9mm Major Load Data

[Harmon]

you cannot get enough in the case, at least not with normal OAL and jacketed bullets

I made major with precision 124 FP and something like 8.5 grains of the stuff in a Storm lake barrel glock 34

Harmon

[Kingman]

aa#7 will go with HEAVY bullets as in like 150ish or so.

aa #5 will go with light ones.

[HoMiE]

you cannot get enough in the case, at least not with normal OAL and jacketed bullets

I made major with precision 124 FP and something like 8.5 grains of the stuff in a Storm lake barrel glock 34

Harmon

What if I load to 1.180" with 121s? Maybey I will have to pick up a 1# and see.

Harmon - Did you like it or better stuff out there?

[Don_B]

you cannot get enough in the case, at least not with normal OAL and jacketed bullets

I made major with precision 124 FP and something like 8.5 grains of the stuff in a Storm lake barrel glock 34

Harmon

What if I load to 1.180" with 121s? Maybey I will have to pick up a 1# and see.

Harmon - Did you like it or better stuff out there?

10 grains of AA#7 with a 124 Montana Gold JHP loaded to 1.170 gave me a 170 power factor in my IMM with 2 ports. It is very slightly compressed.

[Txkid]

BTW, Has anyone tried Hodgdon H110 for 9mm major or is it too slow of a powder?

Thomas

[Alan Meek]

BTW, Has anyone tried Hodgdon H110 for 9mm major or is it too slow of a powder?

Thomas

Probably too slow and not enough room in the case

Alan

[Txkid]

BTW, Has anyone tried Hodgdon H110 for 9mm major or is it too slow of a powder?

Thomas

Probably too slow and not enough room in the case

Alan

Thank you Alan that is what I thought.

I guess I will stick with Longshot.

Thomas

[Harmon]

i liked longshot and HS6...but the VV powders were not bad either

[Shay1911]

Just to add to the pile...

CZ Champion

3 port comp

Range brass

CCI SP

Ramshot Sil

MG 124 CMJ's

7.4 gr 1337 avg with 1370 high

MG 115 CMJ's

8.0 gr 1440 avg with 1452 high

I liked the 115's a lot better than the 124's. A friend let me try his loads, HS6, and they did feel softer.

I shot around 300 rounds of the Sil last night and the gun was fairly clean, no complaints.

HSMITH, what did you settle on?

[SLM]

you cannot get enough in the case, at least not with normal OAL and jacketed bullets

I made major with precision 124 FP and something like 8.5 grains of the stuff in a Storm lake barrel glock 34

Harmon

What if I load to 1.180" with 121s? Maybey I will have to pick up a 1# and see.

Harmon - Did you like it or better stuff out there?

10 grains of AA#7 with a 124 Montana Gold JHP loaded to 1.170 gave me a 170 power factor in my IMM with 2 ports. It is very slightly compressed.

I can believe that. 10.1 under 115's gave me a 154.3 PF in my 9mm gun with a 5.5" KKM at 1.175" The extra weight and shorter length should be more than enough to get to major PF.

I have some ready to check loaded at 10.7 and 10.9 but haven't had a chance to shoot them.

HSMITH, what did you settle on?

I'm 99%+ sure that Howard is a 115 and Silhouette guy.

[HSMITH]

Yup, Silhouette is a great powder and I like the 115's best. For big matches I shoot 3n-37, it is very slightly more accurate and a bit more consistent at the chrono than Silhouette, otherwise I can't tell the difference between the two.

[Shay1911]

Yup, Silhouette is a great powder and I like the 115's best. For big matches I shoot 3n-37, it is very slightly more accurate and a bit more consistent at the chrono than Silhouette, otherwise I can't tell the difference between the two.

Thanks Howard! Does 8.0 sound right or did you find that hotter is works better for you? I haven't had a chance to chrono that much yet.

[SLM]

Shay, Howard posted this on the previous page...

A little more data......

ALL loads loaded to 1.195", Zero 115 JHP, Federal Small Pistol primer, Winchester cases. Temp was low 50's. 15 feet from the chrono, bright sunny day.

8.1 Longshot, average velocity 1530, ES a little loose at 66 but plenty of room on the power factor since they are making 176. Good predictable vertical dot track. Primers show round edges with very little flattening and NO flow. Noise is a little extreme, but the powder is cheap, reliable and on the shelf everywhere around here.

Longshot will go to about 181 for me with the same components, then it starts coming back down in power factor and going WAY up in ES. It still doesn't show much pressure but it is obvious that it will not go any further.

N105, I think I found my steel load with 8.8 grains. Works out to be 150 PF, shoots great and is super soft. I worked it out all the way to a full case at 9.8 grains, average velocity was 1390 for 160 PF. There isn't a workable way to get any more in the case and still load progressively, too bad too because the dot track was really straight, very little dot rise, and softer shooting than anything else I have tried so far.

3n-37, 8.8 grains is 170 PF, extremely hot gun after just a few rounds but it feels good and shoots fantastic. 9.0 grains is 177 PF, a little brisk in recoil but feels good and shoots great.

Silhouette, my favorite so far, too bad I can't buy it locally. 8.8 makes 171.3 power factor, is really soft, a little less dot rise than Longshot, and the ES is fantastic at just 16 fps over 10 rounds. I am going to have to order a big can of it, it really is the best I have found so far.

Notice his length. I'm not sure a round that long will fit in a CZ mag and it sure isn't going to work in a standard CZ throated barrel. It's going to run into the rifling hard. If you want to try higher work up carefully watching and chronoing as you go.

Just for reference I load to 1.175" with the same barrel, comp and weight bullets (I use Montana Gold's instead) as Howard and make 172.3 for the PF with 8.4 grains. Four tenths less powder, .020" shorter and I'm slightly higher on the PF. There is a LOT to consider when loading for Major. Be safe!!

[HSMITH]

Thanks Ryan!!

Shay, I am back down to 1.18" on the 115's now, lets me get away with a little more in regard to brass quality....

Should be somewhere around 7.8 and work it up, 8.4 will be pretty close with short loads in most guns but with a short throat gun you could see pressure so be sure to start low.

I never worked it up with heavier bullets but lots of guys have and the data is here.

I run my gun in the mid to upper 170's after shooting it a while. I get a super predictable dot track, just flat enough but still has enough dot rise so I can call shots, and it just feels best to me overall. I basically load for power factor, and work up to the dot track I want while watching for pressure signs. As long as the load is 170+ and the dot track is what I want to see I am good to go.

[SLM]

I try to help when I can!

[Shay1911]

Great help, thanks:)

[ExtremeShot]

i liked longshot and HS6...but the VV powders were not bad either

+1 for Longshot.

[nYdGeo]

Back when the 9x21 ruled the roost, there were 175PF major 9mm loads everywhere because in any form of P9 (EAA-Tanfoglio, CZ, Springfield, etc) it’s really the same thing; we were all officially limited to the same 1.169 OAL, though in reality...reliability pretty much said 1.150-1.155. You need major 9mm loading info? Search for 9x21mm data, and you'll find it going back into the early '90's. Example:

http://www.k8nd.com/documents/hl9x21.pdf

On that document you'll see my old load, compressing 10.5gr of HS7/WW571 under 115gr Ranger Black Bullet. They were much like the Precision's but very hard-cast. A couple times a year I had to dig some lead out of the comp, but I had next to no barrel wear and the price was great.

This made a 180PF, generated a solid recoil impulse, and shot extremely flat; I never lost my dot. We created comparable loads with HS6 which were a little softer and shot a little less flat...the trade-off. I stuck with the HS7/571 loads.

I had no primer issues using Winchester SMP or SR primers with the HS7 loads, and I got about 5 reloads per case before rolling them. 124gr loads using the same powder at the same PF gave 1-2 reloads before they had to be roll-sized; for some reason that combo produced much higher pressures.

Earlier on I used many other loads, including 7.4 of AA#7 under a 145gr LRN. It wasn't nearly as flat shooting, but was soft as my Buckmark .22, I could reload the brass indefinitely, and it was a very inexpensive load to shoot. I did dig some lead out of the comp, but at those low velocities, not nearly as much as one might think. I also successfully shot this load out of a Glock 19 with an original AccuMatch Glock 19 barrel/comp combo reamed out to 9x21mm. It had someone's dual ghost ring iron sites on it and I won Open C-class in several local matches with it...before EGW built & delivered my EAA 9x21mm. Never shot that 19 again.

After the .38 Super (and variants) dominating the scene for so long, many folks are skittish about loading major 9mm, but especially with the 165 major PF, it can be done a lot of ways, safely and reliably. Just carefully follow the normal safe approaches to building your loads. Those doing so in 2011-based pistols have it even easier because you can load longer.

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned here is the simplest tuning done to the pistol itself: have a reasonable set of different rate recoil springs available. If your pistol's default is a 10lb spring, I'd say have from an 8lb - 12lb in you bag.

Changing the load, especially in an open-class pistol, is very global...it affects the entire functionality of the pistol. That load that feels super soft but has too much muzzle rise with your 10lb spring might be picture perfect with the 9lb. If it’s super flat shooting but sharply pounding your palm, try the 11lb.

Shooting EAA's using the 180PF 147gr LRN loads, most of us used 16lb or18lb recoil springs. Using 124gr loads the 14lb springs were the popular ticket. Shooting my 115gr load I used a 14lb spring, but then went to a 12lb which was perfect. I sheared many factory slide-stop pins doing this (due to the one true flaw in the design of those pistols) but the EGW pins were strong and cheap them.

I hope that this has not constituted a thread hijack or worse...a rant. Mostly I hope that it provides someone with useful insight. Sometimes a brief history lesson can be quite valuable. Shoot straight, be safe, and have a great day!

[Hannu]

Has anyone used AA #7 for 9mm Major ? HS-6 has been one of my favourites, do not like to use faster stuff. My new gun will have 4.15" barrel, propably gonna use 124gr bullets.

3N38 is not an option, can not use it in Dillon 1050 without spilling and it creates pretty uneven col.

[SLM]

10.4 grains under Montana Gold 121's at 1.175" got me 169.7 out of a 5" barrel with two small holes. 10.8 gave me 175.2 with a SD of 2.

[Hannu]

10.4 grains under Montana Gold 121's at 1.175" got me 169.7 out of a 5" barrel with two small holes. 10.8 gave me 175.2 with a SD of 2.

Thank you ! That is very good info. How about powder density ? I assume your load is compressed, can you compare it to for example 3N38, more compression or less ?

[SLM]

The only Vit powders I've ever messed with are N320 and N340, both of which are a funky little stick. I don't know what 3N38 looks like, I've never seen it. A#7 is a very fine ball powder with good density, I'd say denser the Ramshot Silhouette but not quite as dense as True Blue but close. If I remember right 14 grains will fit in a 9mm case flush to the top. 10.4 grains leaves a decent amount of room in the case. My usual loading is with 115's and the 121's are the 115's with the nose filled in. With the 115's I run 11.4 grains at 1.175" and I'd the bullets are close to or sitting on the powder with very very minimal compression. Out of 100 rounds I measured they were 1.175" to 1.178" with mixed brass. That load makes 173.5 PF in my gun.

[Hannu]

Few loads developed for STI Matchmaster 4.25" barrel.

COL always 1.175"

Primer for AA #7 Federal 200, others Remington 5½

Brass brand new Starline

MG 124gr CMJ

HS-6 8,4 gr PF 169

Power Pistol 8,0 gr PF 168

AA #7 10,4 gr PF 170

MG 115gr JHP

HS-6 9,2 gr PF 169

Power Pistol 8,5 gr PF 167

AA #7 11,2 gr PF 168

Clearly the flattest shooting load is 115gr JHP + AA #7

Edited February 2, 2010 by Hannu

[PaulW]

Did a subjective test last night that was interesting.

Had 4 different 9mm Major loads all with 124 gr bullets out of a Bedell full size gun. (AA#7, AutoComp, 7625, and True Blue)

Had a buddy load 2 rounds in a mag and write down the order. I did not know the order I just told which one I thought felt the best. We did this 3 times and he would switch the order each time and again I would not know the order. Each time I picked the autocomp load first followed by the True Blue load second. 7625 was a close second but really fell into third place. All I would do if shoot the gun watching the dot and feeling the recoil impulse.

I want to do the same test using AutoComp, HS-6 and Longshot next.

[8082011]

Paul...cool test. Let us know the results of #2. very interesting