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brucev

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In my area powder for reloading common pistol calibers is non-existent. Looking on-line I cannot find any source w/ powder in stock. Last night I went through what I have on hand. I have maybe 1/2 lb. Unique. Somewhere I have maybe 1/2 lb. of Red Dot, but as of yet it has not turned up. (When we moved to our new pastoral charge, everything was boxed, etc. I've not unpacked everything. It's in there somewhere). I have found about half a 4 lb. canister of Green Dot, half a canister of Herco and half a canister of a Winchester powder labelled 454AA. I opened all the canisters and checked the powders. They smell normal. From every indication that I know to look for, they are in fine condition. None appear to have degraded.

I have some useful loads for Unique in .38 Special. I've not loaded any of the above powders in any other pistol calibers. I want to load .38 Special, .44 Special and .45 ACP. The .45 ACP will be fired in a RIA 1911-A1 and a S&W 625-2. The .44 Special will be fired in a 4" S&W 21-4 Thunder Ranch. The .38 Special will be fired in 4 and 6 inch S&W revolvers. I may try loading some S&W .357 Magnum loads. Those would be loaded using 125 gr. JHP's and 158 gr. JHP's. All other rounds would be loaded with commercially cast lead bullets.

What I need is information about where to go to find data for loading these powders with the above listed cartridges. I have a good supply of SP primers on hand. I have maybe 500 LP primers available. I will be buying a Dillion 550B in December and will order it in .38 Special as I have experience w/ that caliber and piles of brass on hand. I will then add a set-up in .45 ACP and later .44 Special.

Suggestions, etc. will be much appreciated. Sincerely. bruce.
 
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The powder manufacturers

Go to the powder manufacturers websites. All of the big ones have loading data.

Do you have a current reloading manual? Those are common powders and have extensive listing in most of the main manuals. With the powders you listed, you should find acceptable loads for all of those powders (except the Winchester one I'm not familiar with. Could it be 452aa that was replaced by WST?).
 
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Have a Hornady Handbook of Cartridge Reloading (1973) and a Sierra Manual (1976). Digging through the boxes I found my Speer No. 10 Reloading Manual and my beloved Lyman Reloading Handbook, 45th Edition (1970). The Speer and Lyman manuals and to a lesser degree the Sierra manual have data of Herco, Green Dot and Red Dot. I've found almost nothing on 454AA. I didn't realize it was no longer a current powder.

Very many thanks to all for the kind responses and especially the links.

I spent last night processing and priming 500 pieces of .38 Special brass. Tonight when I get in from church I will hopefully be able to begin loading. It will be educational. Sincerely. brucev.
 
Winchester 452AA has been my favorite 38 spl powder for plinking
loads for a long time. It was replaced by WST and load data is said
to be the same although I've noticed slight differences. Loads for
pistol cartridges is a bit sparse but look to original Winchester data
and the Speer # 11 manual or just load around 3.5 grs under a 158 gr
lead bullet and enjoy accurate clean burning ammo.
 
It would be real helpful if you would state WHAT YOUR AREA IS. Many times you may find you have someone living nearby who can point you to sources for components that you need. BTW, you don't have to be specific, a general area of the state is good enough.
 
For loading the .38 Special, 44 Special and 45 ACP cartridges you can get very good results with Green Dot and W452AA. Both are in the correct burn rate range for those rounds so that's good news since you have a combined 4 lbs of the stuff on hand...
 
DR505 said:
Try this: Handloads.com
Click to expand...

I use handloads.com all the time but I also bounce any data there off the manufacturer's website or some other source.

Green Dot is a great powder. I use it in everything except magnums. Plenty of data available for it. Very close to Bullseye in burn rate & load data. In my area it's usually easier to find than Bullseye, too. Green Dot is quite a bit bulkier than Bullseye.

Oh yeah.. watch you COAL in the RIA. They are known for having a very short leade. I use my RIA barrel for a gauge when trying a new bullet/load. If it plunks in the RIA it will plunk in everything I own.
 
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Fishslayer said:
Green Dot is a great powder. I use it in everything except magnums. Plenty of data available for it. Very close to Bullseye in burn rate & load data. In my area it's usually easier to find than Bullseye, too. Green Dot is quite a bit bulkier than Bullseye.
Click to expand...
I think you're mistaken on Green Dot being of a similar burn rate as Bullseye. Now if you said Red Dot has a similar burn rate you would be much closer than Green Dot. Green Dot is quite a bit slower than BE.
 
Here's a burn rate chart. 452AA is listed between HP38 and WW231, which is the same powder, so I would extrapolate from that that the burn rates are similar. Powder Burn Rates
 
Happy! Happy! Happy! I found some pistol powder! Extreme thanks to a colleague on another board who gave me the name of some retailers within 1-2 hours drive. The very last store called had one pound of Winchester 231... which they held for me while I drove over. A mere 132 miles later, I was home! The store also has H-110. I gave a lot of thought to buying some. But while I have a beau coup pile of .38 Special casings, my supply of .357 Magnum brass is exactly 50 pcs. So... I left the H-110 for someone who would be loading magnum cartridges. Other than a few shotgun powders, that shop had no other powder in stock and virtually no bullets, jacketed or lead. But still, they had 231! I celebrated with a Dairy Queen hamburger and onion rings and a Butter Finger Blizzard! As to powder... the hunt goes on!
 
Just another bit of rambling. Today while looking driving to and from the store for powder, I just happened to accidentally on purpose drive by a LGS. It was only 32 miles out of town :-). They had no reloading supplies at all. The last time I found .44 Special brass, it was priced at $51/100 pcs. I didn't buy it. Today at the LGS I found PMC .44 Special 180 gr. JHP ammo for $29/50 rds. The indoor range in Columbus, GA wants $38/50 rds. of the same brand of ammunition. Now... I'm thinking if I buy the ammo and "test" it in my 21-4, then I can consider that I actually only paid $7 for the 100 pcs. of brass! Now THAT's a good price on brass. Once I get enough brass, I think that's how I'll explain it to my wife.
 
alwslate said:
Winchester 452AA has been my favorite 38 spl powder for plinking loads for a long time. It was replaced by WST and load data is said
to be the same although I've noticed slight differences. Loads for
pistol cartridges is a bit sparse but look to original Winchester data
and the Speer # 11 manual or just load around 3.5 grs under a 158 gr
lead bullet and enjoy accurate clean burning ammo.
Click to expand...

For loading the .38 Special, 44 Special and 45 ACP cartridges you can get very good results with Green Dot and W452AA. Both are in the correct burn rate range for those rounds so that's good news since you have a combined 4 lbs of the stuff on hand...

Thank You very much! What a thrill to know that the 452AA can be used! There's enough of that gorgeous stuff to keep my revolvers firing for at least a year of so! We've finally gotten most of my gun stuff unboxed. We found AA # 5 & 9. We found three pounds of IMR 4320, two pounds of IMR 4064 and one pound of IMR 4350. The cans are all in good shape w/ no rust. All of that came from my identical-twin brother. I retrieved it from the trash after it was thrown away after his death (2004). It all smells fine, no odd odors just the nice scent you expect with powder. It's been so many years, I'd forgotten it.

Now all I need to do is find a data source for the 452AA. My Lyman and Speer manuals have some loads for Green Dot for the cartridges I load. So now all I need to do is find a data source for the 452AA! Until then, I'll just experiment with the suggested 3.5/158 gr. .38 Special load. Thanks sincerely. bruce.
 
scooter123 said:
It would be real helpful if you would state WHAT YOUR AREA IS. Many times you may find you have someone living nearby who can point you to sources for components that you need. BTW, you don't have to be specific, a general area of the state is good enough.
Click to expand...

I beg your pardon. You are of course right. I live about 30 miles outside of Columbus, GA going toward Americus, GA.
 
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