fast burning powders for 9mm

[Field]

when looking for a powder for your desired load you want these things of course:

1. low smoke emission

2. low muzzle flash

3. clean burning

4. small charge required allowing for lots of loaded cartridges per pound of powder

5. maximal bullet velocity/ minimal felt recoil

6. consistent operation: both in metering out the powder drop and also when propelling your bullets out the barrel

i have been doing some uspsa and idpa with an xdm9 and so far have tried out hs-6, unique, universal, bullseye and now ive tried some titegroup

as of now im pretty sure i like titegroup the best though the differences arent huge with most of these powders.

im not sure how readily i will be able to get titegroup powder but ive regularly seen some other powders at the store that i was curious about:

looking at this powder burn rate chart i would assume that most if all faster burning powders would work fine for 9mm minor....(?)

http://www.reloadbench.com/burn.html

tell me what you know about any of these powders listed below, if you have experience using them for 9mm minor or if you have any links that you might be able to provide me that might have data for these powders in 9mm minor.

TiteWad

Red Dot

accurate #2

Clays (Hodgdon)

WST (Winchester)

this is my setup at the moment and would more or less like to keep the same PF but other stuff i might change

xdm9 4.5'' barrel

124g round nose fmj (.590'')

1.12-1.125 col

4.3g Titegroup

1090fps avg./135pf

i really just want to get settled in and use the same stuff over and over and not change anything but you never know when your supply of something will not be there when you need it and then you will have to use something else.

thanks.

[toddrod]

I had spoke to Hogdon about Titewad a while back and was told it is not recommended for pistols just as Intrnational Clays is. The other powders listed work fine

[jar]

WST worked great for me with 147gr molys. (IIRC 3.2gr was 134ish PF) I'm working up a Solo 1000 load, which seems to be very popular on this forum.

[lcs]

Not on your list, but Ramshot Competition and 135gn mollies is very soft shooting. No smoke with Bayou Bullets.

[Chris Spiess]

Solo 1000.

[M109R]

Solo 1k here

[BMartens]

I have settled on Titegroup for any bullet that has no exposed lead and WSF for everything else. Good accuracy and consistencey with both powders and low smoke with WSF.

[DWFAN]

Solo 1K and Titegroup. I had been a solo fan, until I found out first hand about the lot to lot variances. I dont have time to keep working up new loads. After I use up all my Titegroup, I'll figure out the S1K lot I have, and I'll try to buy more of that lot.

[jmorris]

VVN310 is the "fast" powder I use for 9mm.

[jmorris]

Top 26 from fast to slow.

1. R-1 (Norma) 59.

2. N310 (Vihtavuori)

3. Titewad (Hodgdon)

4. AS- 30N (ADI)

5. Nitro 100 (Accurate)

6. Bullseye (Alliant)

7. Solo 1000 (Accurate)

8. Red Diamond (Scot)

9. AS (Vectan)

10. Red Dot (Alliant)

11. Promo (Alliant)

12. Titegroup (Hodgdon)

13. No. 2 (Accurate)

14. American Select

15. AA Plus (Winchester)

16. Clays (Hodgdon)

17. N320 (Vihtavuori)

18. Competition (Ramshot)

19. Royal D (Scot)

20. WST (Winchester)

21. AP- 50N (ADI)

22. HP38 (Hodgdon)

23. AO (Vectan)

24. 452AA (Winchester)

25. 453 (Scot)

26. 231 (Winchester)

Edited April 27, 2010 by jmorris

[Duke Nukem]

Whose list it this. No way Solo 1000 is faster than Clays.

Top 26 from fast to slow.

1. R-1 (Norma) 59.

2. N310 (Vihtavuori)

3. Titewad (Hodgdon)

4. AS- 30N (ADI)

5. Nitro 100 (Accurate)

6. Bullseye (Alliant)

7. Solo 1000 (Accurate)

8. Red Diamond (Scot)

9. AS (Vectan)

10. Red Dot (Alliant)

11. Promo (Alliant)

12. Titegroup (Hodgdon)

13. No. 2 (Accurate)

14. American Select

15. AA Plus (Winchester)

16. Clays (Hodgdon)

17. N320 (Vihtavuori)

18. Competition (Ramshot)

19. Royal D (Scot)

20. WST (Winchester)

21. AP- 50N (ADI)

22. HP38 (Hodgdon)

23. AO (Vectan)

24. 452AA (Winchester)

25. 453 (Scot)

26. 231 (Winchester)

[jmorris]

burn rates above are from

http://www.reloadbench.com/burn.html

[G-ManBart]

Yeah, and Clays is a good bit faster than N320. Keep in mind that burn rate charts only tell you what happens when the powder is burned in open air, not what it does inside a cartridge. The two can be quite different in those two areas. The other thing is that no two charts seem to agree completely! R,

Edited April 28, 2010 by G-ManBart

[ShootsinRain]

I have had good results with moly 9mm (147's) and bullseye in my glock.

[blkbrd]

Solo 1000 - Easy to load, cheap, works with moly's, accurate, available.

VV N320 - Same as Solo but expensive.

VV N310 - Pushing the pressure envelope, but the sweetest shooting there is with jacketed 147's.

[G-ManBart]

Solo 1000 - Easy to load, cheap, works with moly's, accurate, available.

VV N320 - Same as Solo but expensive.

Solo 1000 is reverse temperature sensitive and N320 isn't. I like the way both feel (very similar), but I don't like messing with my load for different temps (I prefer to load in bulk). I've also heard of significant variations from lot to lot with Solo 1000, but I only have one lot on hand so I can't compare. R,

[TonyT]

N-320 and N-330 are about as clean burning as you can find. Personally I use WSF for all my 9mm loads.

[98sr20ve]

Solo 1000 meets/exceeds all the requirments and is bulky to boot. BUT, it has sucky reloading data. People basically write thier own book on it using a chrono. Besides that it's perfect for you if you want to

1) Use 124 gr or heavier bullets in 9mm

2) Have a chrono or access to one

3) Want 130PF in minor.

Don't bother if you want to run light bullets in 9mm. Don't know about .40. Solo seems to like heavier bullets in my experiance.

[ben b.]

Solo 1000 - Easy to load, cheap, works with moly's, accurate, available.

VV N320 - Same as Solo but expensive.

Solo 1000 is reverse temperature sensitive and N320 isn't. I like the way both feel (very similar), but I don't like messing with my load for different temps (I prefer to load in bulk). I've also heard of significant variations from lot to lot with Solo 1000, but I only have one lot on hand so I can't compare. R,

My test yesterday showed I needed to add .1 gr per round for my 9mm 147 gr lead bullet load to get equivalent PF as the last lot I used, so I am going up from 3.50 gr S1000 at 1.145" OAL to 3.60 gr S1000. I had to go up .2 gr per round in my .45 loads. The .40 load tested the same betweeen lot 2 and lot 3.

The reverse temp sensitivty is low in my tests, ~2 PF points IIRC.

The other thing that Solo has over n320 is EASY AVAILABILITY.