Have never loaded for 9mm just wondering what you guys like and why.
Pistol is 1911 4.25" barrel

Limiting bullets to 115 gr and 124 gr. Most likely plated and/or coated bullets.

Thanks in advance

Unique worked so well for me, I never tried anything else.

I don't load them often but when I do I keep it simple with either 231 or Unique.

Red Dot, Accurate 5, 700X, 800X, Longshot, titegroup, titewad even cfe pistol before slumming Unique unless feeling nostalgic.

Used to be heavy into .357 mag and .45 acp still have a lifetime supply of Unique. Anybody try Trailboss? I have a good supply of it also.

I have a lifetime supply also, 2 1/2 lbs. 😳

W231, Universal, are my two favorites , but about anything in that burn rate will work as Swifty noted

W231, Universal, are my two favorites , but about anything in that burn rate will work as Swifty noted

I've used W231, CFE Pistol & Titegroup. All worked well.

Pick one.

I use Alliant Sport Pistol, It is made for plated and coated bullets. Coated bullet manufactures recommend it because it will not melt lead and lead up your pistol. I have fired many thousands of them with no leading and the powder is very clean. For jacketed bullets I use Winchester 231.

I’ve had good results with Unique, Bullseye, 231 and one I’ve taken to recently is Power Pistol. PP with 115 bullets has been really accurate along with top velocities in pistols and 9mm carbines.

Have made good loads with 231 and N320 for target loads. Have used BE-86 with success also.

With the way prices are now Vhitavuori powders are actually a good deal locally when 4 pound jugs are available. I’ve used N110 and N320 and both work well and burn clean. I think N330 was made for 9MM and the N340 and N350 are good for SD loads.

Titegroup
Power Pistol
HS-6

These are my favorite. I’ve tested most 9mm powders commonly listed and these 3 have consistently produced the smallest 5 shot groups bench tested at 25 yards for many different 9mm handguns I’ve owned or my friends have owned. It’s hard to go wrong with a 124/125 JHP and 4.0G of Titegroup or 5.2G of Power Pistol. YMMV.

Thanks sidewinder72 I thought I had read somewhere long ago about powders especially for plated bullets.
And thanks to all for your input.

WSF has worked well for me.

Unique and HS-6.

I have been using HP 38 for years. When I finally use up the 8 pound box, I think I will use Clean Shot. It is in the sam burn range is is much less sooty than HP 38. I bought a can to try about a year ago and I like what I see.

I've been loading Universal in my .38 Spl, 9mm Luger, .44 Spl, and .45 acp, but my supply is running low so I'll probably switch to Unique for all of those pistols.

I've heard it said that Unique was "dirty". Back in my cowboy action days, guys and gals shooting slow, low powered Unique loads did have a good bit of residue.

But, in the 9mm, shooting at full pressure, those hot loads burn pretty clean. Run it hot, it's pretty clean.

I have a good supply of Unique, so I use it. I also have Power Pistol and others that work well.

I have a big jug of Clays from my CAS days. It works well for those kinda loads, would probably work OK in the 9mm with plinking loads. Just gotta make sure such loads will cycle the action.

Clays is a clean burning powder.

DF

Over the years I have used Red Dot, Bullseye, AA #2, 231 and Unique with good results. Recently I have switched to Power Pistol, which is easier to find and is very accurate.

Arky, if you have a bunch of Unique, just use it. Since getting back into 9mm a few years ago, I've just been using whatever in the fast-to-medium range I have on hand - Titegroup, Power Pistol, Blue Dot, 800-x. The only one I haven't been happy with so far was 800-X, but I think that was that was a powder issue.

OTOH, I doubt you could get enough Trail Boss in the case to be worth while.

Power Pistol 1st choice when available. 231 and even Bullseye. You have Unique go with that.

I've only used Unique, Herco and Titegroup so far.

In my cowboy action days, seemed Titegroup had more flash than the others. Some liked it because it wasn’t position sensitive.

In a partially filled case Titegroup performed the same no matter if the charge was at the front or rear of the ctg. Its said others not so much. I don’t know. Just repeating what I’d heard.

Your Titegroup experience?

DF

I settled on W231/HP-38. No complaints.

This website's info has proved to be accurate in the limited comparisons I've done with my experience vs. theirs: http://www.natoreloading.com/9mm/

Very good information found here!
Thank's Wade!

Wow, that site is pretty cool. Thanks for pointing it out Wade.

I like 231 but then I found 244, which is cleaner. Now playing with N320 which is cleaner yet. All work fine.

Shame that nobody knows what the original powder was in the in the 9mm Luger. Hatcher quotes 125 grain bullet with 5.8 grains smokeless. Reload data 125 grain bullet 5 grains DuPont pistol powder #5 or 4.8 grains bullseye.

In no order

Titegroup....AA#5....AA#7.....Bullseye.....Longshot (heavies)....W231....Universal

Boolits ? Rimrock (MT) RMR (Idaho)

https://rimrockbullets.com/xcart/9mm-tc-148-gr-the-outdoorsman-per-400.html

Great link, thanks for sharing.

The author likes Vv330 best of all. I have some Vv320, no 330. Looks like spent a lot of time accumulating that data.

DF

9mm is not fussy with powder

Just watch for this weird azz brass when buying 1X'd

Maxx Tech ??

all weights .. BE-86

What’s the story on that?

Never have seen anything like it.

DF

AA #5

I'm liking BE-86 an awful lot lately too, though I haven't seen it for sale lately. I've read that it's been used for years by factories for 9mm loads, long before being brought to the canister market. Measures well through my Redding, and is flash suppressed. Accurate also.

BE-86. By far the best I have used. WSF is also a good one. It's a proven accuracy powder.

Looks like it might prevent bullet setback? I'm not sure how they'd go through a sizing die.

I goggled it. With the reduced case space, they must be using a fast burning powder. And I’m not sure about resizing it.

DF

So far it's been good. I've loaded up to 5.0 gr. with 125 gr. Cast round nose. (Safe in my guns) and I worked up to it.

Sorry, I looked at my loading notes and I was wrong on my max powder charge. I loaded to 4.7 gr. Titegroup. Most manuals I look at don't have loads that high.

We just thought it was a “Fire” load.

There are book loads, then there are Fire loads.

Oh well.

DF

Sport Pistol

The problem I see today.....primer prices

Unless you have a stash of primers from the good ole days..(me)

$165/case of 5K shipped....it's almost cheaper to buy factory 9mm range ammo

$240/1K rd case shipped

https://www.targetsportsusa.com/new...-ammo-115-grain-fmj-rtr9br-p-112690.aspx

Power Pistol has been a favorite among shooters for long time, very accurate but now @ $49 for 1# just too much for high volume 9 mm shooters even @ 6 gr a round. So tested Titegroup, a little dirty but limited velocity and pressures on charges. CFE Pistol always available, middle of the road price per #, mid 3's, better load range on charges velocity/pressures and burns clean.

😳😳😳

And here i am slumming 4 grains of Red Dot that i paid 2.50 a pound for.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I got some powder that I bought cheap years ago. But, I know when I have to replace it......

Today has been the first day in weeks without wind or rain or sleet, 70* so I got to shoot some today.

Shot the m1a, and the ar. When the wind picked up above 5mph. Tested 20 9mm hand loads through Tisas 1911.

10 with 4.3 Unique under 124 gr. Zero fmj bullets, they shot well and no issues.
10 with 4.8 Unique under 124 gr. Zero fmj bullets, they shot well and no issues.

Accuracy was good enough for me, kept them in 3.5" at 10 yards. I ain't no pistolero by any stretch of my imagination.

With the price of powders these days, I will stick with Unique as I have a lifetime supply.

Thanks to all, thanks to all that have contributed.

I loaded up on small pistol primers back in my cowboy action days. Have a stack of Fed #100, boxes of a thousand primers each, on a shelf in my climate controlled shop.

Should last as long as I shoot pistols using small, non-magnum pistol primers.

DF

"$165/case of 5K shipped"
Got a link? That sounds cheap. I had under 10k spp left so started shopping, paid .07 for GINEX including shipping. So far they've been perfect. Saving the 9k CCI 500's in case of issues with the foreign primers. Paid .025 for the old stash, that .07 was painful....

Another Vihta Vuori user here. Used to be stupid expensive. Now its just a little more expensive. Drops consistently and super clean.

Undocumented N310 for 147gr IPSC minor loads. N320 and N340 for SD loads.

After my first pound of Unique, I switched to Universal, because it was cleaner.

My 9mm is nearly all Universal, though I tried Titegroup early on.

$165 is pre 2020 pricing no one is buying at that price these days!

This was back 10 yrs ago.......Black Hill Shooters in SD...along with a business license on file