[Jeff Higgins]

Art, I hate to be the guy constantly "raining on your parade", so please don't take it that way. I feel I must point out a couple of things I noticed right away about your .45 ACP load.

First off, 7.7 grains of Unique is right in the middle of the range of allowable charge weights, so you are fine on that count. But about that primer...

Unique should never require a magnum primer under any circumstances. As far as I can tell, Speer has never recommended a magnum primer with Unique. I own all of their manuals, dating back into the '50's, with my newest being their newest - #14. That, and the .45 ACP uses large pistol primers (their #300) rather than small pistol primers (their #500).

I have seen big bore revolver calibers that take small rifle magnum primers, like the .454 Casull, .475 Linbaugh, and other such exceedingly high pressure rounds. The small pocket is used in an effort to strengthen the web area of the case; the magnum primer is used in an effort to light somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 or more grains of a very slow pistol powder, like H110 or W-W 296. The .45 ACP does not operate at anywhere near those pressures, nor does it burn anywhere near that amount of powder. Thus, there is no reason for the small primer pocket nor the magnum primer. I would be very surprised if Speer actually made brass with small primer pockets in this caliber.

Please check your notes and your reference material. The load you present just does not add up.