Detritus Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Getting time for more powder and I cannot find my old standby 45 powdwer W231 locally. What I can find are unique, bullseye, and WST. I'm loading plated 230gr rn and looking to make USPSA major. And have no experience with any of these three powders. Advice etc would be appriciated Thank you for your time and advice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougM Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 I don't have data on your specific bullet but for a 230 gn lead RN pill, 4.2 gn of Bullseye should get you to around 170 pf. Plated usually run about the same or slightly slower, depending. Bullseye is a great powder for 45ACP and was my preference until I ran out :-(. I shot 185 gn LSWCs using 4.3 gns to get a pf of 155. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzt Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 Of the powders you mentioned, I found Unique to have more recoil for the same power factor, Bullseye to be really dirty but good, and WST to be the best. It is clean, accurate, and meters like water. Some other really excellent powders you may come across in your searches are Alliant e3 and Hodgdons Clays. Both are superb powders for 45ACP. Both are equally soft shooting. You use a touch more Clays for the same velocity, but both are less than WST. e3 and WST are easy to find. I prefer e3 for its lack of temperature sensitivity, its consistency and accuracy. That being said, if I ran out of e3 and all I could find was WST, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I really liked it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAP Posted March 13, 2016 Share Posted March 13, 2016 I shot Bullseye powder for years out of my 45 with lead and plated 230 grain RN bullets. Unfortunately I cannot locate my old data since I moved a couple years ago. I can tell you I was very happy with it and if my memory is right it made PF easily. I do remember trying Unique and it performed no were near as good as Bullseye. Currently I use WST with a 200 grain lead semi wadcutter bullet. My particular load is 4.5 grains of WST with a CCI large pistol primer in mixed head stamps. It's clean and very accurate and just makes 168 PF on a warm day out of my M&P. When powder was as elusive to find as an honest politician a friend recommended WST and I have since stayed with it and have been very happy. WST is also an outstanding performer in 40 S&W so it's makes my decision to stay with it easy. I believe for your bullet choice I would go with Bullseye first. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwx40x40 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Of the powders you mentioned, I found Unique to have more recoil for the same power factor, Bullseye to be really dirty but good, and WST to be the best. It is clean, accurate, and meters like water. Some other really excellent powders you may come across in your searches are Alliant e3 and Hodgdons Clays. Both are superb powders for 45ACP. Both are equally soft shooting. You use a touch more Clays for the same velocity, but both are less than WST. e3 and WST are easy to find. I prefer e3 for its lack of temperature sensitivity, its consistency and accuracy. That being said, if I ran out of e3 and all I could find was WST, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I really liked it. +1 I agree with zzt. Out of what you have I prefer WST, but my favorite for 45 was CLAyS and S1000. Neither of which I have seen for quite some time now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 Clays can be found again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mont1120 Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 In the .45 I find of the three WST is the best powder. The recoil is softer, meters well, and is pretty clean. Having said that, WST is temp sensitive, the hotter it gets, the slower the bullet goes, so at chrono'd stages in high heat, adjust the load accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve RA Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 WST - if you can't find Clays ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosh75287 Posted March 15, 2016 Share Posted March 15, 2016 Unless there's something pretty unusual about your pistol, you should be able to make 170+ PF with any of those powders. Bullseye or WST will be more economical, WST tends to be cleaner than the other two, and Unique will do anything the other two will at lower pressure, with less economy, slightly more dirt and flash, and a wider margin for titration of charge weight vs. velocity. I'M a huge fan of Unique, so if I had access to more of it (and didn't have 6 pounds of Alliant Promo I'm trying to use up), I believe I'd use it. I'm not convinced that I can feel the difference in recoil between loads making 170 PF using Bullseye/WST vs. Loads making 170 PF with Unique, but many shooters are certain they can. For the versatility offered, I'd probably still stick with Unique. By the way, if you find Alliant RedDot or IMR-700X on the shelves, these powders are remarkably similar to W231 in burning rate. DO NOT use W231 loading data with them, use data intended for that particular powder. But don't be surprised if your results are similar for similar charge weights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detritus Posted March 24, 2016 Author Share Posted March 24, 2016 Well, wound up getting a pound each of Bullseye and Power Pistol (on recommendation of a fellow shooter), loaded up some test batches, and today finally got out to the range to see how they shot. In think my gun likes 4.4gr of bullseye.... this was the furthest back of the three targets that I tested the loads on for group. I set it up to simulate the approximate longest engagement(s) typically found at my local match. my point of aim was the bottom of that blue 4-paster patch at the top of the scoring zone. looks like i'll be spending Friday morning driving around town for the brass and bullets i'm low on and the afternoon loading a batch for this Sunday's match Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noylj Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Bit late, but... Bullseye is THE .45 Auto powder. Unique is the next powder most often used. WST is a good powder, but not very good in my .45s. So, I would use Bullseye first and see what you get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPDGG Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Getting time for more powder and I cannot find my old standby 45 powdwer W231 locally. What I can find are unique, bullseye, and WST. I'm loading plated 230gr rn and looking to make USPSA major. And have no experience with any of these three powders. Advice etc would be appriciated Thank you for your time and advice Natchez, has 1# (Limit 10x) & 8# (Limit 1x) of HP-38 in stock; As of 03/24/2016 @ 1650 CST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregJ Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 I ordered 16# of WST this week from mid south shooters supply. I've used WST for several years now, when W231 started becoming scarce. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absocold Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 Used to prefer W231, switched to WST. They're very similar powders. W231 is a little more accurate, WST is a lot less temp sensitive and easier to find. Bullseye is usually pretty accurate but dirty unless loaded hot. At low power levels it's downright filthy. If your gun likes it and you like stout loads, go for it. Unique is much-loved but I personally never had much luck with it. Acceptable but never stellar. Not on your list, but E3 is an excellent powder for 45. Clean, accurate, softest I've ever found. Full power loads feel like creampuffs. The smoke smells weird to me though so I only use it when I'm out of WST and W231. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigdawgbeav Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 (edited) After Clays dried up I picked up WST. Small little flakes but it works pretty good. I'm loading 4.0gr under a 230gr, coated bullet for around 170. In my chrono testing with 230gr Xtreme plated I was at 174pf using 4.3gr of WST Edited March 31, 2016 by bigdawgbeav Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rustybayonet Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 I use 6.5 unique with 230 plated but never checked the pf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rdinga Posted April 10, 2016 Share Posted April 10, 2016 WST is my single favorite powder for the .45. Everything from 185 JHP bullseye loads to 230 fmj. I used to load around 4.7 grains of WST and a 200 SWC to easily make major. Switched over to the Bayou 225 TC. I like the loft of WST because you can easily see the powder in the case using the Inline precision sky light on the 550. Old eyes need every advantage they can get. Good loading and shooting sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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