Soft shooting 231 load

Good day folks.  Trying to find a soft shooting load with 231.  Indoor with a 200 lswc.  Please help me help a customer.

Been using 4.5 grs forever

4.2 231 with a 200 is soft

Speer lists 4.6 231 as giving 740 fps.  For comparison, the list 4.2 Bullseye as giving 744 fps.  Both of these are the “Starting” loads.  Since 90% of the recoil is from the bullet momentum, any 231 load giving 750 fps or lower should be as soft as 4.2 Bulkseye.

4.2-4.5 gr. of 231 and a 200gr. is the range you'd be looking for. When I first started Bullseye in the mid '90's, I tried to come up with some softer loads for sustained fire. When loaded with 4.0grs. of 231 my frame mounted dot wad gun functioned well but the empty cases came out almost completely covered in black soot. Two of my mentors (one former AMU and the other a HM and then-current Mi. State Champ) said that there wasn't enough pressure to expand the case to seal the chamber.

I used to use 4.3 grains of 231 with a Lyman 452460 200 grain cast.

Ric

I think I shot a 10x with 4.3 231 short line with a frame mount Les Baer and 200gn Magnus. 

I am not entirely sure if was 4.3 or 4.5 and it was definitely indoor. That was  10 years ago. 

I do remember under 5 gn that W231 was filthy.

Used 4.4 and 68's all thru the 70's with my GC. --

If one desires a soft shooting load he should start w/ the bullet. There are casters around producing 160 grain .45 ACP bullets. 4.8 to 5 gr of 231 behind this slug will be kind to the shooter and hard on the 10 ring, at both 50 yds or closer.

Rlh

soft load is 4.2 231 with 185 gr zero lead w cutter.

Dan Webb wrote:4.2-4.5 gr. of 231 and a 200gr. is the range you'd be looking for. When I first started Bullseye in the mid '90's, I tried to come up with some softer loads for sustained fire. When loaded with 4.0grs. of 231 my frame mounted dot wad gun functioned well but the empty cases came out almost completely covered in black soot. Two of my mentors (one former AMU and the other a HM and then-current Mi. State Champ) said that there wasn't enough pressure to expand the case to seal the chamber.

Dan,
Pardon my ignorance but if it shot well and cycled well then why does it matter if there is enough pressure to seal the brass? 

I am seeing similar results with my reduced loads and don’t necessarily notice any negative side effects from it other than having dirty brass. 

Thanks,

-Trevor

231 leaves a lot of grit behnd, it can cake up in the chamber and give you jams

Trevor,

              Not only were the cases black, but the gun got really dirty very quickly. I was concerned about reliability in 2700 matches. I really didn't want to have to fully clean my gun between centerfire and .45 matches.

                                                            Dan