9mm Powder Choice

[judgecrater]

Let me put in another vote for Universal powder. It groups the best for me when I use lead, from 115 to 147 grain.

[schmellba99]

One of the best loads I ever had with a 9mm was with Universal Clays and a Billy Bullets 115 9mm that was moly coated.

Unfortunately I cannot remember my charge weight on that load, but I can tell you it was nowhere near max or +P velocities. But man, that batch I loaded up was clean, accurate and had almost no recoil.

Universal and Unique are probably the two powders that have the broadest spectrum of load data in both pistol and shotgun. I started with Clays, but since they didn't have load information for my 20 gauge, I switched over to Universal and haven't looked back. My grandfather raised me on Unique, and I managed to snag a couple of kegs of it the other day while it was in stock, so I'll be using that for my pistol loads for the foreseeable future. Both are extremely good powders.

[Pilot]

I use Titegroup, and HP-38/W231 depending on what I can get.

[Forrest68]

Thanks guys great information, now for some more research on my part and pick up a few of these other powders and start testen loads.

Hey you guys that chimed in on Power Pistol, did you have any issues with it metering? I'm usen a Lee auto disk and I seem to get variations of over .2 gr, other than that is seems to be a great powder.

[tahunua001]

I get the best velocity and accuracy out of alliant power pistol. in theory blue dot should give better velocity out of a carbine due to a slower burn rate but the power pistol bested it somehow at the chronograph.

[iraiam]

Hey you guys that chimed in on Power Pistol, did you have any issues with it metering? I'm using a Lee auto disk and I seem to get variations of over .2 gr, other than that is seems to be a great powder.

I personally have had no issues with it in 2 powder measures, a standalone RCBS powder measure and the Dillon auto powder measure on my press both throw accurate charges with it (Power Pistol).

[Real Gun]

Hodgdon's own recommendation is WSF, which can put you in the same velocity range as most other common listings. It's interesting to me that it is the ONLY powder of theirs that they list for that loading.

[jwrowland77]

I use A LOT of Titegroup and Autocomp. My most accurate load in my 9mm is with Autocomp. When I did the workup for my 115gr bullet, I had pretty much taken out the X-ring in the target, and that was on the low end of the workup.

[Sid]

I have been using AutoComp in my 9mm for some time. The rounds I have loaded with it have been quite accurate and consistent. However, it is also a dirty powder which creates lots of smoke and leaves the pistol and magazine dirty.

[jwrowland77]

Originally Posted by Sid

I have been using AutoComp in my 9mm for some time. The rounds I have loaded with it have been quite accurate and consistent. However, it is also a dirty powder which creates lots of smoke and leaves the pistol and magazine dirty.

Very true about being dirty, but it's hard to beat the accuracy I've had with it.

[SWThomas]

Ramshot Silhouette. I also get very good accuracy from IMR SR4756.

[Dakotared]

I am a big fan of Blue Dot. You damn near fill the case with powder. I get about 1200fps with a 125gr cast bullet and great accuracy. As a side bonus it is cleaner then w231 much less carbon build up.

[Forrest68]

Dakotared, funny you should mention 125gr cast, cause thats what I will be loaden in a few weeks when they come in. Have to stop by and pick up a pound of that and if they have the universal a pound of that too. Do soem side by side comparisons. Should be some fun, Thanks again for all the great info. Really is a great forum.

[Nick_C_S]

I think you're in luck. HS-6 is well suited for 124g bullets.

[dknoffsinger]

I shoot 9mm in two handguns, (Beretta 92 FSS, SCCY CPX-2), and one rifle,(Marlin 9mm Camp Carbine).
For 115 gr bullets, jacketed, lead and plated, I use AA #5.
For 124, 130, 147 gr jacketed and plated -no lead- bullets i use Hodgdon's Longshot.

[57K]

Well, there's velocity, then there's velocity. There's accuracy, and then there's accuracy. Try to get a large dose of both at the same time and the powder choices start shrinking. For very high velocity or +P loads, Silhouette is as good as it gets while True Blue and 3N37 get honorable mention, and I've tried most of them for loads up to +P except that I never attempted +P with Power Pistol for several reasons. One being that it didn't produce its best accuracy with the warmest charges and because it's a derivative of Bullseye, I never had much confidence in it's pressure stability. Second, there's not much point in building +P type loads for punching paper except as a practice round for those who consistently carry +P ammo in their defense pistols. And, because Power Pistol and Blue Dot will both make your pistol look like a flamethrower when fired at night.

Now Clark will tell you that he has overloaded 9mm with Power Pistol into the stratosphere, but reality is reality. Power Pistol sees no use for loading 9mm Major in IPSC. Again, there's something to be learned from the guys who would consider +P as pretty much Ho-Hum compared to 9mm Major. Pressure stability is as much a requirement as the velocities obtained. If velocity were all there were to it, I'd still be using Blue Dot where I've had 1/2" 5 shot groups at 50' from my P-226 with a charge you're not gonna find in today's data. That same load also produces about an 18" fireball and I'm probably being generous.

Ramshot Silhouette. I also get very good accuracy from IMR SR4756.

Sound reasoning and even though I don't use Flake powders anymore, SR 4756 is one I would use. It's a single based powder and can be quite uniform and provide great accuracy. But the first recommendation is still the best one!

[skizzums]

the guy at my reload shop said clay's shop burned down, might be awhile before you see it again....

[schmellba99]

the guy at my reload shop said clay's shop burned down, might be awhile before you see it again....

My LGS said the same thing, but after some research I have been unable to find a single documented story about this supposed explosion or fire (depends on who you talk to as to which is which).

Only reference is on message boards such as this, and several posts indicate that even on Australian news services there is no record of the Hodgdon plant having any form of catastrophe as rumored.

I honestly don't know if it is true or not.

[SWThomas]

57K,

What kind of Silhouette charges do you use for 9MM? I'm pretty happy with 6.0-6.2 grains with a 115g RN plated bullet.

[Nick_C_S]

(Power Pistol) it's a derivative of Bullseye, I never had much confidence in it's pressure stability.

I never knew that. It looks a lot like Bullseye, so that explains a lot.

I bought a Lb of PP during the peak of the madness, because that's all they had at the time. I do like the way it makes bullets go fast, but it is definitely flashy.

And now that you mentioned that is shares many of the same genetics as Bullseye, I'm going to re-think trying to build up max loads with it.

Thanks (yet again) for the info.

[M1ke10191]

I've only been reloading for about a year and have only used Power Pistol. Obviously I can't compare it to anything else, be it positive or negative, but I think it's a fine powder.

[Nick_C_S]

M1ke10191: Power Pistol makes bullets go fast. I know that sounds rudimentary, but it really does.

It's basically in the same "speed envelope" (my term) as the very popular HS-6. Yet it will often create velocities at the low end of its load window that are equal to the high end of HS-6's load window. (HS-6 is a good powder with a lot of personality itself, but that's another thread.)

Like everything in life, there's a trade off. HS-6 is known for its pressure stability. It gives warnings before it will pressure spike. Can't say the same for Power Pistol. And as I just learned from 57K in this thread, it is a derivative of Bullseye - which is somewhat concerning that it "shares genes" with B'eye. Not that there's anything wrong with Bullseye (another thread in itself too), but it's a very fast and spikey powder. Granted, P'P'stl is slower than B'eye, but it probably shares some of that spikeyness with it.

And as 57K has made abundantly clear over various posts: P'P'stl is very flashy. I completely agree - it produces flame-thrower rounds. If you're goal is to produce defense rounds for possible low-light use, skip the Power Pistol.

[57K]

Nick, Alliant has a new one and it's chemically treated to give low flash. It's also a derivative of Bullseye and it's called BE-86. Unfortunately, there's very little data at present. What I'm waiting to see, is if it's close enough to be a low flash version of Power Pistol. Alliant, or it might have been Hercules when Power Pistol was introduced, stated that Power Pistol had been used to load millions of 9mm rounds for the military. After my experience with its flash, all I could think of was OMG I hope not. I've seen people say that the powder that was used in the militaries ammo was actually a treated version of Power Pistol. Maybe that's what BE-86 is. If so, it's long overdue.

SWThomas, I don't load anything but 124 gr. JHPs in 9mm. A lot of them are +P type loads and I tend to use SIERRA's data because it's kind of worse case scenario. Their JHPs have very long shanks as far as 9mm goes and SIERRA uses very short OACLs. You have to make sure that a given OACL will work in YOUR pistols chamber and I tend to load long at 1.142"/29mm with the Rem. 124 gr. JHP (not Golden Saber) and others. SIERRA lists the load range for their 115 gr. jacketed bullets at a Start/low charge of 5.2 grs. with their Max. Charge at 6.4 grs. that they rate at 1200 FPS. At 6.1 grs. their 115s are rated 1150. So, if you're not having any problems with 6.0 - 6.2, sounds good to me. You didn't mention if you have a chronograph, so in case you don't I'd say that the 6.2 gr. charge could be pushing a plated bullet close to the top of its performance capability. Also, check here: www.ramshot.com as they have plenty of data for jacketed, cast lead and plated bullets. You can download Western's new #5 load guide from there, so checking that data, here's what they list with 2 different Berry's 115 gr. plated bullets:
115 (P) BERRY RNDS 5.2 1,050 6.2 1,189 34,777 1.130
115 (P) BERRY RN 5.2 1,035 5.9 1,163 34,061 1.140

If you're using the RNDS, looks like 6.2 grs. of SIL is their Max. charge and higher than the Max. for the RN.

[Nick_C_S]

Alliant has a new one and it's chemically treated to give low flash. It's also a derivative of Bullseye and it's called BE-86.

I know. I just happened to be on their site a couple days ago, and saw it. (I didn't know about the B'eye derivative part; but I knew of the powder itself.) My first thought was: where does it fall on the speed scale. I kinda figured it was a medium speed powder.

At the moment, I don't have a lot of interest in it. When (not if) I start to build low flash recipes, I'll probably go with Silhouette.

[SWThomas]

Thanks for the info 57K. I'm using Xtremebullets and they seem to be performing fine with those charges. They're a little harder and have a little thicker plating than Berrys.