WW 231 POWDER QUESTION ?

[jonbearman]

I have some older ww231 flake powder and the new stuff is a flattened ball powder. Does anyone know when they changed the make-up of this powder? The old stuff from the 1980's smells as good as new powder but it worries me that it could be vastly different from the old. Can someone tell me more about this?

 

[biggun2869]

I'll be watching this guy. I have some that is the same vintage, Gary Gore

 

[Fuj]

My WW231 80's vintage still shoots good in the 1911's. Back in
those day's 452AA was the go to powder, and got scarce. Bought
a small keg to split between friends. Although they call 231 a ball
powder, it's more of a kernal from the old Olin lots......No, never
needed to try the new stuff, but like anything new, load lighter and
work back up.

 

[butchlambert]

My oldest Son is visiting and needs to load a couple hundred 45ACP. I have a 1 pound and a 5 pound container of 452AA and it appears to be a very small flake. Had it a long time and have never used it. Any load info? We have 235 grain bullets.
I also have 2 unopened 1 pounders of the 231.

 

[joshb]

I picked up 4 pounds of 231 because some guys here loved it for the 45 ACP and some others. I haven’t used any yet, as I already have a few thousand reloads using Unique.
I’m sure a little search here will uncover the posts I saw about it.

 

[10XSHOOTER]

I loaded 5.7 231 behind a 200 gn lead SWC for years.

 

[Bugs]

I've used it for fireforming 6BRA cases and it worked quite well. I used about 20 grains with a tuft of polyfill in the neck.

 

[hpshooter]

"I loaded 5.7 231 behind a 200 gn lead SWC for years."

Have shot that same load in my Clark hardball gun for over 40 years.

 

[TIMO]

I am at 5.0 gr. of the 231 in my 45 acp (1911). My cast 200 SWC bullets are not hard cast so I run them a little slower. Just picked up some IMR Target this week (half off price), anyone tried it in a 45 acp.

Tim

 

[ebb]

I was given a bunch of 80s vintage Win 231 and my Glock and my Kahr like it just fine.

 

[MikeT124]

My Bullseye load is 3.9 to 4.0 gr (depending on the gun) behind H&G 68 bullets. Use 6.0 or 6.1 gr behind Hornady 200 gr XTP's for bowling pins. Also using it to duplicate the energy of 165 gr Federal Hydro-shoks for defense practice using Hornady 185gr XTP's.

have found it to be very versatile for many uses.

Mike

 

[Rick300]

I picked up 4 pounds of 231 because some guys here loved it for the 45 ACP and some others. I haven’t used any yet, as I already have a few thousand reloads using Unique.
I’m sure a little search here will uncover the posts I saw about it.

Can you tell me what you Unique loads are?

 

[riflewoman]

My oldest Son is visiting and needs to load a couple hundred 45ACP. I have a 1 pound and a 5 pound container of 452AA and it appears to be a very small flake. Had it a long time and have never used it. Any load info? We have 235 grain bullets.
I also have 2 unopened 1 pounders of the 231.

I have run comparisons of 452AA against 700X, Bullseye and Red Dot. These were loaded with 200 cast SWC 3.8, 4.0, and 4.2 grains for all powders and were used for chronographing and accuracy. The upshot is 452 is just like Bullseye. So long as you’re not at maximum you should Be fine with Bullseye data. Here is a graph of the results. The two lower curves are 452AA and Bullseye. Gun used was a 10 inch Contender. Drop 100fps for a 5 inch barrel. Chrono was a magnetospeed.

 

[joshb]

Can you tell me what you Unique loads are?

ABSOLUTELY!!! In 5 days!
Sorry. I’m in Colorado, escaping the Texas heat. I’ll post it when I get to my book. I don’t trust my memory!

 

[ebb]

I don't want to hijack this but It seems you have an answer and have assembled a good group of pistol reloaders. What is 20lbs of Green dot good for?

 

[Fuj]

What is 20lbs of Green dot good for?

16 guage (28" tube) Pheasant loads

 

[Fuj]

Can you tell me what you Unique loads are?

If you liked cleaning you pistols offen, I always found Unique
not so Unique.

My oldest Son is visiting and needs to load a couple hundred 45ACP. I have a 1 pound and a 5 pound container of 452AA and it appears to be a very small flake. Had it a long time and have never used it. Any load info? We have 235 grain bullets.
I also have 2 unopened 1 pounders of the 231.

Butch.....I never loaded 452AA with that heavy of a bullet. We always
shot a flat 5 grains of it for the cast 200 grain H&G 68's or the Saeco
mold version. For the heavy's I used Unique. Very accurate for 230 hard
ballers, but dirty.

 

[tominboise]

I don't want to hijack this but It seems you have an answer and have assembled a good group of pistol reloaders. What is 20lbs of Green dot good for?

Good for mid range loads in the standard (non magnum) pistol cartridges. You'll have to poke around some to find load data, but older manuals and pamphlets have it. The 2004 Alliant load data manual has some and it's been posted up on various forums. Probably others, as well.

 

[Charliemac]

Here's a good link to load data for cast bullets. http://www.castpics.net/project2/CastDatalist.php

 

[butchlambert]

He ended up using the WW231. 5 grains. He test fired a few and settled on that load and loaded 200 rounds to take back to Arkansas with him.
Thanks to all.