Who shoots New Vaquero .45LC with 180g & Unique?

[Steel Striker]

This is my introduction to CAS & CASCITY.  I have 2 new 5.5" New Vaquero's in .45LC.  I reload, but this cartridge is new to me.  I like Unique powder [for various reasons] & 600 cases.  I purchased 1000 rnds of 180g hardcast lead boolits from a 'local' CAS supplier based upon local preference for this small boolit; cheaper than 200+g and good enough to knock down what's needed.  Comments?

I loaded some eval rounds with new Dillon dies in my Dillon 550B.  Lack of perfect registration or small mouth in the resize die is crushing a few rounds.  That's a new issue for me.  I'm finding reloading these cartridges quite slow indeed.  Comments?

How much Unique have you standardized on for CAS using a 180g lead pill?  5g, 5.5g, 6g?

Thanks much & hope I can begin to contribute soon to your knowledge base!

Wally

[Blackpowder Burn]

Wally,

I normally shoot black powder now, but used to shoot Unique with the 45LC (and a lot of other cartridges - a very versatile powder).  I still use it preferentially when I load some occasional smokeless ammo.  I didn't load the mouse phart loads that most CAS folks do, and used 7.0 grains of Unique with a 200 grain bullet for a nice, comfortable load.  About 6.0 grains with a 180 grain load should be very mild.

As far as your die crushing some brass when loading, it sounds as if you need to bell the case mouth a little more by setting that die a little deeper.  Keep increasing the depth of the expander die until the case mouth is slightly flared and the bullet base will enter it with a slight clearance.

[Bibbyman]

I've reloaded 45 Colt with 200g and less than 7g Unique and found a lot of unburned powder.  The lighter the load, the more unburned powder to the point I was getting erratic results - occasionally a squib load.  There is just too much space in the 45 Colt case to get small charges of Unique to burn clean.

I have obtained some C45S cases and find they shoot well with 5g Unique and 200g bullet.  But as you already have an abundance of 45 Colt cases, that route is not attractive.