School me on pistol powder

[Brendan2904]

Ok, set up a Dillon 550. Going to be reloding 9 and 45acp for now with other cartridges in the future for rifle. What is the best powder for pistol in your experiences and trials. Master Class suggested hodgdon Titegroup. Looking for some help.

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[Ham_Chu]

Best bet is to get a reloading manual, and look up the specifics of what you wanna load. Titegroup is great, I use it a lot (just loaded a bunch of this in 9mm on my 650 last night), but it wont fill every role, i.e. it may work great with 9mm at 115gr bullets, but may burn too fast for, let's say, the 147gr bullet you have chosen. Decide on the bullet first, then look for powders that will push it.


Bullseye is a GREAT, accurate powder (esp with 230gr lead RN in 45ACP), but its the dirtiest, nastiest stuff I've ever used. Clays was very soft recoiling, but I found it inaccurate as hell. I like the Accurate powders, usually No5 or No7, also. Power Pistol has its applications.

Hate Winchester powders. Never worked well for me in pistol or rifle.


But all of this is specific to MY stuff. I've found that everyone else's advice never applied to MY stuff, only theirs. As I started to play the Bullseye game, I started trying to find the most accurate load, and found that the powders were much more accurate than I was, and I stopped chasing that 'perfect load,' and started practicing more.

Any load that cycled reliably (and shot better than Clay's--it was noticeably horrible) was good for me.

[dwa12479]

Titegroup is my go to powder for 9mm. Very clean and a little goes a long way.. But as Ham-chu said above, figure out the purpose of the round first, select a bullet, and then pick an appropriate powder.

[alistair]

For load data you can use this - http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol

[Brendan2904]

For 9 I am going to use 115 gr. For 45 I am going to probably use 230 gr. I shoot target, my EDC rounds are supplied by work and are paid for in blood sweat and tears, sometimes literally.

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[Ham_Chu]

assuming the 9mm is jacketed....is the 45 also? Many go with lead bullets b/c of the low cost (jacketed 45 can get expensive quick). More are turning towards the polymer coated lead bullet... like THESE. Mad cheap, and shoot pretty well. What is more, there is no exposed lead so handling them is not a problem (also doesn't give off that black powder smoke cloud when fired). These polymer-coated bullets use lead data, NOT jacketed.

Another reason I like this company (you can get the polymer-coated bullets in just about any color(each company has their own), but this company will ship you ~200 round sample packs for ~$25, free shipping, just to try. I like them.

(also, these are (according to website) OK to shoot thru polygonally rifled barrels (re; glock, H&K etc...) if that is a concern)

[Brendan2904]

One more question, do any of you use hodgdon cfe pistol?

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[Brendan2904]

Ham, yes the 45 will be jacketed but I am not opposed to lead. I will check the company out. 45 is not going anywhere near a pg barrel. 1911s only

[dwa12479]

For 9 I am going to use 115 gr. For 45 I am going to probably use 230 gr. I shoot target, my EDC rounds are supplied by work and are paid for in blood sweat and tears, sometimes literally.

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My favorite load for 9mm target :
115 gn FMJ-RN
1.100" COAL
4.4 gn Titegroup.

[Ham_Chu]

I just loaded the same, except it was just 4.0grains, and OAL of 1.150". Grafs & Sons was having a sale on MagTech bullets last week.

[Hunter]

I like Titegroup, you just need to pay close attention, it's possible to double charge because a little bit does go a long way.

[Brendan2904]

Why are there so many different OAL's?

[Ham_Chu]

Each caliber has an overall min and max OAL, based upon the volume inside (pushing bullet in too deep creates a compressed load which spikes pressures and get REALLY unsafe, fast) or the overall length of the loaded round, which will not fit into magazines or chamber correctly.

Those min/max's are listed in the load data, and are specified by EACH cartridge AND bullet. The cartridge (aka 9mm) may have a max and min that ALL loads (&bullet weights)must conform to, and usually the bullet (aka Speer 9mm 124gr TMJ projectile) has a single recommended OAL, that will fall in between that range.

The max OAL for a 115gr will be different than for a 147gr. This also takes into account the overall shape of the bullet itself, as a rounded bullet is usually longer than a flat point, or the manufacturer may have just made it longer/shorter for production purposes. Many reloaders will just lump all bullets into a single category under weight, but I have had problems with that.

Each recipe for each bullet is different, and they only test what they test. Many load books will not have your exact inventory of components you which to load.

The fact that I seated mine a bit longer the DWA may be a preference, or may help specific feeding issues. Hornady's book (8thed) states that 9mm Luger has a max OAL of 1.169", while the 115gr FMJ OAL is 1.100", 124gr FMJ OAL is 1.150, while the 147 gr FMJ is set to 1.165". The added weight has got to fit somewhere, and inside the case isn't the best place(see compressed load above). (All of these bullets specified are of Hornady manufacture.)

[Brendan2904]

So for 9mm one company says coal of one length and another company has another coal. This is because of the powder and the pressure it causes once the primer is struck?

[Ham_Chu]

yup, and each company does their own testing and develops their own results. It is usually the shape of their bullet, and its own OAL...but may have a hollowed out base or whatever they did to design it (most bullet types use the same jacket, they just adjust the amount of lead in them to make different weights, like 115 to 124 to 147 etc...so they have subtle differences)

After all of this...go get a GOOD manual (Speer, Hornady, Sierra) and stick to what they tell you. Some people have fudged some numbers, rounding things off, but I won't. I try to get as specific as possible and ALWAYS look for signs of higher pressure (backing out or flattened primers), and wearing-out brass when getting your brass back.


I tend to start my loads right smack in the middle of the range, but the recommendation is to start at the START load and work up. Had this backfire on me once in rifle cases...had been using a load of 30-06 in Winchester brass for a long while, and got some military brass that I loaded to the same specs. Primers started creeping out about 1/4 of the way. Military brass is better and thicker....which reduces the internal capacity ('cause the outside can't get any bigger!). With less room inside the case, and the powder burning at the same rate, too much pressure formed inside the case before the bullet was pushed down the barrel, giving more space for the burning powder and letting the pressure drop, and started to push the primers out of their pocket. This is the first sign of dangerous-ness, and the powder needs to be reduced (or an entirely new load worked out), but I've never seen this in pistol.


I HAVE had a handgun case rupture, due to reloading it too many times. The case wore out at the web (just above the rim, at the primer side of the cartridge). The weak spot lined up with the extractor (notice ANY handgun will have a slot in the chamber for the extractor claw to grab onto) and blew the extractor right out of the gun. Felt a hot rush of gas over my face, and thought I had died (weird noise, also). brass stuck in chamber, and could only get it out with a rod through the breech (no extractor).

Since then I double inspect my pistol reloads..once upon recovering off the ground and once again after loaded (the sizing process is what squeezes the brass back down and causes a bright ring to worn just above the rim. That is when i discard it. Further than that you can see an actual line form, and maybe even feel it if you run your fingernail over it. THAT is about to fail and hurt your gun.