Home Forums Reloading Handgun Reloading Top 4 powders

For 9mm, 45ACP, 44 Spl. & 44 Mag W231/244, Unique, & W296 have been doing it all for a long time. There are some newer powders on the shelf to try, but it will be hard to beat those 3 for my use. Bullseye gets an honorable mention, but has been replaced by W231/244 in recent years.

Revolvers:


H110/296

2400

Enforcer

IMR4227

Lil'gun

5744

Unique, Universal, 2400 and Red Dot. These are for .357, .45 acp and .45 Colt.

Gentleman, questions… for those who use 4227 and 231, what do you like about them?
S.

I get good accuracy with 4227 from pistol cartridge rifles/carbines pretty much as a rule... ymmv. Results through actual handguns has been more varied.

It is a bit pricey to compared to most other magnum pistol powders, though.

Revolvers 41 and 327 mags
Pistols. 9 mm, 38 Super, 10 mm

I can not do without 296/110 for top revolver loads.
Same with Titegroup for minimal loads in revolvers and moderate loads in autoloaders.

HS6 and Universal have become favorites for moderate revolver loads and heavy autoloader loads.

With current market conditions, one buys what one can find in stock when it is available. I am critically short of H110. My stash of HS6 and Universal is depleted. But I have about 15 pounds of other midrange powders including Longshot, and 231.

PV has both 1&8 pounders of H110 and HS-6 in stock

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/product/hodgdon-h110/

https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/product/hodgdon-hs-6/

Seen in stores H110 lb ~$49.

Get a couple or more...seems like a decent deal.

Natchez has H110 in stock too. $33 and some change for a 1#.

I just ordered some primers I needed from them, so I went ahead and tossed a pound of H110 in the cart, since I don't have much left and I was paying hazmat anyway.

Far and away, my most used powders are:

Bullseye
Power Pistol
296
N110


I load for almost everything modern from .32 S&W to .480 Ruger.

.32 S&W Long
.32 H&R Mag
.327 Federal Mag
.38 Spcl
.357 Mag
.41 Mag
.44 Spcl
.44 Mag
.45 Colt
.454 Casull
.480 Ruger

.380 acp
9mm Para
.40 S&W
10mm
.45acp




Before Power Pistol came out, I used a lot of Blue Dot and Green Dot in pistol chamberings. When I ran out of Blue Dot, I tried Power Pistol, and haven't looked back.

I still have about 2 lbs of Green Dot. I only use it for .32 S&W. When (if ever) it's gone, I'll use Power Pistol for that.

It'll be quite a while. You can load up a lot of cartridges when you only use 3 grains at a time.

Add 5744 for cast loads in 44’s. I don’t load much bullseye anymore - used to long time ago.

9, 40, 45, 38, 357, 12 gauge all I use is Green Dot in all of these. I works great.

I use Titegroup for 9mm, 40, 45

If I can't load it with Bullseye, or 2400, I don't need it😉

Titegroup(from 40’s to .500 mag)

LilGun(.500 mag)

BlueDot(.38’s to 10mm)

The only 3 powders I need for handguns. 😎

I could even part with using LilGun, as long as I’ve got the other 2.

I load for 9mm/40 Cal/38/357.

My top 4 powders are:

True Blue
WSF
Power Pistol
HS6

True Blue is far and away my favorite pistol powder.

Titegroup
Bullseye
H110
CFE Pistol
Unique
Don’t need anything else.

Unique, Universal, H110. All I need, but I think I’d like to have some 2400 if it was available.

AA#5 has become one of my all time favorites. In burning rate it falls about halfway between Unique and Blue Dot. It's fine ball powder and meters very well. It starts burning clean and consistent at about 20,000 PSI.

I first stated using it when I saw some load data where it was giving good velocity in the .380. Industry standard pressure for the .380 is 21,500 PSI. Since then I've had very good results in the +P rated .38 Special with 158 grain bullets.

It also does better than average in the 9mm and the .357, although in the .357 you can't push velocities with it like you can with traditional magnum powders like 2400, 4227, H110, and WW296.

Still, you can get a jacketed 158 up to 1150 fps with 10 grains of AA#5 in the .357, (Probably 1250fps with a hardcast bullet) and that's about as much as I want to push one anyway.

All in all, except for ultimate performance in the big boomers, AA#5 works from very good to excellent in most typical handgun chamberings.

Universal
Titegroup
H110

All the others are also-rans.