I last loaded for my 30-06, and 1911 45 around 1972. My wife and I have been living and working in the UK for the last 30 years. Those floks hate guns, and gun owners. A friend of mine was a 'game control officer', so I did get some shooting in, but very little.
I am going to start loading again, but as things have changed so much, I hardly know where to start. I still have my Pacific press, and my RCBS dies, but intend to upgrade everything, but the dies. I need the works. Suggestions please?
For years I loaded 7.5 grains of Unique for a 200 grain bullet for my pre-war 1911 colt 45. I have looked at some 45 loads but don't see any loads using Unique power. Any information will be appreciated, Po

Welcome to the forum powhitechild. Rules are simple, be nice and join in.

First question is your equipment wore out? Only thing that's changed much is some of the rleoading components. Your older press and those RCBS dies should work just as well now as the used to. You might want to dissemble the dies and pollish out the insides if they've sat a long time.

I like Lee equipment, but do have mix of stuff on the bench. You might consider one of the new powder dispenser scale combos such as Lyman or RCBS. I like the Lee four die rifle sets that come with a standard full length sizer, a collet neck sizer and a factory crimp die along with the bullet seater die, but there's lots of good equipment on the market.

Here's a couple of shots of my bench and a pix from above of the little town I live in here in North Idaho.

Iowaloha powhitechild. If your old reloading gear is functional, I would clean it up, lube the pivot points, and use it. I show a start load of 6.2 grains of Unique and a maximum charge of 7.1 grains under a 200 grain jacketed bullet for .45 acp.

Welcome to the forum.

Cheezywan

Welcome to the forum, PO. I think your old load of Unique will be fine with cast 200 grain bullets. It is perhaps a bit warm for jacketed 200 grain bullets with their higher start pressure, but you might want to look at some other newer powders if you haven't bought Unique already. Hodgdon Universal Clays, I find, does a good job in the .45 ACP at about a grain less (start wtih 5 grains and work up). It is a lot cleaner burning than either Unique or Bullseye, having none of the graphite on its surface.

Also, I wouldn't be anxious to fire maximum loads through a prewar 1911. Most of those have "soft" slides without heat treatment of the slide stop notch in particular. They don't need any extra hammering. Pick up a Shock-buff pad to slip over the recoil spring guide to minimize slide/frame impact. This also slightly shortens the slide's forward motion into the slide stop to help minimimize peening of that notch.

Nick

Welcome to the forum, PO. I think your old load of Unique will be fine with cast 200 grain bullets. It is perhaps a bit warm for jacketed 200 grain bullets with their higher start pressure, but you might want to look at some other newer powders if you haven't bought Unique already. Hodgdon Universal Clays, I find, does a good job in the .45 ACP at about a grain less (start wtih 5 grains and work up). It is a lot cleaner burning than either Unique or Bullseye, having none of the graphite on its surface.

Also, I wouldn't be anxious to fire maximum loads through a prewar 1911. Most of those have "soft" slides without heat treatment of the slide stop notch in particular. They don't need any extra hammering. Pick up a Shock-buff pad to slip over the recoil spring guide to minimize slide/frame impact. This also slightly shortens the slide's forward motion into the slide stop to help minimimize peening of that notch.

Nick

Many thanks, good, sound info. Po

Not really much has changed in the past thirty years except that now there are a lot more gadgets and gegaws available. If you didn't need them thirty years ago you probably don't need them now, mostly just stuff to pull money out of your pocket and into someone else's. I'd suggest a new reloading manual but otherwise just take up where you left off, and HAVE FUN! :D