Good 200gr 45ACP and Clays loads?

C

chris in va

New member
My CZ97b prefers hotter loads and I've been using 5.7 Bullseye to very good effect.

I happened upon a couple pounds of Clays, so any good 'warm' loads to prevent stovepipes? BTW I'm using the Lee 200gr SWC powdercoated.
 
I use a 200 grain LSWC in .45 ACP; I wanted to get 750 fps to make the 150 power factor required for Wild Bunch Action Shooting. I was loading 4.0 grains of Clays but when I ran them through a chronograph just before a major match I was just barely over 750 fps so I bumped up my charge to 4.2 grains to add a little margin of error. I recently clocked that load through my Caldwell chronograph last week and it averaged 864 fps.

I have also worked up a load using Clean Shot which may replace Clays as my go-to powder for .45 ACP. I found Clays to be a little temperature sensitive in light .38 Special loads. It's been more consistent in the .45, possibly due to the greater charge weight.
 
Load data is pretty conservative with Clays, I never go past 4.2 with a 200 coated SWC's or any other 200 SWC.
Got anything slower than Clays?
 
If your pistol prefers hotter loads you will need a slower powder, you aren't going to get them out of Clays. Clays is one of the fastest burning pistol/shotgun powders and will only give you light target loads with published data. If you go much over max with Clays you could easily experience a pressure excursion, which if you're lucky will only result in a wrecked pistol.

200gr SWCs are great target bullets and you should be able to get a very accurate load with them paired with Clays, but they're not a good candidate for hotter loads either.

For hotter 45 Auto I would recommend a RN jacketed or plated bullet of 200 or 230 grains with a medium burning powder in the Unique/Universal/AA#5 range.
 
Clays is a wonderful target powder for 45. It's clean and very accurate. But even the max loading of Clays in 45acp is still a soft shooting load.
For hotter loads in 45acp, use another powder. Clays is very spikey above listed max.

Red Dot, Green Dot, or American Select are great for hotter loads.
 
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