Cleanest powder, 9mm, Indoors range

Slowbalt

Slowbalt

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What's the absolute cleanest powder you've used in 9mm? This is for an indoors range so it has a big impact on "enjoyability".
 
I use W231, Unique and 700X in my pistols indoors (no magnums). All are about the same, not exactly clean. Smoke also comes from the lube on cast bullets. If you can shoot plated or jacketed bullets on your range, that will help too.
 
When I was using lead free primers my cases would often look new when I picked them up. Same load with regular primers left cases black and produced a noticeable amount of smoke.
 
I found people that run W231 on bare min. Their loads will smoke more than someone running higher powder charges.

But honestly it isn't the smoke that gets you. Its the lead in the primers, or people running cast/powder coated bullets. Its been like 2 years since I stopped shooting indoors, and my lead level is still 1/2 then it was.
 
Looks like VV is in my future. Will be using totally enclosed projectiles for sure. Now to look into "clean" primers...
 
VV powders are single base so they also have the benefit of running your gun cooler for longer. Probably the highest quality propellants available.
 
In my experience, the two biggest factors to getting super clean 9mm indoors, is a) non-lead primers, and b) plated/FMJ bullets (no exposed lead).
 
adamg said:
In my experience, the two biggest factors to getting super clean 9mm indoors, is a) non-lead primers, and b) plated/FMJ bullets (no exposed lead).
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Just as an experiment I watched while a friend of mine fired some conventionally lubed bullets and then fired the same load out of the same gun but with powder coated bullets. The PC'd bullets generated only 30% of the smoke of the conventionally lubed bullets. I figured PC bullets would be cleaner but the difference was really noticeable. i have pretty much switched over to PC'd bullets now.

An added benefit is that they also virtually eliminated leading in my handgun barrels.
 
ted_dent said:
Just as an experiment I watched while a friend of mine fired some conventionally lubed bullets and then fired the same load out of the same gun but with powder coated bullets. The PC'd bullets generated only 30% of the smoke of the conventionally lubed bullets. I figured PC bullets would be cleaner but the difference was really noticeable. i have pretty much switched over to PC'd bullets now.

An added benefit is that they also virtually eliminated leading in my handgun barrels.
Click to expand...

A few years ago I shot indoors with a guy that cast his own lead bullets, and then powder coated them in his oven. The PC bullets were almost as smoky as a plain lead bullet. Much more smoky than plated/FMJ.
 
There shouldn't be much smoke coming off of a properly PCed bullet. The powder and primer will still matter as well as the application of the coating towards limiting or eliminating smoke.
 
All powder is dirty & smoky. Some powder formulas produce more smoke than some others and some indoor ranges do a better job of ventilation than others. So an older range with poor ventilation with will exhibit more smoke density, & be more noticeable.
Powder coated bullets don’t smoke or produce smoke since they are totally encapsulated during the process. Powder coated bullets have no/use no conventional lube, so there is no lube to burn off when fired. Ted Dent will back me up here. I have retrieved many powder coated bullets fired indoor & outdoor ranges that show the powder coated base completely intact, no coating burn off.
 
^exactly. You set the bullets in 400-450 degree heat for several minutes at a time. A few milliseconds against the burning propellant does nothing to the coating.
 
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