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Old September 30, 2006, 08:58 PM   #5
cpaspr
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 20, 2005
Location: Oregon
Posts: 304
Actually, I didn't know.

Quote:
As you know and depending on which list you read, Clays is the fastest or one of the fastest powders there is. It was specifically designed for moderate loads in 12 Ga shotshells, not necessarily for handgun cartridges.
One list I have shows Clays as #16 out of 173 different powders, so yes, I knew it was a fairly fast powder (Bullseye is #6, Unique #35, Universal Clays #36). Didn't know that about it being primary a shotgun powder though.

Quote:
I use Universal Clays in my .380 target loads. Working up from the published min of 3.6 grains (Speer #13 & Hodgdon's website) with a 95 grain FMJ, I arrived at 4.0 grains as a good load without pushing the pressure envelope.

I realize that doesn't help with your quest for a Clays load. Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to work up a few loads of Clays starting with the minimums published by Lyman for Bullseye for the bullet weight of your choice (it'll be around 2.0 gr for 90/95 grain bullets). Be especially mindful of double charging a case; it's easy to do with such small loads.
I worked up a hypothetical formula from the max recommended loads for a .32 ACP comparing Titegroup (#12) from the Hodgdon website, and solved for .380 and Clays. Here's the formula:
(3.2 Titegroup [.380 ACP])/(2.2 Titegroup [.32 ACP]) =(? Clays [.380 ACP])/(1.7 Clays [.380 ACP]). Equals out to 2.5 gr of Clays. So I would want to start at say, 2.2 grains to be 10% low.

If anything it (hypothetically) might be a bit light. Using the same formula with info for a .38 special instead of the .380 came out to 3.6 grains, whereas the actual load data is 3.9 grains with a 125 gr bullet.
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