cleanest burning powder for .45acp?

[ArkansasFatboy]

Guys what is the cleanest burning powder for .45acp with cast bullets? I Have used clays ,Tightgroup and unique they all seem to burn rather dirty with tightgroup being the cleanest.Is there another powder suitable for .45acp that is cleaner.

 

[bullseye308]

Have you tried Bullseye?

 

[janobles14]

hs6 is pretty clean

 

[xer0]

Second the HS6

 

[Steve C]

Guys what is the cleanest burning powder for .45acp with cast bullets?

I once went on a search for a clean burning powder with cast bullets and after trying Clays, AA#2, W231, Red Dot, all fast burning powders that others say are "clean" I came to the conclusion that there is no such thing. Its the bullet lube and how well the bullet fills the bore not the powder that makes cast loads dirty and smokey. I've found a few cast bullets that are relatively clean, most use the red lube. If you lightly lube your cast bullets with Lee's Liquid Alox in addition to their wax type lube and run them at enough pressure to obdurate the base they clean up nicely.

That means hard cast must be pushed hard. An example in .41 magnum is 7.8grs of Unique behind a 215gr SWC commercial hard cast bullet is rather dirty, add Liquid Alox an it cleans up some, add Liquid Alox and bump the charge to 9.5grs and its as clean as if you where shooting .22 lr.

In the .45 and .38 spl you need to use a softer bullet for the lower pressure. I use swaged bullets for those calibers and hard cast for the magnums.

Those that cast their own can adjust their bullets hardness and bullet size to eliminate much of the problems you encounter with commercial hard cast.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

HS-6, W231 and AA#5 are all clean powders and I've used them in the .45 auto so I can verify they are clean in that caliber.

 

[Oro]

I have obtained excellent results with WST. It is very clean burning, and MUCH more so than 231, bullseye, and a few others I've tried. I have not tried HS6 so I cannot comment vs. that powder.

WST was developed as a shotgun powder, and isn't used as widely for handguns, though Winchester does market it as such and provides useful load data for a variety of handgun calibers with it. I have used it with great results with .38, .40, and .45acp. A friend uses it for 9mm and likes it, too. I plan on working up some .44 special loads with it this winter to feed my 629, also.

From load data I have, it is best used with standard velocity rounds and is not suited to "pushing" the maximum velocity - other slower burning powders can do that, though with larger charges and much more dirt. It is clean, very efficient (cheap), and easily available. I like it.

 

[Ol` Joe]

VV either n310 or n320.

 

[earplug]

Bullet weights and velocity

A clean burn is dependent on the powder working within the sweet spot of its design.
Some powders work very well with very light charges such as 3.6 grains of Bullseye and 180 grain target loads, others excell with heavier bullets such as 4.7 grain of WST for hotter 200 grain to make power factor or 3.6 grains of CLAYS for 230 grain.
Double check my numbers cause my notes are outside.
Trying to make one powder do all, and to burn clean may be possible. I haven't found that powder and bullet combination.

 

[Walkalong]

AA #2, AA #5, W-231, WST, WSF, 700X, SR 4756, N310, N320, Competition.

But like Steve C said, most of the smoke is from bullet lube.

 

[jjohnson]

A Point Re-stated

I just wanted to make sure a point was made here.

If you're loading lower power target loads, they'll often look like they're burning very dirty because they don't have enough powder charge/crimp to make them burn efficiently - kind of like a smoldering fire instead of a hot flash. I used to think Unique and Bullseye were really dirty - but then, I was loading a couple of grains for 148gr wadcutters in .38. I couldn't figure out why my loads were leaving crud but the factory loads weren't. I ran up the charge weight and *Bang!* just like that - the ones running at factory level got 'clean' all of a sudden. That's what is happening if your empty casings have a kind of sooty look on the outside, usually the length of the cartridge case, but not all the way around.

Have a look. I did that for a long while before I realized it wasn't the powder, but the load itself, as the largest contributor of crud.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

I have to agree with "jjohnson", many powders will run a little dirty until you push the charges up to near MAX. But then again, like said above, don't confuse what the lube leaves behind with a dirty powder.

You can tell how much is lube and how much is powder by loading both lead and jacketed bullets. Of course there's no lube on jacketed bullets so you can compare that to the lead bullets and see what the lube is leaving behind.

 

[Japle]

WST and Clays.

 

[bluetopper]

More people should try Alliant American Select..........versatile, very clean, and accurate.

 

[D. Manley]

More people should try Alliant American Select..........versatile, very clean, and accurate.

And add Solo-1000 to the mix for the same reasons.

 

[Walkalong]

Yes, on both counts.