Factory duplicat loads in 45ACP

[STEVE M]

What are your favorite reloads to duplicate POA/POI @ felt recoil of 230GR

ball and Fed Hydra Shoks? I've been working with Rainer 230GR TMJRN

with Win. @ Fed. primer, W231 and AA#5. I haven't found any loads that I

really like yet. Tried a search and came up with 0, so I thought I would ask

you guys. Iwould like to stay with FMJ/TMJ bullets, and prefere clean

burning/easy metering powders (I hate gun cleaning and use a Prgressive

press).

 

[Johnny Guest]

You'll get a number of different answers on this one

For many years the Lyman loading handbook gave 6.5 Unique with the 230 FMJ for factory duplication load, but my last one shows this to run 877 fps. I loaded about 1500 of these several years ago, and they averaged about 860 over the chronograph screens. I've never personally handloaded any HydraShok bullets.

The Speer Manual Number twelve shows the 230 FMJ at 832 fps with 6.5 Unique, but their 230 Gold Dot at 806 with 6.0 gr.

The Hornady Handbook, Fourth Edition, though, shows 5.9 gr. Unique giving 850 fps.

True factory velocity of both UMC and Win white box runs a lot closer to 825 fps from a five-inch barrel. Fed HydraShok clocks around 860.

The vast majority of my .45 ACP shooting is done with a 230 cast lead RN and 5.4 gr. of W-231, for around 810 fps. This is close enough to factory hardball equivalent for my purposes, and I really can't hold close enough to tell the difference in POI at 25 yards.

I switched to 231 for lead bullet loading mainly for economic reasons - - I could buy 231 for less than Unique, and I use slightly less charge weight per cartridge. Also, with lead bullets, it burns a little cleaner. I am NOT one of those who decries Unique as being "too dirty," though. Even with lead, it is still easy to clean, and with jacketed bullets, it bruns pretty clean.

Hope this helps somewhat - - -

Best,
Johnny

 

[sebago]

I've used 6.5 grs. of Unique with a 230 gr. Hornady FMJ-RN and it gave me about 825 fps. This was chronographed at 10 or 12 ft. from the muzzle. A different lot of powder or other brand of bullets will give different results though.
I tried AA-5 but I found that unless I used a magnum primer and a strong taper crimp it would leave enough unburned powder in the chamber to jam the gun. IMHO there are better powders for the .45 ACP.

 

[STEVE M]

Sebago, I've never heard of anyone having that problem with AA5. I

agree though it is kinda dirty. I always found Unique to be even dirtier.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned any of the "new" powders.

 

[sebago]

Steve, I haven't heard of any such problem lately either but that was my experience with it. I did follow up on a vague memory though, Ken Waters did a Pet Loads article on the .45 ACP and his comment about AA5 was that with cast bullets it seemed to burn unevenly giving wide variations in velocity. He then speculated that a taper crimp might cure this problem. My own can of AA5 does date from about then (1990), maybe current lots are cleaner. He did use 3 different 230 gr. cast bullets with 7 grs. of AA5 and got velocities around 830 fps. About the same with 6.5 grs. of Unique. With a 230 gr. Nosler FMJ he went to 8 grs. of AA5 and got 885 fps. 6.5 grs. Unique gave 782 fps.