9mm Luger Reloading Powder Choice
- Thread starter cbh560
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Others have already said it but I have loaded thousands of rounds of 9mm (turret press) and my favourite 9mm powders (for 115gr projectiles) is W231 followed by Tightgroup. HS6 was OK. WSF was also good but not on your list. I find Unique very dirty at the lower loads for target (I try not to load +P ammo). Never tried the other 3 powders you list.
I never bothered with loading 9mm as it was pretty cheap, even though I go through thousands of 9mm. But with the ammo shortage I bought a Dillon 1100 and have been making 9mm.
I use CFE Pistol for 45 ACP so just use that for 9mm as well. It meters close to perfect in my experience.
I am using 5 grains CFE and a 124gr Campro RN bullet with a CCI or Federal primer. I get average of 1060 FPS from it, which works for me. Factory CCI or Federal 124gr ammo usually runs around 1100 FPS or a bit more.
I use CFE Pistol for 45 ACP so just use that for 9mm as well. It meters close to perfect in my experience.
I am using 5 grains CFE and a 124gr Campro RN bullet with a CCI or Federal primer. I get average of 1060 FPS from it, which works for me. Factory CCI or Federal 124gr ammo usually runs around 1100 FPS or a bit more.
Everything on your list will work.
1) Titegroup - Cheap, meters well, burns hot (one of my favourites).
2) Win 231/HP-38 (same powder) - Meters well, good all around powder.
3) Autocomp - Meters well, lower on the burn chart but still good.
4) Unique - Meters decently, lower on the burn chart but still good.
5) Power Pistol - FIREBALL!!! Good for "defensive" loads.
6) Why anyone shoots VV is beyond me.
1) Titegroup - Cheap, meters well, burns hot (one of my favourites).
2) Win 231/HP-38 (same powder) - Meters well, good all around powder.
3) Autocomp - Meters well, lower on the burn chart but still good.
4) Unique - Meters decently, lower on the burn chart but still good.
5) Power Pistol - FIREBALL!!! Good for "defensive" loads.
6) Why anyone shoots VV is beyond me.
When Titegroup was $25-28/lb VV was still $50. The price never seems to get any lower than that. I have dabbled with quite a few of their powders and for my shooting none of them are worth the extra money.
Titegroup works well in a progressive press, BUT it is fairly dense, and it is easy to exceed max load and not see it prior to seating the bullet on a single stage.
A double charge of VV N320 fills the case completely, impossible to miss = much safer option for a beginner.
My current load is 0.265 g of VV N320, 124 grain Campro, it yields about 1046 FPS from a CZ Shadow.
Re: cost - powder is the cheapest component in 9 mm, the price difference per round is negligible compared to everything else.
A double charge of VV N320 fills the case completely, impossible to miss = much safer option for a beginner.
My current load is 0.265 g of VV N320, 124 grain Campro, it yields about 1046 FPS from a CZ Shadow.
Re: cost - powder is the cheapest component in 9 mm, the price difference per round is negligible compared to everything else.
When considering a powder twice the price of comparable powders it definitely matters. Especially to guys loading 5-10,000 rounds at a time.
I do shoot closer to 10000 rounds a year of 9 mm and another 5000 of various caliber - rifles and handguns.
When you shoot that much like I do, I purchase in many 8 pounds keg I can find. I do not care about powder price. 1 pound will get you about 1700 rounds of 9 mm. Powder is cheap - about .03 cent a rounds.
I used to shoot a lot of .45 acp and was casting my own bullet. Using bullseye powder, Was shooting thousand and thousand a year for the cost of primer and powder. Was as cheap as it can be - same price of cheap .22 LR.
If someone can afford to shoot that much - you do not care about the powder cost. Bullets are the biggest expenses. What I worry about is the time spent reloading and quality of my reloads.
If someone want to save money - cast your bullets. No need to cheap out on powder and primer.
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I'm a believer in using a powder with enough volume to eliminate the possibility of double charges. I'm currently using 6gr of SR4756 with 124gr campro just because I have a bunch to use up. Easy to tell at a quick glance that the case is charged, and impossible to double charge. Impotant to me because I use a Lee Pro1000 and it doesn't have a spare hole to use a powder checker die.
Yes in the case of the op he's probably not going to care. Loading the volume I do it really does matter and I don't care if VV it's slightly cleaner because other powders push the bullet out just as fast for almost half the price.
When I said 5 to 10,000 rounds I meant more like a month not in a year. 10,000 a year is not something I would call high volume. one of the biggest things that helps me shoot so much is not wasting money, especially on designer powder. I don't know how someone could of miss that piece of simple logic.. My bad for being off topic.
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