Had to shoot a lot yesterday with my S&W 1911. The distances were in feet beginning at 12, 20, 25 and 50. I did well.

The problem is I got home and was tired and ticked off (30 yr old daughter totalled her new car, her fault). I just left the gun in my shoulder holster and decided that if I did not get called out today, I would clean the gun.

This morning I took it out and it was black with powder residue. The slide, the bushing, the frame rails, the mag well and even the back of the trigger. I was expecting some residue but not that much. Never had it before like that.

OK, so I popped off 120 rounds but is that cause for that type residue? Has Winchester gone downhill in their ammo?

As luck would have it, just as I got it disassembled, I had to roll on a major incident. I took one out of the safe and left but got back about 4 hrs later and cleaned the gun. It took a minimal amount of wiping or brushing to get the residue off the stainless but I am still puzzled since it has never had such a buildup before.

I shoot the same ammo at the range. Just was there yesterday and shot about 75 rounds thru my CS45. I did not have that problem at all.

Was it Winchester White Box? If so, I'm not surprized.

Primarily I'm a 40 caliber shooter so my experience may or may not apply, however here is what I've seen. About 2 or 3 years ago I shot the WWB somewhat frequently and while it was dirtier than Federal Champion it wasn't truly offensive. This year I picked some up because it was all Walmart had on hand and it was absolutely foul shooting in my 610, took me nearly 2 hours to clean up the mess resulting from just 96 rounds downrange. I don't know what Winchester has done with their powder mix for the WWB but IMO it's definately gone downhill. In the future I'm going to make an effort to stock up onthe Federal Champion when I find it and do my best to avoid shooting the WWB, it's just not worth the mess it causes and it's actually a bit more expensive than the Champion.

It was the white box ammo. Since they buy it in volume, I do not know where it came from but reasonably sure they do not go to WalMart for ammo.

However I do go to WalMart and get it when they have the 100 round boxes.

Where are you buying the commercial target ammo?

I haven't shot WWB in a lot of different calibers, but my experience is that it's about the dirtiest ammo I've shot, especially in 45ACP.

I use WWB 100 packs in .45 acp and 9mm. It's a little dirty but I never thought it was a big problem.

Maybe since WWB is their cheap line they just use the cheapest powder they can find that gives the desired pressure? Now that you mentioned it, I think my G30 and Springfield 1911 was sooty around the front of the slide last time I shot some WWB through it. But to me a dirty gun is dirty anyway doesn't matter the level of dirtiness It's not bad enough for me to pay more for other ammo.

You did well and the gun cleaned up with a minimal amount of wiping. Sounds like darn good ammo to me.

For .45 target/range ammo all I ever use is the WWB 230gr FMJ Q4170, I've gone thru thousands of it and have never found it dirtier then any other ammo in its price range. Also I never buy the 100rd boxes of it only the 50rd boxes (just a mental thing of mine).

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Disabled Combat Veteran OIF

Do not take any offence to my following comments...

Bottom line is, IF you depend upon your life, the lives of your loved ones, and the lives of citizens you are paid to protect, no matter what else occures on a particular day, if you have fired your "protection" gun, you should make sure it is maintained in a ready condition.

No matter what else is happening, is that your gun, must be ready to run.

No problem in my Colt 1911 its all I use for everything 100%. Good proven ball load.

I've fired a pile of the WWB in 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. Are some brands cleaner burning? Maybe. But it doesn't matter. I don't expect to fire a pistol or rifle and afterward find no residue. It's just the way things work.

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i get the white box at bass pro alot and it is the dirty little secret winchester is hiding. it is a mess in my kimber pro carry II and my colt defender. i use the remington umc stuff more than anything else these days.

Winchester apparently uses additives to reduce muzzle flash. The tradeoff is more smoke and soot.

Smokeless powder is not nitrated to the point of a stoichiometric balance of oxygen. If it were, your gun would become an inefficient hand grenade. The excess carbon burns outside the muzzle, causing most of the flash (there is a short flame from the hot gas behind the bullet). Anti-flash additives, such as potassium chloride, suppress this secondary burning. All this carbon has to go somewhere.

Last time i used some 45 acp 100 round white box, (couple years ago) it was produced considerably more residue than any thing i have ever shot. It was also the most accurate inexpensive rounds used, and accurate in everything tried in. Back then it was $30/100, and less than buying the same components and loading them up.

If you think it was dirty in a semi, wait till you shoot it in a revolver.
A moistened rag will easily remove most of it, if ya get to it before it hardens, like immediately after you are done shooting.

+1000, about as dirty as you can find. its awful.

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God Bless Our Troops.

I've used a lot of it in 45 acp and it's dirty.Keep the brass for reloading with 200 gr lswc and either unique or bullseye and those are dirtier still.Shoot black powder reloads in my colt saa and those are just filthy! Just the nature of the beast ;-)

Try a plated bullet, use WST, and you will need to clean the gun a lot less. Simple. I have a 38 Special +P load with WST that allows me to shoot at least a THOUSAND rounds before the gun needs cleaning. I've gone as far as 1,200 rounds before I had to clean the gun, and I only did it because it was raining and I couldn't go to the range. The 45ACP loads are a bit dirtier, but not much. Somewhat lower pressure might be a factor here.

Most fouling, smoke and gun-grunge is caused by bullet lube and powders that don't burn completely. Proper propellants and cleaner bullets that don't leave anything behind make for a much cleaner gun. Primers leave some gunk behind, but it's not much, in the scheme of things.

I'll have to try that once I get this batch used up.These are loads I worked up 20-25 yrs ago when I could just run up in the foothills to test them.Got used to the grunge lol.