Cimarron said:
I have settled on a pet load for my .45 acp. I have a gentlemen who sells good hard lead bullets for $20 / 500 185 gr. I have settled on Bullseye because I've had good experience with it and it is economical. A 185 Gr LSWC over 5 gr Bullseye gives a super reliable load, good accuracy, mild recoil and with a Lee single stage press and Lee .45 acp 4 dies you can shoot your .45 for about the cost of high quality .22's
The only caution is that Bullseye is a fast powder and a 5 gr load could allow for a double load. The biggest concern is to visually confirm that the loads are the same.
That's the main problem with dense powders like Bullseye, red dot, green dot, W231, etc. They are dense enough to allow dangerous overcharges. A double charge of Red Dot and it's grenade time. But, a good reloading routine will eliminate problems. If loading on a single stage press, I always have my brass after sizing/decapping turned upside down rim up. I then grab each case for charging (use a powder through expander die and Lee auto disc measure) and run it through, set it rim down, right side up. I go through the entire batch, then under a good light double check levels looking for something that looks off level. In a .45 case, a double charge of Bullseye will be obvious.
It is good to be paranoid of this, the most potentially disastrous of mistakes. On an auto indexing turret press or a progressive, I check the powder level, but just to affirm it has a charge. The chance of double charging isn't there, but the chance you had the powder hopper turned off and didn't get a charge IS there. LOL You don't want to cap a bullet with nothing, but a primer as the bullet WILL stick in the bore. If you're shooting a revolver and pull another one, well, kaboom!
That said, I also shoot Bullseye in both .45ACP and .38 special. There's less chance of a double charge in 9mm or .380, but in .38, heck, you could quadruple charge! But, in all my years of handloading, careful checking and double checking the powder charging step and keeping my mind on what I'm doing has kept me out of trouble. Bullseye is just too accurate and too economical NOT to use. I know that some of the new powders designed for the .38 and .45 Colt like Trail Boss, are fast burning, yet bulky enough to prevent double charges in large cases. I intend to work with Trail Boss soon in .38 special. I don't think it'd be appropriate for .45ACP, however. DuPont's site lists 2.7 grains of trail boss behind a 158 grain bullet giving 661 fps out of a 7.7" test barrel at 13,700 cup. That's not real impressive and the powder was designed, after all, for cowboy shooting and safe reloading. But, it's okay for the range and the idea that it would eliminate any possibility of a double charge is nice.
I am afraid, however, that trail boss would be too bulky for my favorite plinker bullet in .38, a cast full wadcutter from a Lee mold. 2.7 grains of Bullseye is just hard to beat with wadcutters. My favorite .45ACP plinker load, general purpose is the Lee tumble lube 200grain SWC bullet over that same 5.0 grains Bullseye. It shoots really well and functioned even in my AMT Hardballer, though I had to seat it out in that gun to headspace on the rifling to get enough OAL to keep it from nosing up on the feed ramp. The Ruger P90 isn't particular, feeds anything, and this load shoots well in it.
