BE 86 Recipe?

[Black Wolf]

Greetings! Brand new here, nice place

I was hoping one of you mad scientists could gimme a hand.

I've always used bullseye or unique. I was dusting off my equipment and getting set back up. I was running out the last of some Bullseye and as I got to the bottom I thought - rather than get another can of the same old same old, maybe I should try this stuff that came out while I was on break from reloading (yea, it has been a while).

So.... I'm loading 9mm. I'm using lead cast truncated cone bullets that seem to weigh in at 130gr (seems weird, but that's what the scale says). I normally run 3.9 of Bullseye behind them. What would be a good range, with that bullet, for BE 86?

I realize I need to check load data from Alliant and am not asking for load "advice" just want to know what you guys have or would run for yourself. I am solely responsible, in the event I copy your load.

Thanks in advance.

[Marco Califo]

BE86 is good stuff. Use Alliant data (Alliantpowder.com). It is flash suppressed, whereas BE was not. It also may give you greater velocity over BE

[eo1bart]

I use 4.7gr of BE-86 with a 124gr TC lead bullet. That gets me 1070fps and is a soft shooting accurate load that also meets power factor

[AVirginian]

I ran some BE-86 under an xTreme 124gr plated RN

5.3gr with a COL of 1.550 gave average velocities 1,184 fps

Not to bash BE-86, but I did find that the muzzle flash was larger than some Hodgdon CFE Pistol that I have also used. Trying new things is fun but doesn't always workout as we thought they would.

[Black Wolf]

Originally Posted by eo1bart

I use 4.7gr of BE-86 with a 124gr TC lead bullet. That gets me 1070fps and is a soft shooting accurate load that also meets power factor

Wow, that is a full grain under what Alliant says on their page. They listed 5.7 w/125gr lead.

If that is working for you, and it is far under the 5.7, I guess that is where I'll start out at (or maybe 4.9/5.0)

Thanks

[eo1bart]

The loads listed on the Alliant site are max loads. Reduce by at least 10% and workup from there. For 124gr JHP's I load 5.4-5.6 for approx 1150/fps

[Nick_C_S]

BE86 is good stuff. Use Alliant data (Alliantpowder.com). It is flash suppressed, whereas BE was not. It also may give you greater velocity over BE

(I'm pulling from memory here, so I hope Unclenick reads this post and keeps me honest as needed.) For clarity . . .

It would be easy to infer from the above quote that BE-86 is merely flash-suppressed Bullseye. It is not. It is flash-suppressed Power Pistol. Power Pistol - which was originally named BE-84 - is a derivative propellant of Bullseye. It even appears identical to Bullseye. But it has a considerably slower burn rate. Like Bullseye, it ignites easily and is highly energetic. It's great stuff. Makes bullets go fast. I buy it in quantity.

BE-86 however, behaves a little different than Power Pistol. Not only is it flash suppressed, but it also has a slightly faster burn rate (most likely, due to the suppressant) - on the order of Unique - according to an Alliant rep here on TFL (I don't have the link - sorry).

I have never used BE-86. But it's my understanding to expect performance similar to Unique. It will behave much different than Bullseye.

[hdwhit]

Also, take a look at Alliant's Sport Pistol.

[Average Joe]

I use 5.0 of BE86 under an xtreme 125 grain plated bullet. Nice load, and well under the max load of 5.7 which I found to be a little excessive.

[Unclenick]

Well, Bullseye is an ancient flake powder first introduced in 1913 (Happy 105th Birthday). Power Pistol is a spherical type propellant, with granular grains like 231/HP38. Those processes were not invented until the 1930's, so, product numbering systems aside, the two powders cannot be too closely related. BE86 is an extruded flake, where extruded grains that would otherwise become tubular are shaved off faster than they can squeeze out of the die far enough to become a cylinder.

The new powder is also slower burning than Bullseye, but faster than Power Pistol. Where Bullseye is number 4 on the Alliant burn rate chart, Unique, BE86, and Power pistol are 11, 12, and 13, respectively. They seem to be in a popular burn rate range for pistols.

[Nick_C_S]

I do know that Bullseye and Power Pistol appear exactly identical, from personal experience.

I have viewed samples of each, side-by-side, under mild magnification and direct sunlight (through a window). They were from every angle identical in appearance.

[Unclenick]

I apologize. I was going from my memory of Power Pistol grains hanging up in my Quick Measure, so I had to go down and pull the can and look. You are correct that it is not spherical and I remembered that incorrectly, but they don't look anything like my last can of Bullseye (which was a while back). Much smaller and magnification shows a very short cut extruded cylinder. Bullseye used to be flakes with a sort of feathered edge in the past. I was told it started life as shaving leftovers from shotgun powder manufacturing that later became an intentionally produced powder when it got popular.

I know Alliant has changed suppliers for some powders, so I am wondering, did they changed the Bullseye process when they changed Unique to make it cleaner burning (less loose graphite)? Unique used to look like oversized Bullseye, but after they upgraded it, the flake became cleaner discs that were darker and more uniform and no longer left dark traces on paper.

I am long out of Bullseye, having switched to Universal (a flattened sphere) for most general .45 Auto loads about a decade ago, and N310 or Clays for light target loads. I'll drop by my dad's place and see if he doesn't have a pinch of the old Bullseye he will donate for a photo.