Smoked Cases

[growr]

I use a lot of Unique but it is a 44-40 and have NO issues with case blackening.
Randy

 

[stansdds]

Low operating pressure and/or brass that is stiff and cannot expand to seal the chambers or oversize will cause the cases to be excessively fouled with gsr.

 

[rvolvr]

.... Actually carbon is a good lubricant for your dies. After graphite is just carbon.

Following this logic, diamond dust would work also - after all, diamond is just carbon. There's a lot more to the story of graphite as a lubricant, whereas other physical forms of carbon are not suitable substitutes.

 

[scooter123]

Stop using Unique for handgun loads. In meters poorly which results in a charge variation of +/- 0.51 grain and it's primarily a SHOTGUN powder. BTW, shotgun loads position the powder right over the flash hole and the powder is retained in that position by the wad. So shotgun powders are designed without any consideration of Position Sensitivity. Something I discovered when I tried using SR7625 in a 38 special load. This resulted in loads that produced 400 fps if the barrel was held pointing straight down prior to firing and 700 fps if the barrel was held straight up prior to firing. Note the barrel was held horizontal when firing and brought to that position so that the powder charge was clustered either at the bullet base or near the flash hole.

I would suggest that you use an actual Handgun powder, such as Vihtavouri N340, N350 or 3N37. They feature a near zero position sensitivity, meter wonderfully, and are very clean burning.

BTW, if you have a stash of Unique you want to sell after discovering how good the Vihtavouri powders really are you will find that Shotgun reloaders will gladly pay 40 dollars a pound for your unopened bottles of Unique. It is a wonderful powder for 20 and 28 gauge loads and currently nearly impossible to find. Post a for sale notice at a local shotgun range and you'll get plenty of calls wanting to buy.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Stop using Unique for handgun loads. In meters poorly which results in a charge variation of +/- 0.51 grain and it's primarily a SHOTGUN powder. BTW, shotgun loads position the powder right over the flash hole and the powder is retained in that position by the wad. So shotgun powders are designed without any consideration of Position Sensitivity. Something I discovered when I tried using SR7625 in a 38 special load. This resulted in loads that produced 400 fps if the barrel was held pointing straight down prior to firing and 700 fps if the barrel was held straight up prior to firing. Note the barrel was held horizontal when firing and brought to that position so that the powder charge was clustered either at the bullet base or near the flash hole.

I would suggest that you use an actual Handgun powder, such as Vihtavouri N340, N350 or 3N37. They feature a near zero position sensitivity, meter wonderfully, and are very clean burning.

BTW, if you have a stash of Unique you want to sell after discovering how good the Vihtavouri powders really are you will find that Shotgun reloaders will gladly pay 40 dollars a pound for your unopened bottles of Unique. It is a wonderful powder for 20 and 28 gauge loads and currently nearly impossible to find. Post a for sale notice at a local shotgun range and you'll get plenty of calls wanting to buy.

Maybe get some Red Dot that will fill the case better with less powder
if you like Alliant powders.

I always try for a 70% volume load in 38 & 9mm cases, no matter what powder that I use.

I have a case that will let a bullet slide inside of it,
then find out what the longest OAL is, or with the cannelure setting,
then fill the case up to get the 100% fill amount.
I can then find the 88% or 90% loading, using my Alliant powders, for target loads.
I will check the powder amount with several manuals but this
usually comes close to the starting loads.

I do NOT use this system with Ball powders.

 

[Nevada Ed]

Not .45 but I did do a light load test with one of my 9mm pistols
to see what would work the spring and still cycle the action.

These minimum loads might not be safe in your pistols and the post
is only to let viewers see how "Smoked" the cases are, with a light load of powder.
Always use printed data for your safety.

Even though the above amounts of power worked in my pistol, to seal the cases
to help minimize burnt powder on the cases, there were still some fail to feed or eject
due to my heavy recoil spring, in this pistol.

Here is a picture of too light or not enough powder, for a load, for my PT92.

 

[max503]

My Glock 380 needs high end loads to function. That's what I load and they still smudge the case.

I figure that's why they supply a brush with the gun.

 

[BLUEDOT37]

Plated bullets give less bullet-to-case tension than other types of bullets resulting in poorer ignition.

You can't give plated bullets a real roll-crimp since they don't have a meaningful crimp groove so you're stuck with making do with a taper crimp & using the best powder for the job.

Otherwise I wouldn't worry about the smokey cases, in this case.

.

 

[rosewood]

Smoky brass really isn't a problem other than aesthetics. I have had lots of factory ammo that was smoky, especially in 45 ACP. Bumping up the pressure to seal better may affect your accuracy. If it is accurate and velocity isn't too low, move, on, nothing to see here.

That being said, a faster powder that achieves the same velocity may seal the chamber better if you really think it is necessary.

Rosewood

 

[WR Moore]

Two ideas- I found the plated bullets are slicker than lead, so you're not going to get the same pressure level as the lead bullet of the same weight.

Now about the crimp......before I broke down and bought a taper crimp die for plated .38 bullets, I seated the bullets deep so I could roll crimp over the bullet shoulder. Worked fine and saved a few grains of powder per load.

 

[BillBro]

That load should be perfect? Could be poor neck tension, or how did you crimp them (if you did)?


Is the "smoke" only on the half the circumference of the case?

What would it mean if the "smoke" was only on half of the case? I dont think this was explained anywhere in the thread or at least I didnt see it.

 

[4barrel]

VN340 has very close data for Unique and cleaner. I use both. I use a below the book charge of Unique in 44 mag<7.5>with a 240 grain and very accurate without dirty cases but the bullets are the same size as the cylinder. If the plated bullets are a little small--White Label Lube company makes a lube you can use. I put a little lube in a pan and heat the bullets with a heat gun and shake them and pour out on a flat clean surface and let dry. That will make the plated bullet a bit larger. Use a good roll crimp. A heavier bullet may help also.

 

[Paul in Nevada]

Stop using Unique for handgun loads...

Never gonna happen.

 

[TheTinMan]

I'm really not worried about it. It was just something that I had not expereicned before to this high degree and I wondered what changed.

The guns were an Old Model Blackhawk, a new Model Vaquero and a 25-5.

The funny part was that my 25-5 HAS wide throats and I usually load 255's at 0.454. I wasn't thinking that day and used the 0.452 Berrys and I actually amazed myself how well I hit the target.....LOL.

Off topic, but my 25-2 has large and unequal throats. When I tried plated round nosed bullets they were nicely accurate.