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Anyone switch back to clays?


B_RAD

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 Clays used tho be the "magic" powder for 9mm several years ago. I really liked it when I used it. Actuate, soft, clean.  Seems like most folks found something else during the last powder shortage. 

 

Is new clays as good? 

 

Don't see much on this forum about it anymore. 

Edited by B_RAD
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I've used Alliant Clay Dot with success in gamer 9mm loads, but is not my current go-to powder for 9mm minor.    However, it is my go-to powder for 38 Short Colts with 160grainers.  Overall I like it better than Clays as it seems to be slightly less spikey and I think it meters better, but they are very similar.

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2 hours ago, Bamboo said:

I've used Alliant Clay Dot with success in gamer 9mm loads, but is not my current go-to powder for 9mm minor.    However, it is my go-to powder for 38 Short Colts with 160grainers.  Overall I like it better than Clays as it seems to be slightly less spikey and I think it meters better, but they are very similar.

Interesting. I went to e3 for 38 short Colt w/ 160 grainers - my go to Solo 1K didn't hack it. Then I tried it in 9mm and 38 spl and never looked back. My local caster - who is very astute in reloading matters - tells me Clay Dot is produced by Alliant to compete with Hodgen's Clays but Clay Dot uses a more refined formula. As is e3 for that matter - they are newer powders. They are also cheaper as Allient wants to be the price leader, but in fact has newer formulations that are superior powders - IMHO.

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 Now the new hotness in Nobel Sport Prima V. I recently got a couple of pounds and holy crap is it soft shooting. I haven't done any formal test with a chrono and shooting for groups, but it is nice! And less smoke with lead. LOL - I've got 20 lbs of e3 that needs using first. Not a bad conundrum. 

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12 hours ago, Bamboo said:

I've used Alliant Clay Dot with success in gamer 9mm loads, but is not my current go-to powder for 9mm minor.    However, it is my go-to powder for 38 Short Colts with 160grainers.  Overall I like it better than Clays as it seems to be slightly less spikey and I think it meters better, but they are very similar.

I think that the differences between Aussie Clays and Clay Dot are so minor that  for all intents and purposes they are interchangeable  and can perform equally well in a variety of calibers.

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16 hours ago, Bamboo said:

I've used Alliant Clay Dot with success in gamer 9mm loads, but is not my current go-to powder for 9mm minor.    However, it is my go-to powder for 38 Short Colts with 160grainers.  Overall I like it better than Clays as it seems to be slightly less spikey and I think it meters better, but they are very similar.

+1

Been using Clay Dot since after the Aussie Clays factory burned.

 

Ive also experimented with both Prima V and SV. Since I'm such of fan of Clays (Clay Dot) that I have a natural gravitation to Prima SV.

 

The Prima line of powders are a great value, but I think I still get more bang for my buck buying 8# jugs of Clay Dot. 

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I switched back to Canadian Clay's and did not notice any difference in how the rounds performed. Honestly though, I did not pay much attention to the crono other than my velocity and accuracy. I'll have to go back to the Chrono and do a more careful comparison to my historical data.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

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40 minutes ago, B_RAD said:

I'm using Prima V.  It's good. Once I'm done with my remaining 8# I may try clay dot. 

I'm experimenting with Prima V myself. In 9mm seems to work for 147 gr bullets better. I want to try it in .40 and .45. I bought 11 pounds. See attached PDF of my recent test.

I also put Ba 9 1/2 too.

Vectan powder test by Darrell.pdf

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Darrell, great info as usual.  Thanks.

 

If you can get some GM3 to try it would be interesting to get your take on it.

 

 Locally there are several using it with good results. I've been using it for minor 9mm pistol and pcc loads.  3.0gr with 147gr coated gives me about 128-ish of from a pm9 1911, 2.8gr with 135 coated @ 1.130" from a 16" pcc gives me about 130 pf.  For me GM3 behaves a lot closer to solo1000/American Select than aa#5 or sr7625 which is what the vectan & grafs info indicates.

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12 hours ago, 57K said:

A forum friend has been making some very excellent loads with Ramshot Competition at 130 PF and SD down to 3. I'm surprised more guys aren't using it. And it's spherical vs flake.

 

He needs to buy a lottery ticket. Other than leaving the gun as dirty as anything that doesn't end in "N320" my only gripe about RSComp was the SD over 20 in every single 135-147gr load I worked up.

 

And I wasn't the only one.

 

Its my "practice ammo powder" now, until it's gone.

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6 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

 

He needs to buy a lottery ticket. Other than leaving the gun as dirty as anything that doesn't end in "N320" my only gripe about RSComp was the SD over 20 in every single 135-147gr load I worked up.

 

And I wasn't the only one.

 

Its my "practice ammo powder" now, until it's gone.

Yup,  I tried ram shot too.  Had the same results.  

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  • 5 months later...
On 30 April 2017 at 7:54 AM, Bamboo said:

I've used Alliant Clay Dot with success in gamer 9mm loads, but is not my current go-to powder for 9mm minor.    However, it is my go-to powder for 38 Short Colts with 160grainers.  Overall I like it better than Clays as it seems to be slightly less spikey and I think it meters better, but they are very similar.

+ 1  on the Overall

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