45LC question ?

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:19 pm

I have been reloading for about a year now, and am quite careful. But, I just realized a slight loading issue with some 45LC. Here is the data:
45LC
winchester primer
255g Berry's plated flat point
7.3-8.4g Win AutoComp
1.590" OAL

I usually load them to my favorite load of 7.7g . I accidentally loaded them at 7.0g. I have shot them as low as 7.3g before without any negative results. Will this .3 of a grain make it dangerous?
please help, thank you,
haka

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 4:25 pm

I can see nobody wants to touch this one, especially when it comes to reloading. I did post the same question on another forum and this is the response I got there:

1) Only dangerous if they squib, and another round gets fired with a bullet in the barrel. I would think velocities with 7 grains would be in the low-to-mid 600 fps range, maybe 700 fps with very, very low pressures... Do you have a bullet puller as an option?

2) Should you decide to fire them, you must make absolutely sure by a visual check that the bullet cleared the barrel for each shot, loading a single round at a time.
Tom, are you referring to the phenomena of "detonation", where it is reported a very light charge/volume of propellant relative to the case size detonates, rather than act as a propellant? If so, in your situation, and the propellant used considering its innate characteristics of pressure application speed and curve, a stuck bullet in the barrel would seem to be your only concern.

For many years as I'm sure you are aware of, detonation has been on the minds of reloaders, and primarily was believed to happen with large capacity rifle rounds using very light charges of "slowish" rifle propellant (especially ball propellants). I had concerns of this back in 1984 when I was developing very light "squirrel hunting" loads for my 30/06 using cast bullets I made, and figured I would write Hercules, see what they had to say, and if they had data they could provide me with. Their response follows, and you may find it interesting:

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc25 ... noname.jpg

Seems they were not all that convinced the phenomena even happens, or happens as a result of the propellant magically changing its rate of decomposition as some report, thus becoming a near high order explosive. Using typical pistol/shotshell propellants in too low a charge, it seems a stuck bullet is our biggest concern, and I think holds true for your particular situation.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Thu Apr 21, 2011 7:02 pm

I think you would run into burn probems with powder position, not getting uniform ignition. and Ihave heard of pressure spikes with lighter than published loads.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 1:54 pm

Just back from the range, and here are the results of the slightly underloaded 45LC ammo.
At 30 ft, it is evident that there aren't any tumblers, and the accuracy is very good (the shooter isn't that good).
There wasn't any evidence of abnormalities, in fact, it seems like a great target load, with plenty of kick.
50 rounds @ 30 ft :

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 2:19 pm

nice shooting haka.... try trail boss in your 45 lc it is a soft shooter in my 44mag and should be a good powder for plinking loads in your 45lc.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:51 pm

try trail boss in your 45 lc it is a soft shooter in my 44mag and should be a good powder for plinking loads in your 45lc.

Thanks, bgreener, I'll keep that in mind.
Haka

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 6:34 pm

I though that load would be a good safe and soft shooting load but did not venture an opinion as I am far from being an expert and did not want you or your heirs to sue me if you blew your head or posterior away. After all ho w much power do you need to punch a hole in a piece of paper? All you need is enough velocity to spin the bullet fast enough to get it to stabilize. Being an old shot gunner I believe in Alliant Green Dot and Unique as the can be used in 12, 28 and 28 gage loads and work really well. I use 158 LSWC's and 4.8 grains of Green Dot in my .38 loads and 5.8 of Green Dot in my 45ACP's with a 200 LSWC. In the .38 I have used as little as 3.5 grains but when I got to 4.5 they grouped much better.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 8:34 pm

After all ho w much power do you need to punch a hole in a piece of paper? All you need is enough velocity to spin the bullet fast enough to get it to stabilize.

As it turns out, there was plenty of power in these loads, there wasn't any tumbling, just clean cut bore holes. Like I mentioned earlier, the rounds seems fully powered. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't load them at 7.0g all the time. Just like you alluded to, I didn't think many people would respond to this thread because everybody is afraid to say the wrong thing. I expected that, though. It was a good day at the range, I had fun.
Haka

41 deg's , cloudy and raining in the northern parts of Detroit.

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:33 pm

Hakaman wrote:
After all ho w much power do you need to punch a hole in a piece of paper? All you need is enough velocity to spin the bullet fast enough to get it to stabilize.
As it turns out, there was plenty of power in these loads, there wasn't any tumbling, just clean cut bore holes. Like I mentioned earlier, the rounds seems fully powered. Makes me wonder if I shouldn't load them at 7.0g all the time. Just like you alluded to, I didn't think many people would respond to this thread because everybody is afraid to say the wrong thing. I expected that, though. It was a good day at the range, I had fun.
Haka

41 deg's , cloudy and raining in the northern parts of Detroit.

Its always sunny and warm on the west side of MI!

you might want to shoot that question over to hodgdon's ( 913-362-9455 ) see what they say.... I say there is a lot of room in that old case for such little powder you might see pressure issues, BUT your ruger is strong enough to take A LOT of pressure before you will see any problems, thats the beauty of rugers

greener · Post by **greener** » Fri Apr 22, 2011 11:56 pm

I've been using either 8 gr of Unique or 6.9 gr Universal on 250 lfp bullets. I think those run about 800-850.

I wasn't too sure about Autocomp, but it got out of the barrel and down on the target pretty well. The .45 colt is a pretty forgiving round.

Hakaman · Post by **Hakaman** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 12:37 am

The .45 colt is a pretty forgiving round.

The 45LC, and the 38sp, are my favorite pistol rounds to load and shoot. Of course, they fit so well in "revolvers". Maybe I'm a little old fashion, but I like revolvers quite well. So well that I just ordered another one, the Smith 617.
Haka

greener · Post by **greener** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 7:59 am

Hakaman wrote:
The .45 colt is a pretty forgiving round.
The 45LC, and the 38sp, are my favorite pistol rounds to load and shoot. Of course, they fit so well in "revolvers". Maybe I'm a little old fashion, but I like revolvers quite well. So well that I just ordered another one, the Smith 617.
Haka

Understand about revolvers. I have a couple.

Think you will like the 617.

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:01 am

Rovolverss are cool, think I have a few myself. My regular shiooting bud has one of the older 617's, his is a 6 shot. He likes it and it shoots well.

Post by **Bullseye** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:10 am

You won't risk hyper detonation until you typically get to around half the minimum load. Your .3 grains shouldn't make that much of a difference in the overall cup pressure.

R,
Bullseye

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Sat Apr 23, 2011 9:21 am

II started using light kids of Green Dot in shot shells because I was shooting 3300 or better rounds a week on sporting clays, and they had a softer recoil. Got into reloading the .38 and.45 and found out it worked there also, besides I had nearly 4 pounds of it around yet, when I got out of shotgunning,. The only problem is you get a lot of load variation because of it being a flake powder, it will vary .2 or .3 grains at tomes. My shooting bud uses a ball powder and using the same powder measure he get almost no variation at all. He used my powder measure until he got his new one recently,