Loading 45 Colt Cowboy rounds with Hodgdon Clays

[mrappe]

Over the years I have been loading my 45 Colt pistol rounds for CASS shooting with Unique and my 38-40 Winchester 73 rounds with Hodgdon Clays podwer. I have a lot of the Clays powder right now but have been finding the Unique hard to get lately so I was thinking about loading the 45 Colt with the Clays also. Does anyone do this? I am using a 250 grn RNFP bullet in the 45 Colt.


Thanks,
Mike

[Moonie]

FYI, Unique is coming back, I recently bought an 8 pounder of it.

[Nueces]

I had been loading 231 under 200 RNFPs for CAS shooting and got antsy about getting low on my favorite handgun ball powder. Lucked into a Powder Valley shipment of Alliant powders and got a couple jugs of Clay Dot, which is touted as a grain-for-grain substitute for Hodgdon Clays.

My new load is 5 grains Clay Dot under the 200 grain lead slug. I'm delighted that it shoots well and is much less sooty than the 231. I think you're well set up with Clays.

[LUBEDUDE]

I'm similar with Nueces.

4.5 gr of Clays with a 200gr cast bullet is a moderate load for CAS or Wild Bunch.

5.0 gr of Clays for more punch and less soot.

[bangerjim]

Remember there are THREE (3) types of "Clays"............

1. Clays
2. Clay Dot
3. Clay International

..........that I have seen on the shelves over the past years. I believe they have changed the nomenclature over the past months to relieve the confusion? Powder...FAST powder........is so scarce, it is hard to tell what is current!!!!!!

I use only Clays and have load data for it in several cals.

banger

[azrednek]

Remember there are THREE (3) types of "Clays"............


Just like the "Dots", blue, green and red. I mixed up two of the Dot loads when I first started handloading. Fortunately it led to squib loads. I feel they would do a great service to rookie handloaders to re-name the Clays to avoid confusion.

A few years ago I worked up a great 45 AR load using Clays but foolishly failed to make note of which Clays. At the time when the shortages began and I was using new to me powders. I didn't know there were different types of Clays.

[bangerjim]

I read somewhere in the "dark ages" of my mind that all the DOT powders are made the same. They test the batch for burn/specs and then add the confetti to the bath to tell it apart from the others.

Just what I heard around. I stick with published load data. And only have GD.

banger

[roberts1]

I use it. My lee manual says 4.6-5.9 grains for a 200grain lead bullet and 4.4-5.4grains for a 230 both of which I have tried and 4.2-5.1 for a 250 which I haven't personally tried but is in the book

[mrappe]

The Hodgdon website for the 45 Colt suggest a max of 5.1 grns with a 250 grn bullet and a minimum of 4.2. I shoot 5.3 grns in my 38-40 original 73 Winchester with a 180 grn bullet and the web site shows a starting load of 4.7 and a max of 5.5 for that combo. It seems strange to me that the 45 Colt load would be less in this case but I guess it is because of the bullet weight.

[mrappe]

Also I have run out of large pistol primers and I have about 1000 large pistol magnum primers that I bought many years ago for a gun that I no longer have so I was thinking of using them and just backing off the powder some in both my calibers but I am not sure how much.

[bangerjim]

My boxes of Win primers say "for standard AND magnum loads".

Go figure!

banger

[Matt_G]

Remember there are THREE (3) types of "Clays"............

1. Clays
2. Clay Dot
3. Clay International

..........that I have seen on the shelves over the past years. I believe they have changed the nomenclature over the past months to relieve the confusion? Powder...FAST powder........is so scarce, it is hard to tell what is current!!!!!!

I use only Clays and have load data for it in several cals.

banger

Actually, there are four:
1) Clays - Made by Hodgdon
2) International Clays - Made by Hodgdon
3) Universal Clays - Made by Hodgdon
4) Clay Dot - Made by Alliant

I believe that recently Hodgdon started calling #2 and #3 just International and Universal respectively.

[Mk42gunner]

About twelve or thirteen years ago I used one of Hodgdon's Clay powders for loading Cowboy level loads in the .45 Colt with a purchased 250 gr RNFP. It was a decent little plinking load, you could shoot it all day long in either the Marlin or the Ruger Vaquero; very economical as well.

Unfortunately, I don't remember just which Clays powder it was, and I don't think I have the can any more. If I think of it, I will do some looking in the barn tomorrow.

My gut feeling is that if you have been making satisfactory loads for the .44-40 with it, that it will work for the .45 Colt.

Now that I think about it, the can of powder I had was from before the renaming of the Clays line, but magazine writers were cautioning people to make sure which powder and data they had. I decided that while it worked okay, it didn't really do anything better than 231, so I went back to that (You could still find any powder you wanted then).

Robert

[Eddy Stone]

For over 12years I loaded 4.5 grains of Clays under the RCBS 230 gr. cowboy bullet. Worked great in revolvers (45 acp too) as well as lever action cowboy rifles. Accurate, clean burning, and 1550 cartridges per pound of powder.
Woodeneye SASS 5300.