What do you mostly load for and what are your top 4 most used powders?
38/357 44sp/mag here.
Bullseye, Unique, 2400, and H110
S.
I load a lot of 9mm recently started using silohouette with 115 and 124. 10mm I use longshot but recently scored someone blue dot. For 45 I use wst.
Mostly 32 S&W Long and 45 Colt, but also a bit of 32 H&R Mag and 327 Fed.
CFE Pistol has far and away become my main handgun cartridge powder of late. I'd say numbers 2-4 are Unique, 2400, and either Nitro100NF or Trail Boss in the #4 slot.
I've been trying to shift away from TB, since it's sort of expensive to shoot per round vs most other powders, and kind of a pain to handle. N100NF has made a pretty good sub, but I still have some TB to burn through.
Titegroup for lite 32 H&R, 9mm, 38spl and 45 Colt.
LilGun for hunting loads in 32 H&R, 357mag and heavy 45 Colt. Better velocity and less pressure than anything else in those cartridges!
BlueDot, Trailboss and Unique because they're versatile but I don't use nearly as much as either Titegroup or LilGun
2400, Universal, W231 covers all my needs now
Titegroup......Universal........AA#5........Trailboss
AA#9.....Bluedot.......W296/H110.......Lil Gun..for the serious stuff
Revolvers.
Unique.......and a very very distant second....231.
Good choices…..Though I’d drop 2400 and go with 4227! But, that’s just me! memtb
HS6 in 9/38/357/40/44mag/45 acp.
Clean burning, accurate, at/near top of the velocity, will show a double charge easily, and one powder for all.
.32's, .38's, .45 ACP's and Colt's here, mostly. I could get by with one fast burner (Bullseye, Red Dot, Clays, etc.) and one medium burner (Unique, Universal, etc.). What I have, and use, is all of them but would be quite satisfied with just Bullseye and Unique. I have no need for magnum-friendly powders, what I shoot that stuff in is rifles. (I don't hunt with handguns and practicing/paper punching 100's of shots with hard kicking magnums isn't my idea of fun.)
Unique
Bullseye
2400
Red Dot
Are the four I have used the longest.
H110
Herco
Longsgot
TiteGroup
Are four more I use in quantity.
These days just .38 Special, .357 Magnum and occasionally 9x19, with the .38 Spl. reloading outnumbering the other two by some orders of magnitude.
True Blue and 231 are my overwhelming choices although I still have some 2400 and 296 around for maxed out .357 loads.
Tite group
Unique
2400
W296/H110
Also use 231, 4227, 1680...just not as much. And could do without them...
Titegroup - 9mm
Bullseye- 45 Auto, 357, 44
H110 - 357, 41, 44, 454
Other powders I like -
HS-6
Power Pistol
IMR 4227
Long Shot
Red Dot
Clays
Powders I’m done with
Unique
2400
231
Trail Boss
452AA .38 Spl, 45 ACP, 9mm plinkling
WSF 9mm +P
Herco .380, 45 Colt
W296 .44 MAG
I've been using Unique and HS-6 in 9mm and Unique exclusively in .44 Magnum.
Anybody familiar with Silhouette?
Anybody familiar with Silhouette?
Started using it a few months ago in 9mm and use it in 357 sig. It’s one of the top powders suggested by bullseye shooters in the 9mm. Silhouette is the old Winchester Action Pistol (WAP) powder.
Lately availability has played a big part in what powder I use. I have added Titegroup, AA #9 and Blue Dot
to my usual 2400, Unique, H110 and SR 4756 powders.
9mm, 38/357, 44mag, 45 Colt, 45acp.
Unique and 296.
Have played with Red Dot and 4227, and Universal.
Like Universal, it could replace Unique. Pretty much the same but cleaner with
lower pressure loads. Unique is only dirty with light loads. First 9mms fired with
it I couldn't believe how clean it was.
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.
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.
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.
What do you mostly load for and what are your top 4 most used powders?
38/357 44sp/mag here.
Bullseye, Unique, 2400, and H110
S.
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.
I only load pistol in 44 Mag and 9mm right now. Partly due to availability and partly because I already had it I settled on Red Dot for lower end 9mm loads and Longshot for higher velocity stuff.
LongShot can also reach respectable velocity in the 44 Mag with the 240 grain bullets.
I've been looking for Unique, but have yet to find any. Back when I used to shoot 357 Mag and 44Mag a bunch I used a lot of Blue Dot and Win 296
If anyone is interested TargetSportsUSA has Winchester small pistol primers in stock.
https://www.targetsportsusa.com/winchester-small-pistol-primers-1-1-2-box-of-1000-wsp-p-112637.aspx
I load and shoot a lot of 32 cal, 380 and 9mm mostly for target/plinking fun. Use Clays, 700X, Titewad, and Titegroup for those. Getting up into the 10mm, 357, 44 and 500, I use a lot of Blue-Dot, Longshot, H110 and 2400.
I did some experimenting a couple years ago working with the 45GAP. It has pretty limited data in reloading Manuals. I rounded up samples of pretty much every non-magnum shotgun and handgun powder that I could locate.
I worked with:
Titegroup
AA#2
AM Select
Unique
700X
True Blue
Universal
231
HP 38
800X
Longshot
WST
WSF
CFE Pistol
BE 86
ZIP
Solo 1000
Green Dot
E3
Clays
Red Dot
HS6
20/28
Power Pistol
AA#5
I was not all that impressed with HS6 or 800X, however I got satisfactory results with pretty much everything else.
I probably use more H110 in the 357 Maximum, 44 Magnum and 480 Ruger that any other powder. I have no issues with AA#9 or 300 MP either. I could live with any of the three and be completely happy.
Loading 38 Special, 45acp, and 45GAP I probably use more American Select than any other powder today. I got to using American Select when Unique got hard to find. I could live with pretty much all of the powders on the list above if needed. I mainly load lead bullets, with moderate loads.
Bob R
You may want to try ENFORCER.