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Old October 14, 2013, 02:23 AM   #51
JustSomeGuy
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I have followed this thread with some interest. There are quite a few powders that are useful in 9mm, and most of them have been mentioned here, but like 57K, my experience with Silhouette in 9mm has been very good. Silhouette is a very "linear" powder. What that means is that for a given increase in powder charge you will get a corresponding increase in velocity. That sounds like a mundane statement until you start to compare the "spikeyness" of a lot of powders to Silhouette. For this reason it is one of the most popular powders with the "gun gamers" when seeking a tailored load for a specific power factor... including 9mm Major. It does very well in a lot of calibers and is very stable in .40 S&W as well as .45 ACP when nearing maximum listed pressures. Together with it's low flash, cooler burning, and good metering characteristics, its linearity makes it one powder I would not like to be without for almost any auto pistol application with a wide variety of bullet types including lead.
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Old October 14, 2013, 06:48 PM   #52
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SWT, glad to help! I'm gonna agree with nearly everything my buddy above stated except for cast lead loads in .40 S&W and the .45 ACP, I prefer True Blue and it shows to burn a little cooler than Silhouette in .40 S&W loads where either powder is excellent regardless of bullet type. In other words, I'm splitting hairs a bit.

And while I said I only load 124 gr. JHPs in 9mm, that may have to change in our current conditions that I don't see improving much until at least the 2014 elections, maybe not until 2016.

If I do go back to loading anything other than a JHP in 9mm, it will be with a hard cast bullet and the first powder I'll use will be True Blue. I'll probably try Silhouette as well and I have a few faster powders that would work like WST, ZIP and W231, but regardless of bullet type, handloading 9mm or .40 S&W, I tend to stick with medium/medium slow burning powders like True Blue and Silhouette and there are a number of others that are fine as well. To me, the safety aspect in using powders that will overflow the case if double-charged (even though I've never done that) and gives very stable pressure even up to and beyond Max. standard pressure, has always trumped ecomomy in using fast burning powders. So to me, loading 9mm is very similar to what I recommend for loading the .40 S&W and that's to look at a burn rate chart like Hodgdon's that list powders numerically in order of burn rate and look at the spherical powders starting at N330, down to around AA#7 or LongShot. Not that other burn rate charts can't be used, I just like using one that rates powder in order of their burn rate according to "closed-bomb" testing. Powders can change order of burn rate in specific cartridges and you'll probably see AA#7 and LongShot trade places according to who's burn rate chart you're looking at. It's not as much of a factor with plinking loads at lower velocity, but I still prefer sphericals because in most cases they flash less and have better pressure stability and both True Blue and Silhouette excel in that regard.

If I ever did go back to a flake propellant, it would probably be IMR SR-4756. It is a single-based powder that's known for decent pressure stability and not as likely to flash as a double-based flake propellant especially like Power Pistol or Blue Dot which are just above and below the burn rate of 4756. In other words, in a pinch and short of a good spherical being available, I'd use 4756.
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