Well like 1993-1994

I just found a couple 1lb cans of Winchester 231 I did not use for some reason. I found them when I moved the majority of my firearms and reloading  I bought them at a local gun store that carried a lot of reloading supplies. Price tag on them was 16.64

I marked both May 1994 one was marked opened August 1994 and was about hal used. The other was unopened.

Olin in East Alton was local to me and I could get powder at employee pricing at the Westerner club. 8lb cans where all under 35.00 for anything they made. So I started doing that. My sister was a assistant for a big rep. He found out I shot a lot and would give her a couple of 5000 packs of primers every payday. I still bought them and stocked them up. The warning papers in the box are marked 1993

I found  2000 Bull X 225 grain .451 flat points I used in 45 ACP. One was marked 255 grain SWC. It was crossed out and marked in pen 225 FP It had about 200 of the 255 the rest were the 225. Out of the 100's of thousands I used from Bull X that is the only one that ever had been miss marked. I paid 33.00 a 1000. I never used these and just bought the four boxes to see how they would shoot I normaly bougth another 225 FP and 200 WC.

I also found 1500 swaged 148 gr wc for 38 special from Bull X they are marked 16.00 on a box of 500. I bought whole pallets of these and have one left I took down south. They out shot any other swaged WC I ever bought from anyone else. I kow I got a pretty good discount on the pallets as I picked them up.

News papers flyers in top of the boxes are summer of 1993

Bacon on sale Kertchmeyer (?sp) was 5.00 for 10lbs


I have 1500 grains of Bullseye left @ 2.7 grains. Enough to load a little more than a box. The above store sold it for 5.00 a pound. 4.75 if you bought 10 lbs.

He wasnt a stickler on sales tax if you paid cash.

Neddless to say after doing the 10lb thing a few times I can shoot a DA revolver

So how much is bullseye running a pound or 8?

I'm betting heart attack range.

I never could get 231 to shoot as good in my S&W 15.

I'm reloading on my circa 1993 Dillon SDB. Liked it so much I bought another in 1995

I like W231.  Other than W296 (for 357 magnums), it is the only pistol powder I use.  I tried so many but always came back to W231.

I don't know current prices or availability but I have a lifetime supply stored away.

Went to scheels and sportsmans the other day and all powders are around $50 a pound now. Good luck finding any bullseye like all other alliant powders it is non existent.

That's what I heard also. I most other brand though

Believe me I was making 35.00 am hour back then and had as much overtime as I wanted. No payments or family yet. I stocked up  on Winchester Primers and powder. Cast bullets from the gunshow as well special at Grafs for.other brands

The closest I came to 2.7 grains of Bullseye was 3.0 of 231 with the same swaged Bull-X 148 hbwc.

My reloading “lab book” is around here somewhere.

One of THEE softest shooting loads in .45ACP that I ever had the pleasure of making was with WIN231 and a Berry’s 230gr plated round nose bullet.

The first time I ever ran them over the chrono, they made the power factor cutoff of 165.  This was for IDPA and USPSA pistol matches.

They shot so soft, that I thought something was wrong with my chrono.   I ended up borrowing my buddy’s chrono just to make sure.  Both chronos were reading accurately.

Doing the math here:  (165,000/230) = 718 feet per second.

So I probably bumped up the charge weight to get the power factor up to 170 or 175….just to give me a little wiggle room or “buffer” or “margin”.

So probably something like:  (753fps X 230gr) = 173,190….

Or a 173 power factor.

At some point I switched over to Clays powder and Montana Gold bullets.  The recoil impulse was noticeably sharper with that combo.

I am still kinda local to you, so you probably already know that Graf’s of St. Charles, MO is now under new ownership and is called “Full Circle”.

I was just there a few weeks ago.  I bought an 8 pounder of TiteWad powder.  I want to say it was $236….figure 8% sales tax….that’s $254.88 out the door….

Or $31.86 per pound.

I was mainly buying it to be a shotgun powder for 3/4 ounce loads in the 12 gauge.  If I can’t get it to work right in the 12, I figured it could also do double duty in the .45ACP (especially since my go to powder for .45ACP was Clays is no longer being made.)

Was the opened lb of powder still in good shape?

Yes it was, but it was kept in a climate controlled basement with a dehumidifier thier whole life. Well two different basements, I moved in 1995 to my current house. Even in the summer both basements stay around 70 degrees even without the A/C on

Both cans where bright and shinny. I loaded a few with the open can and it shot fine and chronographed within a few fps of the load listed. I also opened the sealed can. Both smelled and looked exactly the same.


I started this about 3 weeks ago. So I have it all loaded up and both cans are gone. I even mixed them when a had powder just above the baffle in the SDB powder measure. Both cans where from the same lot.

I ended up with a little over1800 rounds and have shot about 350 to 400 of them so far