Woo-hoo! Survived my first reloads! Results not exactly stellar though.

First topic message reminder :

As the title states I was able to put together my first reloads yesterday and shot them this morning.  Good thing I only reloaded 10 cartridges though for reasons explained below.  I used Starline .45 acp brass, 185 gr. copper plated SWC bullets, Winchester primers and Unique powder.  I talked to Rob last night while having some difficulties (Thanks Rob!) and went with a 4.6 gr. load.  I was so concerned about the powder measure I ended up weighing each round.  Now the results....

All rounds chambered and fired but more than half stove piped (if that's the correct term) or simply remained in the chamber.  Those that did eject did so without the same force as all of the factory loads used before.  I usually place a towel on the bench in front of me while shooting and noticed powder on it for the first time.  The group size on the other hand actually improved.  I know you guys are going to tell me not use the Unique and that's fine but I wanted to start out with that to ease my first time jitters.  So, what to do now?  Should I chuck the Unique and move onto Bullseye or AutoComp powder?  I have both.  Was the load used too light and that's why the stove piping or weak ejections?  What type of bullets are recommended?  I have all of the .38 Special wadcutters you guys recommended earlier but failed to ask about the .45 bullets.  So, I just picked up locally some of the bullets mentioned above and some 200 gr. plated round nose bullets to get started.

I have some comments and observations about the Dillon XL 650 but will post those in another thread.

What Unique load should I use for the following 200 gr. bullets?
http://www.xtremebullets.com/45-200gr-SWC-p/x45-200swc-b0500.htm
The book for the 185 gr. bullets discussed before started at 4.7 grains of Unique.  We're now at 5.4 grains.  The book for the 200 gr. bullet above shows starting out at 6.0 grains of Unique.  Note: The book actually shows 2 types of 200 gr. SWC bullets.  I referenced the one (#452630) that only has 1 groove.  Again, the book I'm using is the Lyman Reloading Handbook, 49th Edition.

I load that same bullet at 3.8gr of Bullseye.  Never tried it with Unique.

Rob Kovach wrote:I load that same bullet at 3.8gr of Bullseye.  Never tried it with Unique.

Are you sure it's the same bullet and not the other one with 2 grooves?  The one with the single groove has a starting Bullseye load of 4.9 grains while the latter (2 groove) has a starting Bullseye load of 3.5 grains according to the Book.

I took the initiative and decided to load the 200 gr. LSWC bullets with 5.0 grains of Unique with an OAL of 1.235".  I couldn't find any published loads specific to these components that made sense.  Alliant shows a maximum of 5.4 grains of Unique for a 200 gr. LSWC bullet and a minimum OAL of 1.19".  That OAL would run past the lip of the bullet so I went with the length above.

All of this loading wizardry seems to be affected by not only the powder and bullet weight but also the amount of empty space leftover in the case, which is obviously controlled by how much the bullet is pushed into the case.  At least that's my take on it so far.  I think I'm being conservative with my thought process.  Please let me know if you see any flaws in my thinking.

Last note before retiring for the evening.  I think it was DavidR that suggested or mentioned that it's a good idea to follow in the footsteps of those that have developed successful something (bullet/load combinations in this case).  I see now the wisdom in those words.  What a mess trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  I was acquiring bullets and powder without having any idea of how they would be put together.  Not a good approach as it turns out.  So, before I buy another bullet or container of powder I'll first find a successful load formula for what I'm trying to accomplish.

Yes I'm sure.  I've shot 10,000 of them--all with 3.8gr Bullseye and the thing I like most is my zero is pretty much the same from the long line to the short line.  I really like it.