Blackwater
08-04-2014, 03:04 PM
With the current situation with respect to powder INavailability when ya' want a specific one, it occurred to me that this tidbit might be useful to some of you who may not be able to find your usual powder for this caliber. It's not my experince, but that of a running buddy of mine who's shot more deer than most people have SEEN, and has more real field experience than ANY avid hunter I know, so you can take it to the bank, at least in his guns, but it's worthy of consideration if you can't locate your preferred powder and want to shoot.
He had a Ruger BHK in .45 LC, and had been loading Unique for it for quite some time. This particular gun was very accurate, shooting inside 2" at 25 yds. with very boring regularity and with most any lead bullet he tried. One day he wanted to load up a sizable quantity (for him - he often goes afield with only the ctgs. in his chambers, or sometimes not even that many, but he's also the finest shot I know as well) of ammo for his LC. He had some Laser Cast 200 gr. RNFP's, but in reaching for his can of Unique, discovered it was almost empty. He pooched his lips out a bit, and looked for some sort of substitute. He found a nearly full can of Red Dot, and determined to try that. He's not prone to experiment when he's got an established load, but isn't averse to it when situations warrant it, or occasionally just to see what happens. He was using LWP primers.
So, he took the Red Dot, looked in the loading manuals, and determined to try 6.5 gr with the 200 grainers.He only loaded a few rounds to check and see if the load might need some adjustment. On going outside to see how they'd group and find the POI, he found they shot very much like his usual Unique loads, very close to same group size and POI, so he didn't need to change his sight setting. "Not too bad," he thought. So, then he goes inside to load up a quantity for near future use.
This is when he found he only had a few WLR primers left. Again exasperated, he picked some CCI LP primers and loaded up a few of these to try, and went outside to his target to see if the change had any effect on the load. It did. He shot a couple of 1" groups at his 25 yd. target, and one was actually just a smidge smaller than 1". Eureka!, he thought to himself. I've stimbled onto something GOOD!
So, moral of story is that if you can't find your usual powder, it MAY lead you to something similar or even better. Ya' just got to try it and see. And if Red Dot's available, it would be a likely candidate to try with cast, especially. I later gave him some Lee 230 gr. Conical FP's I'd cast and lubed with 50/50 alox/beeswax. He tried them, but I don't recollect the load amt. with Red Dot, and he shot two deer with them and found they shot very well in his gun, too, producing near 1" groups. When I asked how the deer reacted when hit, he said, "They went straight down and stayed there." I replied, "They did?" having expected them to run a ways. "Well," he said, "they tend to do that when you shoot them in the head." I'd forgotten his penchant for doing that.
He finally upped the load to 6.7 and 6.8 gr. of Red Dot, trying to get a little extra oomph in case he needed to take a body shot, and they shot very nearly as well, so close that he felt the extra velocity's slightly better trajectory made it worth it in case he needed to take a longer shot than he likes, such as 50-75 yds.
This is related FWIW to you LC shooters in hopes it'll maybe take some of the sting out of the powder situation, and maybe even lead to an improvement in performance we might not have made without being forced to experiment.
Anyone had any similar situations occur?
He had a Ruger BHK in .45 LC, and had been loading Unique for it for quite some time. This particular gun was very accurate, shooting inside 2" at 25 yds. with very boring regularity and with most any lead bullet he tried. One day he wanted to load up a sizable quantity (for him - he often goes afield with only the ctgs. in his chambers, or sometimes not even that many, but he's also the finest shot I know as well) of ammo for his LC. He had some Laser Cast 200 gr. RNFP's, but in reaching for his can of Unique, discovered it was almost empty. He pooched his lips out a bit, and looked for some sort of substitute. He found a nearly full can of Red Dot, and determined to try that. He's not prone to experiment when he's got an established load, but isn't averse to it when situations warrant it, or occasionally just to see what happens. He was using LWP primers.
So, he took the Red Dot, looked in the loading manuals, and determined to try 6.5 gr with the 200 grainers.He only loaded a few rounds to check and see if the load might need some adjustment. On going outside to see how they'd group and find the POI, he found they shot very much like his usual Unique loads, very close to same group size and POI, so he didn't need to change his sight setting. "Not too bad," he thought. So, then he goes inside to load up a quantity for near future use.
This is when he found he only had a few WLR primers left. Again exasperated, he picked some CCI LP primers and loaded up a few of these to try, and went outside to his target to see if the change had any effect on the load. It did. He shot a couple of 1" groups at his 25 yd. target, and one was actually just a smidge smaller than 1". Eureka!, he thought to himself. I've stimbled onto something GOOD!
So, moral of story is that if you can't find your usual powder, it MAY lead you to something similar or even better. Ya' just got to try it and see. And if Red Dot's available, it would be a likely candidate to try with cast, especially. I later gave him some Lee 230 gr. Conical FP's I'd cast and lubed with 50/50 alox/beeswax. He tried them, but I don't recollect the load amt. with Red Dot, and he shot two deer with them and found they shot very well in his gun, too, producing near 1" groups. When I asked how the deer reacted when hit, he said, "They went straight down and stayed there." I replied, "They did?" having expected them to run a ways. "Well," he said, "they tend to do that when you shoot them in the head." I'd forgotten his penchant for doing that.
He finally upped the load to 6.7 and 6.8 gr. of Red Dot, trying to get a little extra oomph in case he needed to take a body shot, and they shot very nearly as well, so close that he felt the extra velocity's slightly better trajectory made it worth it in case he needed to take a longer shot than he likes, such as 50-75 yds.
This is related FWIW to you LC shooters in hopes it'll maybe take some of the sting out of the powder situation, and maybe even lead to an improvement in performance we might not have made without being forced to experiment.
Anyone had any similar situations occur?