Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Looking For a Handgun Powder

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Add to this, Titegroup to the W231/HP38 burn rate range.

Add AA#5 to the HS6 burn rate range.

Another powder that I am liking is BE86. Has just become a canister powder in the last few years. It has been a OEM powder for ammo manufacture for decades. Especially Federal. Same formulation as Bullseye( BE84). But,in the burn rate range of Unique. Clean, meters well and works from reduced loads to max loads. Works well with jacketed or lead bullets. Low flash to boot.

Accurate Arms has very good load data. If you want reduced loads, all you have to do is use their starting charge. Very accurate loads.

AA#5 and HS6 are very linier in their burn rates. Stable. On the lower end, use AA#5. On the upper end, use HS6 if you want top velocities. HS6 is a little dirty on the lower end of pressures. But still not bad.

I have burned a LOT of American Select through my trap gun. It is a very clean-burning powder in that application. I can't remember having used it in the calibers under discussion right now but I may have at one time or another.

Yes, it must be very close to Green Dot. I've switched back and forth between the two for my clay target loads without changing anything on my progressive press.

I like Power Pistol on the 4th of July at night. Lights up the sky it does.

Wear Sun Glasses.

Same with BlueDot.

Had went to CFE Pistol when some of the old standbys got hard to find.

It burns much cleaner than any Alliant stuff, including Power Pistol, especially when pressures are low in std. 38 Specials or 45 Auto.

Ive used it in 38, 357, 41 Mag., 44 Mag and 45 Auto with great results, from pipsqueek to mid magnum.

Its also a position insensitive powder.

It was one of the few available locally for awhile but I honestly would have a hard time giving it up now.
Id take it over Unique any day....

I have done a small amount of testing with CFE Pistol. It does look promising. Used it in .38 Special,.45 Auto (low pressure)and 10mm for the high pressure tests. No complaints. Probably will not settle on a 10mm load with it though. There are better powders for that round.

PowerPistol is hard to beat for an everyday powder for those rounds, in spite of some thinking that it lights up the night...........that's only a factor if you are in a night-time gunfight.

If night-time gunfights are are on your agenda, BE-86 & SOLO 1000 are your huckelberry, but SOLO 1000 has been like unobtanium for the last 2-3 years............thankfully, I have some.

I've not tried CFE-Pistol yet, but the reports here make me want to give it a try too...........but its counterpart rifle powder, CFE-223 has just been a so-so powder.

MM

MM-

That is what I have heard (not used myself) about CFE-223.

I think you would like CFE-Pistol.

I have come to like BE-86 a lot. True about SOLO 1000. I have a little of it left.


I do use Power Pistol. The nighttime comment was me trying to be funny. Ha!

Yeah, I know...........my comment about night-time gunfights was a TIC comment as well; probably should have added a .

But there's definitely a lot of validity about flash, if loading ammo intended for carry or SD use.

MM

Keep in mind that Power Pistol was created for pistol competition, which is a daylight event. Flash wasn't an issue but maximum performance was. And flash inhibitors tend to reduce performance a bit. So they had two good reasons to not include flash inhibitors.

Actually, some say that BE-86 is Power Pistol with a flash inhibitor. I do not know if that is true.

It is in the same burn rate range. Loads are very close.


The one quality that I like about BE-86 is, in small cases like .380 ACP (yes, I even load for that) .32 S&W and 9mm is that it ignites very well. Like Bullseye. You can use the weakest primers.

Primers have a tendency to expand the case and release the bullet before full ignition of the powder charge in small cases. Not good with some other powders. Even fast ball powders.

For me the choice is what is available locally. I bought some 8 pound jugs of Bullseye in the drought and they have been my main go to powder for most everything.

I have some of all the other powders mentioned.

Bullseye works very well for a lot of stuff below the bigger magnum level.

Used it pretty much exclusively for 45 stuff for many years until some of the newer stuff came along, but it's still very good.

MM