Thread: Un burned powder a question for all you pistol cartridge Reloaders

The other day well awile ago now I picked up a uburti copy of an 1866 winchester yellow boy in 44-40 for black powder shoots but cleaning a lever gun after using black is hard so for practice im playing with nitro (smokeless) i am reasonably
Experienced rifle hand loader but not so much pistol rounds
A small amount of 357 a few years ago that's about it
I'm shooting a 200gn cast bullet
And I got given a heap of ap70n
With the rifle
So ive been using that

7gn ap70n
Winchester large pistol primers
200gn cast bullet

The problem is im getting quite a bit of unburned powder
The bullets are still making a fair wack down range so I don't think they are squibs

Anyone know what im doing worng or suggestions for trouble shooting

Thanks

Originally Posted by rambo-6mmrem

The other day well awile ago now I picked up a uburti copy of an 1866 winchester yellow boy in 44-40 for black powder shoots but cleaning a lever gun after using black is hard so for practice im playing with nitro (smokeless) i am reasonably
Experienced rifle hand loader but not so much pistol rounds
A small amount of 357 a few years ago that's about it
I'm shooting a 200gn cast bullet
And I got given a heap of ap70n
With the rifle
So ive been using that

7gn ap70n
Winchester large pistol primers
200gn cast bullet

The problem is im getting quite a bit of unburned powder
The bullets are still making a fair wack down range so I don't think they are squibs

Anyone know what im doing worng or suggestions for trouble shooting

Thanks

Change to a faster powder. You could also try more crimp if you persist with ap70

Also if you can use a large rifle primer (don't use if the pocket is to shallow like most 44-40 cases)

You could also try to increase the charge slightly. Sometimes it allows a more efficient burn.
Other than that I would switch powders.

Bound to be some CAS shooters on here that load 44-40 with a better answer.

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Yep try upping the charge in half grain steps or a heavier bullet somewhere the pressure / burn rate will sort out.

Don't use Large rifle primers the 44/40 is pistol primers only the rifle primer will sit proud of the case, I shoot 7.0 grs in a pistol with 215 gr bullets with out any drama
work up to 7.5 grs I've seen loads up to 9.0 grs listed but would not recommend going that high,

I may invest in a tin of trail boss it does a very good job of mimicking black powder loads and I can use in my 45-70 also
But I have about 1/2 tin of ap70 I would like to use I don't see a point in wasting it

Another thing to try is a bit of synthetic kapock to hold the powder against the rear of the cartridge.

I was thinking about thin card wads just to hold the powder on the primer but wasn't sure what that would do to pressures

You don't need fillers or card wads with AP70 it is over 60% full case, AP70 is quite a dirty powder, and you don't want to push the pressure to high in a 1866
the design is for black powder even with modern materials it is not any stronger than an original same with the 1873 Winchester copies
Best is Trail Boss it's pressure curve is the same has black powder.

Originally Posted by shooternz

You don't need fillers or card wads with AP70 it is over 60% full case, AP70 is quite a dirty powder, and you don't want to push the pressure to high in a 1866
the design is for black powder even with modern materials it is not any stronger than an original same with the 1873 Winchester copies
Best is Trail Boss it's pressure curve is the same has black powder.

60%?? Didn't look anywhere near that maybe 25% could be worng but looking by eye

I've always used 11.5grs of 540 in my '92 behind a 205 jacketed. Seems clean enough and not too grunty.

I can't help much but I get a lot of unburnt powder using 6.2gr WAP in my czechmate. Might play with increasing the load slightly but doesn't really worry me, lubes the action nicely

Concerning AP70 I found it quite dirty in .45 Colt SA Army handgun. Also a guy in our Club is a very experienced handloader told us that AP70 is position sensitive as I was having trouble getting consistent groups with it. Tried Win 231 which was much better but a bit harder to source and as said above went with Trail-boss as it is close to the BP loads.