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No Clay's What now?


Paden

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Hello,

 

I'm almost out of Clay's. What would you recommend. I have been using 4-1/2 g for my 45 and 44-40 loads.

 

Regards,

 

Paden

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Trail Boss.

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You might be able to find load data for a good many varieties of powder.

 

Some off the top of my head might be:

 

AA2

AA5

Unique

Clay Dot

Red Dot

Solo

HP 38

Universal

Titegroup

Trail Boss

and probably some Vitavouri powders

 

I feel your pain because CLAYS is my powder of choice in my .38 special, Cowboy .45 Special and .45 Colt loads for CAS.

 

 

..........Widder

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If you can find any powder suitable to your cartridges (like those on Widders list) I'd buy it and use it. The only smokeless powders I can find locally or with online retailers is rifle powder made for magnum cartridges and 50 bmg. The powder situation right now is dismal. You could buy some BP sub powder and load those cartridges. The subs and real BP have not been affected by the current shortage.

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Two of my smokeless pards have good results with Tite-Group and it's readily available, at least 'round these parts it is.

 

Rye ;)

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With the powder climate as it is today, grab anything that will work, and be happy with it. Any of the faster burning Shotgun Powders will work nicely, as well as the faster burning Pistol powders. Clays, International, and Universal are totally unavailable till probably sometime in 2015.

 

 

Any of the following SG powders will do fine. Hodgdon's Titegroup, Alliant's Clay Dot, Red Dot, Green Dot, Unique, Promo, e3, and American Select. ACC Solo1000, and Nitro 100. Winchester Super Target. Vihtavuori N310.

 

These "pistol" powders also work well Alliant's Bullseye, Hodgson's HP38, ACC #2 and #5, Winchester 231.

 

Any of these powders will get you by, till your favorite powder becomes available again. It's best to grab whatever you can find whenever you see it at this time, because powders are very, very, scarce, and waiting for your favorite may take several months at best.

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I have had good luck with Bullseye and Alliant's American Select, if you can find them. I grab any of a half dozen that I know will work. All of them have been mentioned in replies before mine.

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whish you were closer to central Texas I have 5lb. of clays and do not use it.

With the way the powder drought is right now, I'II BE THERE IN 24 HOURS!!! :)

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Smokeless powder shortage is a good reason to "Come over to the Dark Side." <_<

Yea baby!!! Go DARK!!!

 

www.powderinc.com

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There are at least 50 powders that will work fine for our application, and at least another dozen or so that will work, although not optimally. Herco is one that is often overlooked - similar to Unique, but a little slower burn rate.

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Herco? yeah thats getting pretty slow down the burn chart. Its down there with rifle powders. Way slower than Win 296 and Alliant 2400. I always thought Herco was a good magnum shotshell and heavy magnum handgun load for pushing a heavy payload of lead.

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Another that hasn't been mentioned is Hodgdon tite-wad. While I've yet to see official published data for 38sp, there is data for 45 out there. A lb goes a very long way. I was lucky enough to snatch up 2 lbs yesterday. Between that, the unique and a few other misc pistol powders I've been able to scrounge, I can keep shootin'

 

The powder market is terrible and with Hodgdon having to deal with the fire at their shotgun powder plant earlier this year, they are saying no shotgun powder will be available until late 2014. I think it's going to take longer.

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Southpaw Gringo, Herco should be between AA5 and AA7, close to WSF, 4756, and Universal Clays in burn rate. At the edge of *optimum* for our game, but it will work fine for standard velocity loads if you can find it.

 

(Edit) I just googled several burn rate charts and can't find one where Herco is slower than 296/110 or 2400. On one chart listing 191 powders, Herco was #59, 2400 was #80, and 296 was #84. On another one listing 142, Herco was #48, 2400 was #60 and 296 was #65. Another one listing 143 had Herco at #37, 2400 at #59, and 296 at #63. Where did you find Herco being slower than 2400 and 296/110?

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Think I'm gonna have to figure out how to use 50BMG. It's the only stuff on the shelf.

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Since it is basically take what you can get and I haven't been able to get much, it is a good time for a miscellaneous powder and bullet cleanup. Over the years I have accumulated lots of partial cans of powder, Titegroup, Vihtvouri N320, Bullseye, etc., and 100 or 200 of this bullet or that. Gone through the loading charts and picked the mid-range load for each powder and bullet weight. As I run out of a particular powder or bullet I'm switching to the next one, adjusting the powder measure and loading whatever is next. Managed to load up a few hundred rounds that should be good for practice if nothing else. Hopefully, things will loosen up in the next few weeks (although we have been collectively hoping that for many, many months.) Otherwise, I'll have to break out the BP/subs as there is plenty of that around. I found 30,000 Remington #10 caps in the closet. Maybe next year would be a good time to start shooting Frontiersman again.

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Southpaw Gringo, Herco should be between AA5 and AA7, close to WSF, 4756, and Universal Clays in burn rate. At the edge of *optimum* for our game, but it will work fine for standard velocity loads if you can find it.

 

(Edit) I just googled several burn rate charts and can't find one where Herco is slower than 296/110 or 2400. On one chart listing 191 powders, Herco was #59, 2400 was #80, and 296 was #84. On another one listing 142, Herco was #48, 2400 was #60 and 296 was #65. Another one listing 143 had Herco at #37, 2400 at #59, and 296 at #63. Where did you find Herco being slower than 2400 and 296/110?

Yep! You are correct Sir. Just found another chart and it places Herco right were you said it would be. My old chart I printed about 8 years ago is confusing and I read it wrong. I found this one and it lists 261 powders. Herco is on it at #70. http://www.castpics.net/LoadData/BurnRates.pdf
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Hello,

 

I'm almost out of Clay's. What would you recommend. I have been using 4-1/2 g for my 45 and 44-40 loads.

 

Regards,

 

Paden

 

If you've seen the advice given above, your next step just might be to look around at what you can get. There is some to buy in your area?

 

List what you can get and the forum will be happy to suggest if any are suitable.

 

Right now, in this area, in the 4 LGSs around me, there isn't any pistol powder at all, and near as I've seen, hasn't been any for maybe a year.

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Unique. It will do everything you need. Yes, it tends to burn a bit dirty, but 'clean burning' is way overrated in CAS.

 

I will give a caution about Bullseye. It is the most economical because you use the smallest powder charges. But the spread between min and Max loads with Bullseye is very small. With those tiny powder charges it is easy to accidentally get up over the Max if your powder measure is less than perfect in metering out consistent loads, and you are anywhere near the Max charge. No powder measure is perfect.

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some folk don't use powder,,, just primer.

 

with that, you can just about use any flavor of power to work for a cowboy load,,,, get the bullet out the barrel, to the big and close targets!!

 

Cowboy ammo is nothing more than a controlled sqibs. LOL!!!

 

Just saying.

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Cowboy ammo is nothing more than a controlled sqibs. LOL!!!

 

Just saying.

 

Uh-huh. I still ain't gonna stand in front of one. (grin)

 

But I get your point. I just loaded and shot my first cowboy loads with light bullets and Red Dot powder today, and I thought the first one was a squib. The recoil compared to the factory cowboy loads I'd been shooting felt like nothing. But I still hit the target, so that's good enough for me.

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You might be able to find load data for a good many varieties of powder.

 

Some off the top of my head might be:

 

AA2

AA5

Unique

Clay Dot

Red Dot

Solo

HP 38

Universal

Titegroup

Trail Boss

and probably some Vitavouri powders

 

I feel your pain because CLAYS is my powder of choice in my .38 special, Cowboy .45 Special and .45 Colt loads for CAS.

 

 

..........Widder

+1

 

Also

IMR 700X

Promo

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I see quite a bit of that e3 powder on the shelves here. Seems that and some rifle powders are about all anyone can get hold of right now. Other than some BP or Subs. Have any of you tried the e3 stuff and if so, what does it compare to? I usually use Titegroup or Clays for my 38's and 44-40's.

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