my 9mm loads

[boriquais]

So after loading 100 rounds of my recipe. Everything fired great! and no signs of over pressure or anything like that. My concern is that on many of the spent brass, there is like black soot on the outside. Is this normal? The reason I ask is because the factory stuff I have used, and my prior loads never exhibited this. I don't mind that the load is a bit dirty I was just wondering if the residue on the outer portion of the brass was OK.

*Warning I am not responsible if you use this*
current load:
9mm
124gr xtreme hp
brass: fc
oal: 1.110
powder: Hs-6 6.0gr
primer: Tula sp

 

[trickg]

Might be that the powder burned a little sooty - that's typical with some powders. If you really want to see dirty, get your hands on some of the old forumla of Unique before they made it cleaner...supposedly. Even the new stuff burns pretty dirty, but it performs well. My Dad and his friend used to use a lot of Unique, and they nicknamed it "creeping crud" because of how dirty it was.

It sounds to me like your first foray into reloading was a success. You'll find that as you get more involved, it's not rocket science - more like making a cake. Follow the directions of the recipe in the correct order with the right ingredients, and it will undoubtedly turn out correctly.

Edit: Just caught an article regarding HS-6 and the general gist was, "short answer, it's dirty unless you load it hot." The general consensus is that HS-6 does burn a bit dirty.

 

[boriquais]

Thanks trick. Yeah my first load was with 147gr fprn hard cast molly over 4.8gr of hs6.
Those had such sweet recoil, and didn't seem this dirty.

 

[byf43]

Want a dirty powder?????? IMR 4759. I loaded some .38 Special with that powder....... never again.

I thought I was gonna rub the bluing off that revolver!

 

[Magnumite]

The soot which is on the outside of the case indicates a fairly mild load. The brass is not being pushed firmly against the chamber walls due to lower pressure (some timing issues, not necessarily problems just not keeping the gun locked up long enough for this load, could contribute to this). You are using the bottom end of the HS-6 powder data. HS-6 is not a very fast burn rate powder, plus the light load is making for low pressure. Good sealing and better bullet propogation would be gained by increasing the powder charge. Hodgedon indicates 6.6 max for a 124 grain jacketed bullet, though not the particular one listed in the opening post. For light loads one would probably want to use something quicker, like Bullseye or other brands with similar burn rates. This will seal the chamber better and probably yield improved accuracy. An industry form of Unique was once indirectly acknowledged as the most desired powder by the ammunition companies.

I personally use Bullseye in 9mm, but I am not running maximum loads. The loads I load are generally for steel shooting and will give good group sizes in good guns.

Unique got much of its "dirty" reputation because it was used a great deal with lead bullets. Shot with jacketed ammo it is really not that dirty as most other powders.

 

[trickg]

The soot which is on the outside of the case indicates a fairly mild load. The brass is not being pushed firmly against the chamber walls due to lower pressure. Some timing issues, not necessarily problems just not keeping the gun locked up long enough for this load, could contribute to this. For light loads I would use something quicker, like Bullseye.

Unique got much of its "dirty" reputation because it was used a great deal with lead bullets. Shot with jacketed ammo it is really not that dirty as most other powders.

Good post! FWIW, my standby powder for lighter .45 ACP is Bullseye under 200 gr LSWC bullets. It's a solid performer no matter what charge I'm using. Tried some Longshot recently with some Rainier plated bullets, but haven't had a chance to try them yet.

 

[Magnumite]

I've used HS-6, Bullseye, Unique and Blue Dot in 45 ACP. Bullseye has been the best and most consistent to date. If I want to install and use a comped barrel I have, a hefty dose of Blue Dot get the gas volume up to make the comp work. This comp, though, is not the Clark type. It is a multiport and is well behaved.

 

[trickg]

I don't know much of anything about Blue Dot. Is that a good general purpose pistol powder? Is that something I could use in either .40 or .45?

 

[Winterborn]

http://www.alliantpowder.com/products/powder/blue_dot.aspx

Blue dot is a magnum shotgun and pistol powder. Not ideal for 45 which is a low pressure round.

I would probably not choose it for .40, as it is a slower powder.

 

[Magnumite]

Blue Dot is a magnum pistol and shotgun powder. It is a dandy in 44 Magnum as long as you don't push it to the outer limits where it can get a bit hairy.

I only use it when shooting the comped 45 ACP barrel with 185 and 200 grain bullets. This puts pressures into the +P and maybe Super range. Then it is more for gas volume than more pressure to make the comp more effective. I got the information from early USPSA day data when45 ACP was the desired round. Other than that I never use it for 45 ACP, since it slower than HS-6, which I am not very fond of using in 45 ACP.

 

[boriquais]

Thanks guys! I'm sure nothing was wrong I was just being paranoid. The hs6 seemed to work great. Only thing I was sad about was that the range guy kept sweeping up my brass. And one dud. Here is a pic of a few shells and the dud.

 

[Magnumite]

Misfire round looks like a light firing pin strike. Maybe primer wasn't seat all the way?

Pull the bullet and see if the powder is there. If it is, assess the primer to see if it was set off.

If no powder, then assess the primer. That will determine if it was no powder failure.

 

[boriquais]

Yeah I took the round apart I think it is a light strike. But I also think that the primer pocket on that case was deep. I'm going to break my g19 down again because last time I stripped it I oiled the striker. Read that it should be dry. And also I had a lwd 3.5 in it which cause me to bump fire a few times so that's coming out as well!

 

[Mooseman]

Yeah, it looks like the primer is set too deep on the dud.

 

[inkd]

Misfire round looks like a light firing pin strike. Maybe primer wasn't seat all the way?

Pull the bullet and see if the powder is there. If it is, assess the primer to see if it was set off.

If no powder, then assess the primer. That will determine if it was no powder failure.

I thought the primer looked a little deep. Hard to compare against the other rounds in the pic though.

Thanks for the info on the soot on the cartridges too. Mine look a lot like the ones in the picture but I was never really concerned about it because I keep all my loads pretty mild. Turns out that's the reason for the soot!!

 

[tony b]

used bullseye with 9mm

 

[amoebicmagician]

some powders are just really sooty- smokeless in name only and in that they are conflagrants rather than explosives

titegroup is a smoky one

 

[amoebicmagician]

Federal has good brass BTW. I find I have less deformation with them than WWB brass.

 

[ironpony]

Great info. I had similar results with unique and bumped up the charge and the brass came out cleaner, thanks to this info I know why.

 

[Winterborn]

some powders are just really sooty- smokeless in name only and in that they are conflagrants rather than explosives

titegroup is a smoky one

I've found titegroup is fine with plated or jacketed bullets, smoky as all hell with lead.

Bullseye is cleaner than titegroup by far.