I went out back to the range Friday and shot about 100 of my recently made 45 auto handloads. Lately I have been shooting from the bench/picnic table where as usually I shoot freestanding. I happened to glance down and noticed what looks to be quite a lot of unburnt powder on the table top. Looked like someone shook a pepper shaker all over it. I have been using this same load for several months and it has proven to be accurate and feeds well in my SR45. I have been researching this issue for a couple of days and from what I can gather it is probably caused by low charge weight. I plan on bumping up the charge a bit in .5 grain increments to see if I can alleviate the unburnt powder. Any suggestion? The load is a .452, 230 grain LRNBB bullet over 6.4 grains of IMR4756 in used Federal brass with #300 CCI primers. COL is 1.260 and crimp is .469. This is my load data and anyone who uses it does so at their own risk.
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Looks like black pepper
- Thread starter passtime
- Start date
Lost Sheep
New member
Thanks for sharing
I seems to me that .5 grains is a bit of a big bump. 9% of your current charge weight. I suggest smaller increases.
But I also want to ask, why? You have an accurate load with adequate power, right? Adding more powder just gilds the lily, uses more powder per shot (Does it matter, in a good-shooting load if the powder is burnt or scattered on the ground?) and accomplishes no advantage I can see.
Of course, you won't know if you get greater accuracy or utility until you try, so go for it, keep meticulous records, Clock them with a good chronograph and let us know what you find.
Lost Sheep
I seems to me that .5 grains is a bit of a big bump. 9% of your current charge weight. I suggest smaller increases.
But I also want to ask, why? You have an accurate load with adequate power, right? Adding more powder just gilds the lily, uses more powder per shot (Does it matter, in a good-shooting load if the powder is burnt or scattered on the ground?) and accomplishes no advantage I can see.
Of course, you won't know if you get greater accuracy or utility until you try, so go for it, keep meticulous records, Clock them with a good chronograph and let us know what you find.
Lost Sheep
Any suggestion?
You are using the Hodgdon starting load for a FMJ bullet with a 0.060" shorter OAL than yours.
Your starting pressure for lead is less.
Your longer OAL will significantly reduce peak pressure.
You are using a mid burn rate handgun powder for a very light load.
The Hodgdon pressure is listed as 12.9K CUP and yours will be way less.
You can either go to a faster powder, increase your powder charge, or shorten your OAL if you want to reduce the amount of unburned powder.
But what you have is accurate and you enjoy shooting it, do a little unburned powder isn't going to hurt much.
Thanks for the response. The above two posts are the only ones I have read in the last couple of days that asks the question, why worry abut it. I agree but I needed some confirmation before I let it go. This load is used for steel target shooting.The load is accurate, has low recoil and does not lead up the barrel. Even though I have some unburnt powder residue the cases are rarely smoked up. My Lee manual has 6.2 gr. as a starting load and my Lyman 49th has 6.0 gr. . I worked this load up from 6.2 gr. The COL was arrived at using the plunk test. I have some IMR 7625 on hand but I have not tried it yet. I may shorten the COL a bit and see where that goes.