Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Best 9mm Luger Powder?

The end of my Accurate #5 stash is in sight. In a few months, I'll have to replenish the powder I use for 9mm.

What are the powders that are exceptionally well liked for the 9mm?

Absolute maximum velocity is not required. Some of my loads are 124 grain poly coated cast lead.

I'm using TiteGroup but only because I latched on to a three pound jug for a good price. four grains behind a 125 cast makes a good target load.

I like Power Pistol.

Ernie

Win 231

Blue Dot makes a 9mm perk.

Denton,

There was a good supply of AA #5 at the last Tanner Gunshow.

I think the Tanner makes an appearance somewhere in UT as well.

I use Unique because I have a lot of it. Works fine for 9mm & 40 Short & Weak. And a lot of others.

I'll second WIn231

Those sound like excellent suggestions.

There is a gun show in town this afternoon.

I think I have some of most of the powders suggested back in the back/bottom of my supply. TiteGroup and Universal both have the desirable feature of not being position sensitive.

Thanks!

Keep the suggestions coming.

ww231

I currently use #7 and Unique...which ever is available. I shoot 124 FMJ and JHP. I do not shoot lead.

I use Power Pistol.........it's clean & seems to have good loading density.

I mostly use 115 gr bullets & 6.7 gr of PP.

Burn rate is very close to Unique, & Unique works very well too, but it's not as clean as PP by quite a bit.

MM

Win231.

I'm glad this got asked. I just got started loading for a 9mm and have used Red Dot and TiteGroup. The Red Dot is an older lot of powder and the TiteGroup is the only stuff I could find at the time I bought it.
4.0 grains of Red Dot and a 125 cast gave me 1115ish out of a 4.5 inch CZ.

3.6 grains of TiteGroup and a 124 plated gave me 990 out of the same pistol.

Not to belabor the point, but the 9mm is a hot little cartridge pressure wise. (35,000 PSI) In fact, there's an argument to be made that it was the first "magnum" pistol cartridge. Nothing else matched its pressure until the .38 Super came along. Then the .357 Magnum, of course.

It'll work with the faster powders like 231 or Red Dot, But at 35,000 PSI it's going to perform better with something in the burning rate of AA#7 or Blue Dot.

The Speer manual has toned down it's 9mm data in the past few years, but early versions of the loading manual had some smokin' loads for the 9mm using Blue Dot.

HS-6 for 124gr FMJ and HP; VV3N37 for my "serious" 124gr loads; and Blue Dot with 147gr JHP.

Yes it is.

This site has data for several cartridges, taken as the barrel was shortened an inch at a time.

Taking into account that a revolver's cylinder actually counts as barrel length, it appears to me that a 124 grain 9mm bullet out of a 3" barrel slightly exceeds a 125 grain bullet out of a 2" 357 Mag revolver. Of course, at longer barrel lengths, the contest clearly goes to the 357. But I was a little shocked at just how well the 9mm performs at shorter barrel lengths. It's a dandy cartridge.

I like Unique and HS-6/W540 for the 9mm. Blue Dot and AA#7 work, too , but I've had better accuracy with the first three I mentioned.

Blue Dot is pretty bulky for that little case, I've used it, but I wasn't especially satisfied with the result.

For plinking loads with cast bullets, I've tended to favor AA#2 and 231, either at about 4.0 gr. or Unique. I used the LEE 356-1252R bullet by the thousands, and they shot great with Unique. I've shot "hand-sized" groups, offhand, at 100 yards out of an old Radom P-35 and 5.0 Unique, but that's a stiff load.

BE-86 will approach +P velocities without +P pressure with 115gr bullets. Pretty good for 124 and 147gr bullets also.

I use Titegroup under 147 gr

I like it for 9mm, .40 and .45


Mike