Save me some pain

[Alan Adamson]

I've got 7 diff powders that I really want to try in 9major to find the one that I'll just standardize on. I've been shooting 2 of them for 500 rounds or so and really can't tell that much difference. (mind you, I'm a pretty new open shooter).

I've shot a commercial winchester powder and Autocomp, both drive the comp really well, and make 9major with no problems. However, the question becomes, I need to standardize on something and get some powder ordered and is there something better - the search for the holy grail it would seem . Perhaps this is a chevy vs. ford question, I really don't know... I have 1lb each of the following and while I could load up a couple hundred rounds (there simply is no way to tell shooting 10 or 15) of each and then shoot them, I figured I'd see if there was any consensus among the forum users.

I've got the following

- 3n37

- hs6

- n350

- autocomp

- silhouette

- true blue

Both my open guns are 5" non poppel, one from Derek at MCG and one from Jojo at JVDynamics, they both shoot very similar and run 100%.

Ok, so if I wanted to throw out 60- 70% of the above list and only focus on best of the batch for 9major. What would you not mess with and what would you spend time with?

I'm shooting 124g MG JHP or 125g Zero JHP at 1.175 oal

Thanks for helping... I could burn a bunch of time doing this or maybe I could get some advice from the user base and save me some time.

ps. So far, Autocomp has been excellent... I have tried a smidge of 3n37 and true blue just to get a major PF load developed, but I've not shot anything of any duration or substance with either.

Ok, so help me out!

Thanks,

Alan

[Stage 3]

Been shooting 124g MG JHP, VV N350 at 1.175 oal from a 5 inch gun, STI Comp. Work good and very clean.

[BMartens]

I'm working on the same project, 9 major loads. I started with 5 different powders and I have worked down to 2 at this point. I started with WSF - Silhouette - HS-6 - True Blue - Longshot. I got all 5 to make major so I had to narrow it down some and I let the chrono, consistency and accuracy be the guide.

124 JHP MG bullets and OAL is 1.149 with WSR primers.

WSF - 7.0 gr - 1406 fps - PF 174 - SD 11

SIL - 8.0 gr - 1431 fps - PF 177 - SD 6

HS6 - 8.0 gr - 1354 fps - PF 168 - SD 15

L-S - 7.2 gr - 1344 fps - PF 167 - SD 23

T-B - 7.8 gr - 1381 fps - PF 171 - SD 33

I've dropped the WSF load to 6.9 trying to keep it right around 170 PF. Took the Silhouette load to 7.8 to do the same. I have not chrono'd these loads yet but I did shoot a batch for accuracy.

WSF - 6.9 - Grp 1.309"

WSF - 7.0 - Grp 1.482"

SIL - 7.8 - Grp 1.316"

These are out of a new gun built for me by Jim Anglin. It's a 5" Storm Lake barrel, no holes, EGW 7 chamber comp. Can't say enough about the gun as you can see from the accuracy.

WSF and Silhouette just seem to do the best so far. They work the comp well and the dot tracks very well. I will say that HS-6 might get another look because it is a very soft shooting powder. Just want to get down to a couple of the best and then settle on one load, tweak it and get used to it.

I have shoot quite a few Silhouette loads over the chrono from a couple of guns and I have yet to see SD's higher than 8 fps. It is extremely consistent and so far, WSF is showing almost the same consistency.

One other thing for this gun, the WSF and Silhouette loads shoot to exactly the same point of aim. I hope to shoot some same stages back to back and see how that goes.

[Alan Adamson]

I'm working on the same project, 9 major loads. I started with 5 different powders and I have worked down to 2 at this point. I started with WSF - Silhouette - HS-6 - True Blue - Longshot. I got all 5 to make major so I had to narrow it down some and I let the chrono, consistency and accuracy be the guide.

124 JHP MG bullets and OAL is 1.149 with WSR primers.

WSF - 7.0 gr - 1406 fps - PF 174 - SD 11

SIL - 8.0 gr - 1431 fps - PF 177 - SD 6

HS6 - 8.0 gr - 1354 fps - PF 168 - SD 15

L-S - 7.2 gr - 1344 fps - PF 167 - SD 23

T-B - 7.8 gr - 1381 fps - PF 171 - SD 33

I've dropped the WSF load to 6.9 trying to keep it right around 170 PF. Took the Silhouette load to 7.8 to do the same. I have not chrono'd these loads yet but I did shoot a batch for accuracy.

WSF - 6.9 - Grp 1.309"

WSF - 7.0 - Grp 1.482"

SIL - 7.8 - Grp 1.316"

These are out of a new gun built for me by Jim Anglin. It's a 5" Storm Lake barrel, no holes, EGW 7 chamber comp. Can't say enough about the gun as you can see from the accuracy.

WSF and Silhouette just seem to do the best so far. They work the comp well and the dot tracks very well. I will say that HS-6 might get another look because it is a very soft shooting powder. Just want to get down to a couple of the best and then settle on one load, tweak it and get used to it.

I have shoot quite a few Silhouette loads over the chrono from a couple of guns and I have yet to see SD's higher than 8 fps. It is extremely consistent and so far, WSF is showing almost the same consistency.

One other thing for this gun, the WSF and Silhouette loads shoot to exactly the same point of aim. I hope to shoot some same stages back to back and see how that goes.

Great info, you are right where I started... At least from a research standpoint... And then along came AutoComp. And while I hate say I have a bias, from all those that have been where we both are, and then tried, it almost every single one says it's softer, clean, and as accurate as the ones we've both mentioned.

I will tell you this, I shot about 700 rounds of AutoComp in my MCG gun, and I never cleaned it at all during that time. When I was done, I put a few drops of KG-1 in the comp, let is set and wiped out the residue. I had one spot where I had to get some caked carbon off, but really it was remarkably clean. On the converse, I cleaned a gun that had 1000 rounds of true blue shot thur it and it took me a week to get the comp clean. Now with that said, my MCG gun is fully ionbonded, so perhaps that's a little easier to clean.

If you get a chance, I would really like to compare notes with you on an AutoComp load. While I'm at 1.175, I've found that between 7.1 and 7.2 of AutoComp behind those 124 MG's at that oal with regular spp work just fine. In fact, I've not shot any SRP's in either of my guns, CCI spp work both perfectly. If you can, borrow some and give those a whirl, would love to compare notes with you aftwards. It too bad that HS6 is so dirty, it does keep coming to the top of the heap, it and true blue...

Dang, beginning to look like no true winner here... but that's probably good and bad, means lots more choices and lots more choices .

Thanks and please update this thread when you finish your testing... I'm going to run some AutoComp, N350, and some more of the commercial powder thru a chrono this week, just to get the final load development done on those.

Alan

Edited February 27, 2010 by Alan Adamson

[G-ManBart]

I'm not loading Major 9, but I've got more than a couple of friends who are and we've talked about it quite a bit. AutoComp does seem to be working really well for a lot of people. The one standout from the rest of that line seems to be 3N37 based off the comments of a couple people that really know what they're talking about. The downside is it puts heat into the gun at an alarming rate, so it's not the greatest if you like to practice a lot and shoot a bunch. Some folks use it for match ammo and use something else for practice ammo.

Honestly, if you're new to Open, I'd say buy a bunch of AutoComp, set your load and practice. After a year or so you'll be much more likely to see a difference based on a powder change. Right now you just need the gun to run reliably and give you a consistent dot track...if it's staying in the scope window and tracks reasonably straight, you're set. From what I've heard AutoComp should give you that in most guns. I also know some folks who are running it in Super/SC and their comments are pretty similar...clean, pretty flat and reasonably soft. R,

[Alan Adamson]

I'm not loading Major 9, but I've got more than a couple of friends who are and we've talked about it quite a bit. AutoComp does seem to be working really well for a lot of people. The one standout from the rest of that line seems to be 3N37 based off the comments of a couple people that really know what they're talking about. The downside is it puts heat into the gun at an alarming rate, so it's not the greatest if you like to practice a lot and shoot a bunch. Some folks use it for match ammo and use something else for practice ammo.

Honestly, if you're new to Open, I'd say buy a bunch of AutoComp, set your load and practice. After a year or so you'll be much more likely to see a difference based on a powder change. Right now you just need the gun to run reliably and give you a consistent dot track...if it's staying in the scope window and tracks reasonably straight, you're set. From what I've heard AutoComp should give you that in most guns. I also know some folks who are running it in Super/SC and their comments are pretty similar...clean, pretty flat and reasonably soft. R,

Thanks for the comments, those are actually really noteworthy as well. I figured that as long as I was doing load development, I'd use others experience to pick the best of the best. Sounds like I may have done that somewhat on accident . But as long as I'm doing load development and haven't ordered up a bunch of powder, perhaps I'll find something better.

Gas for the comp is in interesting topic... and I assume you can't judge it by looks... Just happens that I got my headset cam back operational. Here is one of my better efforts on a 32 round comstock indoor stage at our local weekly match... Mind you we are really challenged for space, so we do the best we can in a small area... Anyway, it's in HD and you can see the gas coming out of the comp, which is pretty clean, not much flash... this is AutoComp btw.

Enjoy,

Alan