Pistol powder question: Unique & Bullseye

[DRNewcomb]

Is it normal when shooting lead bullets with Unique or Bullseye powders to have a considerable amount of black flecks scattered in front of the muzzle? If I put a white cloth out on the table in front of the muzzle I notice this with Unique and Bullseye but not so much with Accurate #5. I notice this mostly 9mm and 45 ACP.

 

[2506]

Never noticed black flecks because I never put out a white sheet. I have burned a lot of both Unique and Bullseye over the past 40+ years. It does burn dirty but it sure is accurate. After a long day of shooting bullseye pistol matches my hands looked like I had been working in a coal mine but I sure did have great scores. If you are seeing black flecks I am sure it is burnt powder. AA #5 is a pretty clean burning power.

 

[Zero333]

I get those when firing light loads. The hotter the load the cleaner it ends up.

 

[243winxb]

Unique yes. Bullseye No.

Sweeping the cement floor of the indoor pistol range, has plenty of residue.

 

[FeMan]

I get those when firing light loads. The hotter the load the cleaner it ends up.

^ +1

 

[K22]

Shot bulls eye pistol matches for 30+ year using Bullseye and 231 Powder, pounds of it.

Of all the crazy techniques I tried to get better, never thought of placing a white cloth in front of the muzzle to catch the residue from the shot.

 

[DirtySteve]

Those are the two dirtiest powders I can think of...

 

[DRNewcomb]

Shot bulls eye pistol matches for 30+ year using Bullseye and 231 Powder, pounds of it.

Of all the crazy techniques I tried to get better, never thought of placing a white cloth in front of the muzzle to catch the residue from the shot.

I was given a free beach towel as a promo. I use it on the rifle range to protect my rifle from the sun and as a table cloth on the pistol range.

 

[snert]

yes, i have seen flecks. I never worried about it

 

[KevinThomas]

Having shot literally many hundreds of rounds daily in an indoor range for well over twenty years, yes, there’s always a considerable accumulation of unburned powder directly under and in front of the muzzle. Enough so that regular (once a week, bare minimum) sweepings and hose downs are essential to safety. A friend of mine posted a clip on FB earleir this week of what was obviously surveillance video in an indoor police range where a serious flashover occurred. They obviously hadn’t swept the range in quite some time, and with a line full of shooters, they suddenly had a very violent flash fire that flared up from the floor directly in front of the line. Didn’t appear that there was anyone injured, but by the time stamp the fire went for at least 20 seconds before the camera was destroyed. Serious stuff, and not to be taken lightly if you run an indoor range of any type.

 

[powderbrake]

for 30 years I shot pistol at a police range our club rented every week. 6 stations, we shot for two hours, and had to sweep up before we left to return it to the clean condition it was in when we arrived. We always got a considerable amount of unburned powder along with the other residue. We were mostly shooting Bullseye and Unique.

 

[mr.kirk]

I get the flakes on my arms from bullseye.

 

[jds holler]

Couple of my favorite old pistol powders, but clean -- not. Add cast bullets and lube, and things get pretty dirty. But it's a wonderful kind of dirty. jd

 

[riflewoman]

Either increase your charge a tad or increase the crimp. Or switch to WST.

 

[Uncle Ed]

If you want to see more unburnt powder go shooting after a fresh snow.

If you want to see less unburnt powder then wear sunglasses.

The first time I saw this I was fire forming some 7.65 Belgian Mauser cases made from 30-06 cases. And shooting after a fresh snow with the recommended start load of IMR-4350. The snow in front of the shooting bench looked like it was covered with coarsely ground pepper.

Bottom line as stated above the lighter the load the more unburnt powder you will have.

The opposite effect is shooting max loads of 296 in a three inch .357 magnum at 7 yards and setting the targets on fire.

 

[DRNewcomb]

Either increase your charge a tad or increase the crimp. Or switch to WST.

Increasing the crimp may be a good suggestion. I'm not crimping very hard. Maybe a crimping die, rather than just a seating die, would help. I'm actually glad to hear that unburnt powder is normal in this situation and that it's not just me doing something wrong.

 

[243winxb]

Crimp- 9 & 45 acp. Dont over do it. They headspace on the case mouth.

May be held by the extractor also.

 

[riflewoman]

Crimp- 9 & 45 acp. Dont over do it. They headspace on the case mouth.

May be held by the extractor also.

Some Bullseye shooters crimp to .463 diameter. And while the chamber case mouth shoulder is the official headspace method, the cartridge actually headspaces on the bullet...so make sure the bullets are seated correctly.

 

[Steve Ladino]

Is it normal when shooting lead bullets with Unique or Bullseye powders to have a considerable amount of black flecks scattered in front of the muzzle? If I put a white cloth out on the table in front of the muzzle I notice this with Unique and Bullseye but not so much with Accurate #5. I notice this mostly 9mm and 45 ACP.

AS I remember it Unique did leave plenty of flakes in the bore and Bullseye did not in the 45 ACP loads. I used the WW silver primers ( old stuff ) . The indoor range I shot at in winter mostly with the .22 had the floor very much covered with un burned powder that looked like Bullseye ( some kind of flake powder ).

 

[2506]

Get you a Lee Factory Crimp Die it solves a lot of problems with semi autos.