[Monsai52]

I'm picking up a recent production 45 Colt SAA as soon as it clears its 10 day CA quarantine. I've loaded LOTS of 45 Colt in the past but nothing recently. My standard load was always 8.5 grs. of Unique under a 250 gr swc. Unfortunately I'm running low on Unique and there's none to be had in my area. One of the powders that I can get, which the books show as a reasonable loading, is Silhoutte. I've never used it, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience with it in 45 Colt.

I did a quick search of the forum and didn't see any threads on this, so I'll apologize in advance if this has been addressed before, and request that you point me to any appropriate threads.

Best regards,

 

[Kid Sopris]

Cabela's still shows Unique available on line:
Add some items to it totalling $99.00 or more and get free shipping...may still have to pay Hazmat, but it's soimething.
Alliant Smokeless Powder : Cabela's

 

[Monsai52]

Thanks for the tip.

Best regards,

 

[noylj]

From Western Powders manual

.45 Colt 14000 psi standard loads:
255gn lead: 8.1-9.5gn Sil.
300gn lead: 6.3-7.4gn Sil.

.45 Colt 30000psi high pressure (probably NOT suitable for SAA)
255gn lead: 11.8-13.8gn Sil.
300gn lead: 9.4-11.0gn Sil.

 

[Monsai52]

Quick follow-up to my initial post/question.

I picked up a lb. of the Silhouette and loaded a couple of hundred rounds of 45 Colt. About half with 8.3 grs. and half with 8.9 grs. under a Speer 250 gr. LSWC, with WW regular large pistol primers. I found the Silhouette to be a very poor choice for this caliber. Because it's pretty dense it didn't fill much of the case and was VERY position sensitive; particularly the 8.3 gr. loading. If I didn't tilt the muzzle up a little between shots, there was something like 30% - 40% differences in felt recoil. I didn't have a chronograph so I couldn't measure the velocity difference, but I could tell that it had to be significant. Because of the velocity differences, the accuracy was completely "out the window".

I'll save it for my 45 ACP loads.

Best regards,