SALUT Load for .45ACP

[Sur5er]

Picked up some SALUT from Pat's reloading and married 5.5gr of it up with a 200gr cast RNFP from Dardas. Great combination and very little smoke! Fired from a Sig P220 with the stock recoil spring. Fist sized group at 25yds smack dab in the K5. I'll chrono later in the week and get the specs.

[SciFiJim]

I've been eyeballing the SALUT at Pat's. Please post your results with the chrono. I too, use a 200gr round flat in my .45acp. I am very interested in your results.
Jim

[Texasflyboy]

SALUT spells Tula's backwards. Or, Tula backwards spells SALUT.


Wonder if the powder came from the Tula arsenal in Russia? Probably so...

[Shiloh]

That was my question, is this Russian powder. If so, how is it??

SHiloh

[GrizzLeeBear]

Not to hijack this thread (I know it never happens here) and I know it sounds crazy, but has anyone loaded this "Russian shotshell powder" in shotgun shells? If it burns like Unique, it would make a good 20 ga. powder I would think.

[Sur5er]

SALUT is also referred to as "Russian Unique" and I used Unique load data. The nice benefits to this powder are it burns much cleaner than Unique, measures like a dream, and it is shipped in .3kg black plastic bottles. I've also used 20gr as a reduced load in my 300 Win Mag with a Lyman 170gr GC.

Yup I'll be sure to post the results as soon as I can sneak to the range.

[bigdog454]

I've used it in 20 ga. as a substitute for unique, using unique guidelines and it works great. I've also used it in 45 Colt .454 Casull, 38 special.

[Freightman]

I have some "Russian Unique" great stuff it can't be mistaken for anything else as it is a lemon color. Pulled down a bunch of 7.62x25 ammo awhile back as the primers were dead and Russian Unique looks just like that powder. I am down to 12# so need to think about getting more.

[spur0701]

I've been using Salut in .38, .40S&W, and .45 ACP with good results....had started on working something in 9mm up but am deployed so that's on hold for a few more months.....anyone use it for any cast 9mm?

[No_1]

I have used it in 44 special and 41 mag with good results. Next up is 45 acp, 38 special then some rifle loads.

Robert

[Ben]

Shoots real good for me in the 30 - 06

[Sur5er]

Chrono results for .45ACP:

Brisk morning out there, slight breeze and some flurries. 5.5gr SALUT, 200gr Dardas RNFP, CCI LP, mixed brass. SD 44, ES 140.

FPS
713
708
707
618
697
640
664
618
675
749

Even with the 140FPS ES, the grouping was very good. The hi and low may have been due to the mix of brass. GI and commercial have different internal volumes and wall thicknesses. Long and short of it is its a nice comfy load.

Added: I'm going to move up .5 grains and see if I can get 750 FPS as a nominal velocity

[.5mv^2]

I don't post much but I have a good sized jug of Russian unique. It shoots great in every handgun that I have tried. 380-45 and moderate loads of 44mag. It takes most of a full case.
SDs are usually in the single digits.

[GasPath]

Thanks for the information you guys have posted. All the local powder here seems to dwindling and I needed to reload 500 rounds of 45 ACP. All I have left is some SALUT I bought as a backup. I am off to the range today to test fire the 5.5 recommended here in a couple of 1911s.

I noticed Ben says he's using it for 30.06. I want to load some .308 and give it a try. Any recommendation on a good starting load or maybe this powder isn't suitable? I don't have a place to shoot very close, so I'd like to load 50 rounds and go over to the range next week and see how SALUT shoots in the .308. I'm not a precision shooter, simply a sports shooter who likes to feel the recoil of a good pistol or rifle and while I've reloaded pistol for a long time, I'm brand new to rifle reloading.

Again, thanks for posting this kind of great information.

[Sur5er]

I just finished shooting my 6.0 gr loads and the move up from 5.5 gave quite a step up in velocity! I went from+/- 700 fps to a nominal 925fps on the chrono. Still accurate, but I'm going to step it back to 5.7 and see if that gets me into the 800-850 fps zone.

[MtGun44]

LOL ! Works JUST LIKE Unique in .45 ACP with 200 gr boolits!

30 yrs ago I was loading Unique under 200 gr H&G 68s in .45 ACP for IPSC. Accurate and
reliable. Then we started actually chronographing loads to make sure that they made
Major Caliber standards. I started chronoing Unique loads and the were all over the map
with 200 gr, about 125 to 150 fps variation in a 10 shot string. Adding more in small incriments
didn't increase velocity the way it should have. Switching to 230 LRN and a very tight
crimp made the huge velocity variation go away, but I gave up on Unique for 200 grain
boolits in .45 ACP.

Now - in case you think I am slamming Unique or Salut, I dearly LOVE Unique, and have
been consistently amazed at how well it works in many, many wildly different applications.
AND it WAS very accurate even though the velocities varied a huge amount (how does that
work???????). I still think that 10 gr Unique in any of the std milsurp full power bottleneck
cartridges of the 20th century is a very good starting place and has produced many, many
fantastic groups.

Just don't expect small extreme velocity spreads with 200 gr boolits in .45 ACP. Sounds like
the Rooskies very accurately copied Unique with their 'Uniq-ski".

Bill

[GasPath]

I must say that Uniq-ski made me chuckle.

I'll take the advice and try a few rounds of .308 starting with 10 gr.

Fired 50 rounds of the 5.5 SALUT alternating with clips of factory Winchester (230 FMJ ball) and I could not tell the difference. So I had one of my buddies load the guns (Colt 1911, XD-45) so I wouldn't know, and I couldn't guess which was which. The guys I was shooting with felt the same. Not very scientific, but as I said earlier, I'm no precision shooter. Very tight groups at 15 meters (it was an indoor range). One of my buddies thought the SALUT has a bit more smoke, but I couldn't tell much difference.

I won lunch again firing the SALUT so I may just make this my primary until I can get my hands on some US powder again.

Thanks again guys for the great information. I bought the powder on the recommendations I saw here and had very good results with the information I found here as well.

[Sur5er]

Da, Unikski!

I like 5.7gr a lot better. The groups were as good, if not better than the 5.5 loads and a lot easier on the P220. I didn't get to chrono this go around. Just too many shooters on the range.

For reduced loads, I use 20gr in my 300 Win Mag w/a Lyman RNFP 170gr GC. I generally have the POI the same distance below the height of the scope above the center line of the bore @ 50m. I've found that this gives me a paralell starting point. If the POI and POA are the same at 50m you can be way off the paper @ 100m!

[MtGun44]

Ben,

That is one really pretty '03 Springfield sporter!
Somebody spent a bunch of time polishing that baby.

Bill

[Lloyd Smale]

does the sault meter any better then unique. The reason your proably getting large devieations is that unique doesnt meter all that well. Like was said if a guy ignores this it still shoots well under a 100 yards. Herco is even worse but still will give you excellent accuracy. Where you will notice it is handgn shooting at long range. Ive tried universal clays and it metered better buy i guess i just never found it as accurate. Power pistol is about the best bet in that burning rate. But if sault metered well id be willing to give it a try.