My powder barometer for 9mm and .45ACP is Unique, so understand where I'm coming from.
I am not trying to change the way you think by any means, but I have found ASP to be cleaner burning in my .45ACP loadings than W231....
It's not a bad powder, per se, but it's not All That and a bag of chips, either. When I was working up loads in .45ACP with it, I would get occasions of odd reports and recoil, like they were squibs or something, and being ladder loads, I hand weighed each one, so I know the powder weight was consistent. It was a fair powder in 9mm, but you are talking higher pressures, where I think it works better. I would also opine that bullet seat depth has a LOT to do with how well ASP behaves.
What was the issue with BE-86? I haven't used enough to form an opinion. Thanks.
BE-86 is the only powder that I've ever reached a burn threshold with... in 9mm. I got to a point where unburned powder was dumping on my hand and arm and the velocity plateaued. In .45ACP, I would get complete shifts of POI as I ramped up the charge, more than I have ever seen with any other powder. Best results in .45ACP was at max charge, which translated to pretty heavy recoil. I also tried it in .45 Colt; like ASP, sometimes I would get a very odd, muted report, and an odd recoil impulse. The chronograph told me everything was OK, but it was very unnerving.
Get some WST start at min and work backwards. Works best with 185gr or 200gr LSWC. Makes a very nice soft BE load.
At the same time I was testing both ASP and BE-86, I was also testing WST and W244. WST, long a favorite in my .12ga reloading, made some very accurate and soft-shooting 200grn .45ACP loads. Granted, they were not at top velocity, but if you were looking for a good target load, I wouldn't hesitate to start with WST.
W244 also worked pretty good, although I never got to advertised velocity until I went over book charge, which I am not recommending. Odd thing with W244... in 9mm it burned very clean, but at the same time it stained the brass. Very unusual.
At the end of the day, I found more reasons to stay with Unique over the newer powders than I did leaving Unique for them. Newer powders, like ASP and BE-86, required more dinking with the final load... things like bullet seat depth and crimp... than a powder like Unique and RedDot. I still have 3# of WST, so I'll burn that up in 200grn .45ACP loads, but as I finish off the other 3 powders (ASP, BE-86, W244...) I won't be picking any more up. The caveat to that is... W244. It worked the best of all the powders (besides Unique)
in both the 9mm and .45ACP, which was my goal throughout testing. So, if the day comes that Unique is retired, or I can't get any more, I'll have an easier decision on which powder to go forward with.
