I have 470 rounds of 45ACP that my father had laying around (reloaded by a friend of his) that I inherited. These are all loaded with 185 gr LSWC bullets, ALOX lubed, with Bullseye powder. I knew the guy who loaded them, so I'm not afraid to fire them off, as I trust his reloads. The problem is, they are absolutely filthy to shoot.

I took some out today to break in my new SR1911, and after about 70 rounds, the guns chamber is so filthy they keep FTF'ing on me, and my hands were almost black with powder residue. Reloaded the magazine with some of my reloads, they function and feed just fine, so I know it's the ammo that's causing the problem.

So, as old Clark Kent would say, this sounds like a job for my trusty 645. It's times like this that I absolutely love my 645, as it will digest and fire pretty much anything, no matter how filthy it gets. Needless to say, the old girl's going to get pretty dirty on my next trip to the range, as I need to burn this ammo up.

I once bought a couple of boxes of .38 spl from a reloader at a gunshow. After shooting one cylinder, the stainless steel revolver was black, my hand was black, my face was dirty and I could taste the stuff. I asked the range officer to to dispose of the remaining rounds.

Sounds like black powder, never seen a single cylinder of anything make that much mess. My dirties reloads were never close to that.

I thought the big blue boxes of commercial reloads were bad, that just sounds nasty! I fired about 150 reloads through my CZ75 before, no issues, but everyone probably thought someone was firing a musket by the amount of smoke that was everywhere.

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Wheelguns 'n 3rd Gens.

Years ago I used some Herco powder on some .38 reloads with the same results...pure filth. I like to use Win 231 or HP38 on .45 ACP, its not the cleanest either.

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Mike in SouthCentral Kentucky

Winchester 231 is the powder I use for all my handgun reloads.It is a bit dirty but works great.

Same here, I use 231 for all of my pistol caliber reloads.

All my life I have used the classic powders, Bullseye, Unique, 2400, Herco, Red Dot, etc. and have come to expect a little soot and smoke. Can anyone recommend a truly clean burning powder for use in handguns? I load .38, .45 ACP and Colt, 44 Special, and 44 mag, as well as 9mm and .40 S&W. unique works for me in all of these, but is there anything better?

Lead bullets, lubricant and any powder will leave soot in my experience.

Try Alliant's Tite-Group. Lot less filth...

My Dad has been reloading for years and offered to reload some .357 and .45 for me..."Sure!" I said.

Dirtiest stuff ever! The trusty Smith 1911's are spitting it out fine but my 66's and 686's are choking on the stuff! I have to clean under the extractors every other cylinder load! I told Dad about it and he said he has had the powder for a while. I inquired as to what "a while" might mean...he pondered and said, "Probably bought that in the 70's or so"

The upside is that my son-in-law had to finally admit his Ruger GP100 wasn't "better than your expensive Smiths" as it choked on them, too!

I find Unique works well in moderate and "warmer" loads.

I agree with the Unique comment. I use it for light loads in my 45ACP and 357. Also use if for stiff loads in the same guns. Skeeter Skelton and Jeff Cooper loved the stuff and developed some pretty amazing loads with it.