Powder for 45 Colt & 44 Mag..

[Blacky Montana]

Im going to be picking up more supplies to get started reloading. Is there a good powder that will work for 45 and 44..

Blacky

[Thumbcocker]

Unique will make them both go bang. Maybe not the best for full snort .44's but will work.

[Don Purcell]

Depends on what you want to do with them and what power levels you want and can handle.

[Blacky Montana]

I dont want weak cowboy type loads, but not after hot stuff yet either..Just starting off reloading and those are the two ill be working with first. Just thought it would be good in the beginning to have one powder that could work for both.

[ericandelaine1975]

W231, Bullseye, Unique. All will work. Or look at the load data for each and find powders that match both. I personally use W231

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[ericandelaine1975]

For more powerful loads H110 is gonna be good.

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[OFFSHORE]

IMR 4227 or 2400 would be hard to beat for medium to full throttle loads. A lot of folks do not like the "dirtiness" of them, but for consistency and consistent accuracy they're good powders. I use 22 grains of IMR 4227 in both my .44 Mag with 270 grain cast and 45 LC with 325 grain cast. Just my $.02 Good luck with your load development.

[Tatume]

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/default.aspx?page=/reloaders/RecipeList.aspx&

You definitely need reloading manuals. I suggest Sierra, Speer, and Hornady, in addition to the online resources listed here. Avoid "Bubba" recipes you will find on the Internet.

[Texas by God]

Unique will do what you want.

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[ericandelaine1975]

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/

http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/default.aspx?page=/reloaders/RecipeList.aspx&

You definitely need reloading manuals. I suggest Sierra, Speer, and Hornady, in addition to the online resources listed here. Avoid "Bubba" recipes you will find on the Internet.Definitely agree. I like a hard copy. Also Lyman has a cast bullet manual.

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[Blacky Montana]

I have Hornady
. But thats mostly all jackets. Plan on getting Lyman end of this week..

[ericandelaine1975]

The Lyman manual may have a higher max load than the hornady manual. Im not sure if the hornady one tells or not but the Lyman tells what firearm they used to test with. I like that.

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[Blacky Montana]

Yes Honady does list firearm used, just really has no "cast" info..

[ericandelaine1975]

OK. My hornady book was old and i didn't like it. I do remember it was a little more conservative than Lyman. I'll look at my cast book when I get home and see what its got in it.

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[Wheelguns 1961]

I use unique for .45c. With it you can load tier1 and tier 2 loads. I don’t shoot tier 3 loads anymore, but if I did, I would use 2400 or H110. I don’t load .44mag, but they will work for that caliber also. 8.5gn of unique with a 250-260gn bullet is an old standard for .45c.

[WHITETAIL]

my vote is for IMR 4227.
I have shot the 44-45 for a long time
and the IMR 4227 has not let me down.:coffeecom

[Larry Gibson]

Blacky Montana

"I dont want weak cowboy type loads, but not after hot stuff yet either.."

I've been loading both cartridges since the late '60s and mostly use midrange loads. I use Bullseye for 185 - 230 gr cast bullets and Unique for 240 +/- cast bullets in both cartridges for midrange loads (900 - 1050 fps out of revolvers). I have tried a lot of other powders, especially the newer ones, and find some in the same burning range work as good but have found none that work better. I stick with the old standbys, Bullseye and Unique, because they ain't broke and don't need fixin'.......

[Wheelguns 1961]

I have condensed my powder usage to bullseye and unique for all handgun rounds. I have other powders like 2400 and H110, but 95% of the time it is these 2. I am not trying to say that they are the best for everything, but they work for me, and it simplifies things.

[fredj338]

What do you want to do with either calibers? Any shotgun or pistol powder can be made to work in any handgun application. If you want one for target to midrange, then any medium burner from Unique up to PowerPistol will do fine. If you want higher performance, then I would be fine using old 2400 for both.

[rwadley]

Universal is pretty good.

[ericandelaine1975]

Here you go. This is from the Lyman cast book. That'll give you something to go on until you get your book.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181030/e51fd5e12f388bdf840a66021966f06c.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181030/76760af7cc17dfc400eaa2f1dcc07d2f.jpg

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[Cherokee]

I like 231 or HP38. Works fine in both 45 and 44 for light to medium+ loads.

[LenH]

I have always used Unique in .45 Colt. 8.0 gr of unique is the old std. load for most bullets up to 255 gr.

[winelover]

I like 2400 for both cartridges, unlike H-110 or 296, you can safely download it to moderate velocities. Second choice, would be Unique............can't go wrong with it. I always keep both, on hand.

Winelover

[Jedman]

Another vote for unique, but for your mid range loads another powder that works great and you don't need a lot of is HS 6 in my area it is easy to find and priced lower than many of t
he others.

Jedman

[Lloyd Smale]

yup I agree. if you can only have one handgun powder unique is the one. it will take a 45 colt 44 mag or 44 spec from plinking loads to blackpowder pressure load to near mag levels.
Unique will make them both go bang. Maybe not the best for full snort .44's but will work.

[mdi]

I used a lot of Unique in my 44s, Spec and Magnum. 357s, and a few 38 Specials, but during one of the last panics I couldn't find any. I did find Universal, which I had used before, but very little. I now use Universal in all my handguns from 9mm to 45 Colt. Very close to Unique in performance, meters quite well and is "clean" (I've heard that's important so some newer reloaders).

BTW; loads in my manuals say I can get 1,200 fps with a 240 LSWC over a load of Universal and not be quite up to max. loads...

[lightman]

I use W231 for mild loads and lighter bullets. I use Unique for mid range loads and either 2400 or Blue Dot for hotter loads. These will work for either caliber.

[therealhitman]

Since you're just getting started, Trail Boss will get you mid-range performance plus keep away some common big case Gremlins while you get used to the loading process. I think it's a bit too easy for the inexperienced loader to double charge a big case with Bullseye ,700X (which is what I use in both .44 and .45 up to 'warm' levels) WST etc. It takes a while to lock in a safe, consistant routine at the press so less variables and more common sense will keep you intact while you learn. If you must start out with big cases those giant fluffy Trail Boss donuts are a beginning loaders best friend IMO.

[pakmc]

Trail boss will work just fine! fill the case up to where the bottom of where the bullet stops and your good to go. if you don't like that much you can always back off the charge!, (any caliber, any case, works for rifles and/or pistols.)for cowboy, 5.5 to 7 grains works.

[Southron]

As we all know, those newfangled smokeless powders are a passing fad.

Shoot what the .45 Colt was originally designed to shoot-black powder!

The Ordnance Department wanted a round that would kill a horse (at the time, some hostile Indian tribes on the Western frontier was giving giving the U.S. Army all sorts of hassles, [Fetterman Massacre, etc.,] so the army wanted a round powerful enough kill the horses Indians rode.)

Besides, shooting "Holy Black" in a .45 Colt IS A HECK OF A LOT OF FUN!!! You get a big muzzle flash and lots of blue/grey smoke with every shot Just clean your revolver after shooting it. The best black powder solvent is good ole fashioned hot water. Then dry your gun and oil it.

So, go and have a lot of fun shooting your .45 Colt!

[Walks]

I don't think Bullseye is a good choice for big cases. It's ok in .45acp or 38/357. But when you get up to .44spl, you need a bit more balance in the load. So I use Unique.
You can load light and on up to max in both .44spl & .45Colt. And get some stiff mid-range loads in .44mag on up to 1100fps.

[1bluehorse]

Im going to be picking up more supplies to get started reloading. Is there a good powder that will work for 45 and 44..

Blacky



If you were to do a poll with this very question (which has been done many times) I think you would find that the "majority" (I'll guess 6 out of 10) will be using Unique and 2400 and the "rest" will be using various other powders. The reason is that both of them work very well and are the "bar" which others are measured by for "general" work loads. I use Herco instead of Unique mainly because I have a bunch of it and they are so close to one another they're almost the same. Herco is a bit slower, meters a bit better and is in the same performance window. 2400 is without a doubt the most popular powder for either caliber for a little more performance up to pretty much full house loads. H110/w296 holds the honors for MAX power. I'll throw in Trail Boss as a "lower" mid range powder (750-800fps) in my 45 colts but just a really fun shootin' powder. Very low recoil (one handers) clean, accurate, easy to load. TB can be hard to come by (evidently others find it "fun" also) and can be a bit expensive if you don't shop around. So, survey says, Unique and A2400 are your daisy. :D (and TB for "powder puff" loads)

[smkummer]

Yep, I pretty much use 9 grains unique with 45 colt (454190) 10 grains with 44 mag. (429421) and 7.5 grains 44 special. I was using 9 grains with the 44 magnum but since I started shooting so many of the skeeter loads (7.5) in 44 special, I loaded 44 mag. just a bit warmer. All of these loads work wonderful out to 100 and even 200 yards on steel. Red dot and 700x works also but you have to OK with about 800 FPS in 45 colt if you want to stay with-in standard 45 pressures. Unique gets pretty dirty if you try to reduce the load too much in 45 colt.

[GregLaROCHE]

Pick up a copy of Lyman’s Cast Bullet Handbook. A lot of good stuff in it besides lots of load info. If you don’t buy it now, you will later.

[Moonie]

Unique will work for both in the light-medium to medium-heavy, 2400 will do medium to heavy for both.

[T-Bird]

I use AA#5 in all my handguns for simplicity. In my hands, I got better accuracy than with Unique and it is of similar speed and application. I load 10-11 gr in 45 Colt or 44 mag for everything except for hunting I use 12gr under 429421 in 44 mag gets me about 1150 out of a 6" Mod 29 classic. 10 gr is about 1000fps.

[wendyj]

I like both Unique and HS6 for the 45 but lean towards HS6. H110 at near max charges for the 44.

[reloader28]

Unique works but is very dirty and meters worse than any of my others powders.

Probably my favorite 1000-1100fps loads are HS-6 with Green Dot a very close second

[Geraldo]

I don't think Bullseye is a good choice for big cases.

I agree, and I haven't seen published data for Bullseye in .44mag for a long time.


I dont want weak cowboy type loads, but not after hot stuff yet either..Just starting off reloading and those are the two ill be working with first. Just thought it would be good in the beginning to have one powder that could work for both.

If you're shooting moderate to heavy loads there isn't going to be much difference between the two. I've loaded 250-300gr bullets over H110 in both, and the velocities are so close as to be same. Like others, I use Unique for moderate loads.