Favorite 9mm Powder?

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  • trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    I didn't mean to kill this thread - at least I hope I didn't kill the thread. I'm always interested in finding newer, better ways to reload, so if anyone has anything else I'd be grateful to hear it.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,725
    Socialist State of Maryland
    The Lee FCD is in a sense, a kind of Quality Control. It insures that the round fits the SAAMI profile and thus allows it to chamber. Lets face it, sometimes plating is a little thicker on a bullet and it will cause a bulge. The FCD irons it out. Prior to their creation, we used to have to drop each round in a case gauge. What a pain in the ass especially for ammo that I only shoot at 10 or 15 yards.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    The Lee FCD is in a sense, a kind of Quality Control. It insures that the round fits the SAAMI profile and thus allows it to chamber. Lets face it, sometimes plating is a little thicker on a bullet and it will cause a bulge. The FCD irons it out. Prior to their creation, we used to have to drop each round in a case gauge. What a pain in the ass especially for ammo that I only shoot at 10 or 15 yards.
    A lot of guys seem to have an issue with the idea that it's going to size/swage a bullet, and some will complain that they believe it under-sizes the bullet. Whatever. I also shoot pistol predominately at 10-15 yards, and when I'm tearing out raggedy hole groups at that distance right in the middle of the target, clearly the FCD isn't an issue.

    A lot of the complaints come from guys who are shooting mostly cast lead bullets, and again, I don't see the issue because according to much literature I've read, pressure from the powder in the case upon ignition is supposed to cause the base of the bullet to obturate anyway, right?

    Anyway...

    So how about those 9mm powders? I'll have to try some W231/HP38 - to date I don't think I've used that for 9mm, although at this point I also have Universal, Unique and Tightgroup as options.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,725
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I just found some Power Pistol that I forgot I had. Now I'm debating, should I make up my normal loads or should I wait for my can to come in and make loads for it? I plan to shoot 125-135 bullets at around 1050 or less.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    I just found some Power Pistol that I forgot I had. Now I'm debating, should I make up my normal loads or should I wait for my can to come in and make loads for it? I plan to shoot 125-135 bullets at around 1050 or less.
    I was just looking at load data for 9mm in the Lyman manual - there doesn't seem to be a lot of velocity variance among the powders - near the top ends of the loads, the variance is usually less than 100 fps. In some cases it extends out to around 150 fps. That's at the top end of the listed loads though, and for heavier bullets it seems that 1100-1200 is about as fast as you can go.
     

    mtlcafan79

    Ultimate Member
    Sep 11, 2008
    1,279
    PG
    Power Pistol is loud. If you have an alternative powder that's faster, Titegroup, N320, Cleanshot, Sport Pistol, etc., it will be quieter than Power Pistol for your suppressed use case. Power Pistol is also like H110/296 in my experience. It's dirty at lower loadings and even likes to smoke a bit. It likes to be loaded full tilt boogie in order to clean things up.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,725
    Socialist State of Maryland
    Power Pistol is loud. If you have an alternative powder that's faster, Titegroup, N320, Cleanshot, Sport Pistol, etc., it will be quieter than Power Pistol for your suppressed use case. Power Pistol is also like H110/296 in my experience. It's dirty at lower loadings and even likes to smoke a bit. It likes to be loaded full tilt boogie in order to clean things up.

    Good to know. I can load fast powders to slow speed. I have titegroup, WST and 231 so I should be able to work something out.
     

    trickg

    Guns 'n Drums
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 22, 2008
    14,584
    Glen Burnie
    Power Pistol is loud. If you have an alternative powder that's faster, Titegroup, N320, Cleanshot, Sport Pistol, etc., it will be quieter than Power Pistol for your suppressed use case. Power Pistol is also like H110/296 in my experience. It's dirty at lower loadings and even likes to smoke a bit. It likes to be loaded full tilt boogie in order to clean things up.
    Can't get much faster than Bullseye - it's kind of known for that.
     

    My Toy

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 31, 2008
    1,194
    Westminster
    I just found some Power Pistol that I forgot I had. Now I'm debating, should I make up my normal loads or should I wait for my can to come in and make loads for it? I plan to shoot 125-135 bullets at around 1050 or less.

    If your Power Pistol was stored under good conditions it is good to go. I've used powder that was over 20 years old and cronographed it against the same powered of recent purchase and observed no difference.
     

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