems to shoot well in both for me.
But I don't shoot a lot of .38 so there may be better choices than those two.
(I shoot lots of 9mm, followed by .45, .380 .38/.357 not anywhere near as much)
HP38 is my go to powder for .45 unless I want max vels in which case I use CFE-P.

I haven't tried WST in .45 but it might work well for both also, i seem to recall people saying it's great in .45 and it also works well in .38 Special.

 

[Walkalong]

No, I gathered that... I'm axing which particular powders.

Most powders are position sensitive in .38 Spl, especially at light levels. One of the best (Loses the least FPS powder forward away from the primer) is WST, and works great for plinker loads in both. (.38 Spl I have proven to myself, .45 ACP everyone says it works great.)

 

[Toprudder]

No, I gathered that... I'm axing which particular powders.

Oh, sorry, I didn't read it that way.

Powders where I saw bad powder-forward effect: 3N37, AA#7, Longshot, SR7625, and HP38 (at lower charges).

 

[Charlie98]

If you like W231, you will probably like WST. As I mentioned, I'm working with WST and some 200grn test loads to see if it has a permanent spot on the bench (now that I'm not loading 12ga anymore.) Like W231, it has a happy spot it really likes... I just don't think either are best at factory-level 230grn loads.