One powder four calibers

[snake river marksman]

I like to make things as simple as possible so I'd like to get one powder to load 357/38, 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 acp. Right now I'm leaning towards Ramshot True Blue. It's generally available, and relatively inexpensive. Does anyone have any experience with this powder in these cartridges? These will all be cast boolits, WW, with no gas checks for general practice/ plinking loads.

[bruce drake]

Unique or Red Dot are excellent choices for those calibers.

[Archer]

I've had good results using unique.

[mpmarty]

+1 for Red Dot on those calibers.

[SP101GUY]

+1 for Red Dot also, I use it for 357, 38, 40, and 44.

AJ

[kyle623]

W231 is good, but you won't get full power in the 357 mag

[Throckmorton]

These days,availability is the key to what powder to use.Around here it is anyway.
For shooting cast boolits at moderate velocities,I use Unique because 1. I like it. 2. it's readily available.
I like W231 better,but have not seen a pound in forever and am not going to order online,so Unique for me,for now.

All of the ones mentioned will get the job done if available.

[Rocky Raab]

I have not used True Blue, but it ought to do what you propose. I have used AA#5, and if you want/need a spherical powder for those cartridges, it will do quite nicely, also.

[xr650]

I haven't used True Blue.
I've been using W231 for 9,40 and 45. I am happy with the performance.
Just starting on some 38. I am going to try the W231 on these also.

[SciFiJim]

I just looked at Ramshot's website. They list loads with True Blue for lead boolits all of the calibers you listed. It should work for what you want. It might or might not be the best powder for each caliber (I have no experience with it), but it will get the boolit out of the barrel. You will have to work with it to find the best load for each caliber with YOUR guns.

I saw in a thread on surplus powders a comment that pertains to this.

"With enough incentive, we can make any powder work with any boolit." That might not be universally true, but close enough to try it out. Price and availability are good incentives.

[steg]

I tried Red Dot years ago after giving up on small game hunting, nowhere to hunt around here and I had a bunch of it, tried it in my .357 and.38's and never looked back, worked great, my Son and I burned two boxes apiece last weekend, they worked great and spending a day with my Son was even better...........steg

[fredj338]

+1 for Red Dot also, I use it for 357, 38, 40, and 44.

AJ
Only for low vel loads in the magnums & 40. A medium burner like Unqiue, WSF, Universal, etc. will work well in any handgun round. You can't get to magnum vel but you can get useable vel w/ them. TrueBlue would work, a bit on the slow side, (close to BlueDot) for 38sp & 45acp, but it would work. Rmshot Sil would be a bit more versitile.

[SP101GUY]

Correct, no full mag loads with the Red Dot. For the cast bullets i use, i think the max load for 357 was 5.6g, 40 was 4.5g, and 44 was 5.8 grains.

AJ

[MtGun44]

Unique will work well for all of your calibers. No experience with True Blue at all.

Bill

[cricco]

I use True Blue for my 9mm and .45 acp. I'm very happy with the results. In fact, most of my powders are ramshot.

[mcdonl]

I am a rookie, but I have loaded about 500-750 9mm, .357 and .38's using Universal Clays. It seems to work well.

[putteral]

Titegroup works for me, if I was only using one powder!
:drinks:

[kawalekm]

Hi SRM
I went to school at U of I. How far are you from Moscow?

I use Blue Dot in all your calibers mentioned

9mm, 120 grain Lee TC, 8.0 grains Blue Dot
9mm, 150 grain Lyman SWC, 6.0 grains Blue Dot
38 special, 150 grain Lyman SWC, 8.0 grains Blue Dot
.357, 150 grain Lyman SWC, 12.0 grains Blue Dot
.40 S&W, 155 grain JHP, 10.0 grains Blue Dot
.40 S&W, 175 grain Lyman TC, 9.5 grains Blue Dot
.44 mag, 245 grain Lyman SWC, 16.0 grains Blue Dot
.45 ACP, 200 grain Lyman SWC, 10.5 grains Blue Dot.

Other than these though, I don't have anything loaded with Blue Dot
Good luck,
Michael

[44wcf]

Clays

[Trey45]

Red dot
Blue Dot
Bullseye
Unique

In no particular order.

[goste]

While I've never used true blue, I load for all the mentioned cal., except .40. My Fav. was unique , till I could no longer find it at my local store. I tried 700x, and I was totaly hooked.

I use it for .380, 9x18, 9x19. .38/357, .44spl,.45acp. I understand some people don't like it, but It works Great for me....Even in a FA

[MT Gianni]

No experience with the 40 but have used Red Dot, Unique, AA2 and Herco successfully in the others.

[johnlaw484]

I use Clays for .38spl, .45acp and 12 ga. It's clean burning and my cost is about 15.50 per pound.

[RobS]

I like to make things as simple as possible so I'd like to get one powder to load 357/38, 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 acp.


I too have not used True blue and mostly because I would rather use a flake powder as they fill cases better. That being said for what you are using don't over look good old Alliant Herco. It will give you a bit more velocity while keeping pressures down with the 357, 9, and 40 S&W vs Unique, which is also a good choice. Herco is in-between Unique and Blue dot regarding burn rate and in the cartridges you plan on using it in, it only takes a bit more powder than Unique to be in the same pressure area, but the velocities are higher within a given bullet.

Herco sits on my bench as the economical load for my 454 casull 280 grain LFN with 12 grains pushing 1,180 fps and it can be loaded in a lower pressure round such as the 45 acp equally as well. The only problem that some people have is metering, but it is not any worse than Unique. Alliant powders also seem to be less expensive vs other powders currenly on the market.

FWIW

[sundog]

RobS, I like Herco, too. Works in a lot of stuff...

[Rockchucker]

Unique/2400 My two favorites

[emorris]

I dont have a 45, but i use titegroup, bullseye, and sr4756 in my 9mm,38special,and 40sw. the sr4756 was the first powder that i started reloading with and only began to start playing with bullseye. the 40 and 9mm will be more demanding due to the higher pressure so i might start camparing with those two. gepending on the powder you should be able to adjust the charge weight for the 45 and 38.

[fredj338]

Titegroup works for me, if I was only using one powder!
:drinks:

For mousefart loads![smilie=b: Really, not a versatile choice for all the calibers the OP listed.

Clays
Another narrow load range choice. One powder for all calibers requires versatility. Powders much faster than W231 are marginal in magnums & high pressure rounds like the 40 & 357sig.

[zombiekiller]

I currently use AA#2 in all those mentioned + more and they all work great.

[Mk42gunner]

I like to make things as simple as possible so I'd like to get one powder to load 357/38, 9mm, 40 S&W, and 45 acp. Right now I'm leaning towards Ramshot True Blue. It's generally available, and relatively inexpensive. Does anyone have any experience with this powder in these cartridges? These will all be cast boolits, WW, with no gas checks for general practice/ plinking loads.

I have not used True Blue. I have however loaoded all of these cartridges with 231, while you can't get to full magnum ballistics in the .357 with it, it will work for plinkers.

Basically any shotshell or pistol powder faster than 2400 will work, albeit with some compromises in performance.


Robert

[jbremount]

I use W231 for .45ACP, .40S&W, .38 Special and 9mm. I reload on a Dillon 550B with Dillon powder measure. The W231 is a ball powder and meters well even with light charges.

[JIMinPHX]

I think that the best powder for your use would depend on how hot you plan to load these things. If you plan to load low power plinkers & target ammo, & want good economy, then something like Bullseye, W-231 or one of the other fast pistol powders might be a good choice. If you plan to load these things up as close to their velocity potential as possible, then something like Blue Dot may be better. If you plan on loading a wide variety of power levels, then Unique would probably be one of the better choices. Unique isn't the single best powder for very many things, but it does a pretty good job with an amazingly wide variety of cartridges, pistol or rifle.

[davestarbuck]

Bullseye works well for me for practice loads with lead boolits.

9mm, 40, and 45 get 4.0 grains, .38 and .380 get 3.0 grains.

I use a Lee Pro Auto Disk on a Lee Classic Turret press, and Bullseye meters very well with it.

-Dave