powder troubles

[hipoint]

Hey folks... I'm looking to get into reloading and have been checking out supplies and whatnot, seems like a good thing to do given the abysmal ammo selection in our area. My question is...

I bought some .45 colt ammo for that new circuit judge from taurus that's out there, it is Hornady Critical Defense 185 grain. I don't like the round at all (I think, unless this gun sucks, which could be the case) and aside from it not being the weight and velocity that I want I'm finding lots and lots of VERY LARGE grains of powder in the barrel and chamber. Not sure if this is unburned powder, or burned powder. Not all of it is black, some is sand colored and even lighter, yet some is black. If it were just a little bit it wouldn't concern me, but after firing one round there is definitely enough junk in there to make me wonder about seriously affecting accuracy. I've never seen more residue left in a gun after one shot in my life. Can anyone tell me what is going on here, and when I start reloading what I can do to keep this residue to a minimum?

They are about the size and shape of a coarse grain of sand.

 

[ljnowell]

What you are describing is consistent with incomplete burning. I have seen this several times in SAAMI spec'd 45 colt "performance" ammo. IMO it comes from a manufacturer using a powder that is too slow for the application, downloading it until it becomes a dirty load.

I have been reloading 45 colt for a few years now and it is one of my favorites to reload. I love those big cases. I would imagine the taurus judge could handle 45 acp pressures, but i would look into that if I were you. It thats the case you can easily get a load using 2400 that would be in that pressure range and provide good power.

All that being said, I have to tell you, that if you get your hands on some hardcast 250-255gr bullets and some unique or AA5 or something of a similar burn rate you should not have any problems getting a 900-1000fps load that is safe in your gun. Thats more than enough power to take down anything on two legs and most things on this continent that run on four.

 

[hipoint]

that's exactly the load I'm looking for. I think the gun is capable of a little better grouping than it's getting right now, I can do better with my hi-point .45 (in a vice of course) than this at the moment.

I kinda want to get the whole reloading thing going on, but financially it would be better for me to find the load I want with a better powder to lessen this residue I'm getting.

If you have a recommendation on what I should be using (I think I like the "keith" style bullets) maybe I can get someone to load them to those specs for me and just purchase them.

It looks like I'd probably spend 4-500 dollars to get setup for reloading, and honestly that much money spent in ammo would last me a very long time. I do enjoy shooting, but don't really have the time, so finding time to reload and plink would be a stretch anyhow. Right now I shoot to check zero on my guns every so often, and then usually only fire them when I'm shootin at some grub

Just intuition tells me that a 250 grain (or near it) at 1,000 fps would be absolutely fine in this gun, and would give me plenty of power to drop a deer, as well as possibly increasing my grouping. this has a 1 in 18 twist with an 18.5 inch barrel.

 

[hipoint]

just an added aside here... the .45 acp pressures aren't suggested for this gun, but I think it'll take it. I do much more foolish things than that on a much more common basis, like I do pyrotechnic entertainment for hire (I breathe fire, use a 12 ft. flaming bullwhip, and full body burns covered in fire gel all for fun).

I wouldn't push it too far, as the barrel isn't very thick, but I don't see any reason to not use that load in it. I don't think I'd go 300 grains at 1200 fps, because while I am foolish, i'm not entirely stupid...