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I have come into an old Colt Single Action Arm 45 Colt that was made in 1957. The gun is in excellent condition and shootable. I have never loaded for 45 Colt and want to stay well within the pressure limits of the gun. I have 200 grain lead rnfp and swc. I have been looking at Unique, Red Dot and Green Dot powders. Any of you guys have any info on the best choice of powder. The gun will only be shot at the range to poke holes in paper.
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Unique is my go to powder for .45 Colt, usually 8 gr for a bit lighter load, but if you're shooting a Ruger you can really hotrod it.
I’ve used both unique and trail boss with outstanding results with 255gr lead bullets, i would expect them to be great with 200gr as well.
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Universal, or Trail Boss.
Universal is great, meters fairly well, very economical, and clean burning.
Trail Boss, you can make fun loads, no worries about overpressure in an antique.
Unique has been our go to for a long time
I bought a pound of Unique on Thursday. If I don't like it for the 45 I will use it in my 44 mag 240 and 215 grain hard cast lead.
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I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I use it for 32H&R, 357, 41Mag, 44/40, 44Mag, 45Colt, and 45ACP.
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I have tried Unique in my auto loading pistols and did not like it at all. Lots of of unburnt powder. I tried 7.0 grains under some 240 Grain lead in the 44 Mag and it worked great. Very light recoil. My wife is willing to shoot it with this load but not with Mag loads. I hope to get it loaded this week in the 45 Colt and test them out this weekend.
What kind of charge do you run in the 45 Colt?
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeffreyDeGraff
I use 8.0gr in 44 with 240gr cast and 8.0gr in 45 Colt with 255gr cast.
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Just went to get my powder measurer setup for 8.0 grains of Unique. I tried 3 different measures. RCBS Uniflow, Lee Auto Disk, and Lee Auto Drum. No 2 charges was the same. They fluctuated from 6.5 to 9.8. I guess I will be weighing each charge. Any suggestions on how to make it more consistent?
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I use the RCBS lil’ dandy pistol powder measure. It is very consistent with unique. It has the individual rotors that you switch out. I must be some kind of lucky, because I read a bunch of people saying unique doesn’t meter well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Adam Van Camp
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Looks like I will be scooping and trickling each one. I am OK with +-.1 grain of powder as these will only be for fun and poking holes in paper. A lot more time that is all.
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I use Unique with the 255 gr LSWC for my 45 Colt. But it's a dirty powder.
I use unique for general shooting when I feel like abusing my hand and wrist I use a heavy load of 2400 or H110
Unique and Trail Boss are my go to powders in 45 Colt.
I ran 8.8grns of power pistol under Hornady 225grn FTX bullets in my wife's judge. soft shooting load.
I started with Unique but Unique is a little dirty for my liking. After trying several other powders I found my ruger blackhawks loved Winchester 231. I had a set of rugers all three were .45. With a 230gr fmj they all liked the 5 to 5.5 grain range powder charge. Now if you want a hot load go to H-110. That's what I use with a 300 gr soft tip for deer. Once I get to where I can shoot again I'm going to go back to a 325 gr cast bullet for hunting.