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Solo1000 vs WST


DWFAN

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Has anyone done a direct comparison between Solo1000 and WST for Moly bullets and the below characteristics (in order of importance to me)? I'm about done with this 8lbs of Solo, thinking of switching to WST.

1. Temp Sensitivity (I dont care for how temp sensitive solo is)

2. Feel

3. Smoke

4. Lot to lot variance (solo is horrible, but between 8lb jugs, I dont have to retest that often so its not THAT important.)

Edited by DWFAN
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Don't have a lot of experience with temp sensitivity, but both smoke very little with moly bullets. The Solo 1000 just feels a lot more softer than the WST to me. I shot WST for along time before someone turned me onto Solo 1000. I have since used up all my WST and not looked back. Solo 1000 does good in short OAL length in 40 for major Glock loads.

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I live in central Texas and WST works well from 40 to 113, with no load changes pf will vary by only 5 and I run 135pf for minor at 80+. It is best with Moly or Bayou bullets, for jacketed I use N320. I find it shines in 40 and 45, good in 9 mm with heavier bullets 135gr, 147gr moly or Bayou, not as good with 125gr.

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Hmm.. not what I expected to hear.. :roflol:

I could have swore Powder Valley had some S1K last week, went to order yesterday and was going to just stick with Solo, but they were out of the 8lb'ers.. So I ordered 4lbs of WST. I'll get to do lots of comparison it looks like.

Edited by DWFAN
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i have moved to WST for 9/40/45 to simplify powders. i have tried solo 1k. I must have gotten a slow bottle as the velocity that i got did not match up with what people were saying they got on the net with the same load.

I have found that WST have very little smoke with lead or moly bullets compared to TG and BE. 4.1-4.4 wst with a 135gr moly gets me about 950 and 1000 fps. and very accurate to boot.

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Every barrel is different which is why others' loads might be off in your gun. I have a limited gun that gets 171PF with 4.6gr solo under a 180gr bear creek at 1.205" OAL. My other limited gun needs 5.2gr for the same PF.

Plus, if you buy an 8lb jug, it'll take a while to run through it and there will surely be plenty of chances to chrono in that time.

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Has anyone done a direct comparison between Solo1000 and WST

1. Temp Sensitivity

I keep seeing references to both Solo 1000 and WST being temp sensitve. They are. But what I've seen having tested both, back to back, same day, same ammo batch, same chrono, left on the dash in the sun vs having been in my freezer overnite and taken to the range in a cooler, is only a 1% difference, cold being faster.

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I did some temp sensitivity testing on WST earlier this year to see how much temperature actually affected it's performance. I was afraid I'd have to bump up my load for the Texas heat. At 65 degrees, I had 171 PF. The same load at 105 degrees was 169 PF. Minimal difference.

I don't notice any smoke while I'm shooting WST with moly's. It is minimal.

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My guns seem to prefer Solo 1000 over WST when it comes to making small groups in 9x19, 9x21, .38 Super, .40S&W, and .45ACP.

You will need to find out how they work in your gun(s). The excellent Solo 1000 loads, though, are light.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm, I'm trying to decide between these two at the moment for Moly 9minor/40major through glocks.... Solo's lot inconsistancy has me leaning toward WST.. but like some said, an 8lber will last a while... undecided once more, might have to just try both if I can find them.

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My go to is Solo but I tried some WST based on some reports here of reduced smoke. WST smokes more than Solo (YMMV), witnessed by me behind the pistol and a bud standing behind me, and I didn't like the recoil impulse at all. It was much snappier than Solo.

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al503, that is interesting. I ran out of S1000 recently and so I switched to WST. Both loads were 5.0gr under a 124gr MG JHP @ 1.085. Both loads chrono'd at 138pf (WST was a few FPS slower). I found WST to be noticeably softer at the same PF.

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al503, that is interesting. I ran out of S1000 recently and so I switched to WST. Both loads were 5.0gr under a 124gr MG JHP @ 1.085. Both loads chrono'd at 138pf (WST was a few FPS slower). I found WST to be noticeably softer at the same PF.

Yeah. Its hard to describe. I was shooting both loads at exactly 134 PF. The WST felt like a small firecracker going off in your hand, which is something I haven't felt with Solo, n320, titegroup, clays, or e3. It was distracting and my bud had the same reaction to it. Both of us agreed that Solo 'felt' better in the two 2011's we were shooting. It was butt @ss cold out there so we didn't do anything on the timer, though. I'm probably going to lower the charge weight and shoot it around 125-130 PF for practice until its gone.

I'm shooting Bear Creek 147 Molys at 1.18" You and I are definitely not comparing apples to apples. That may explain the difference.

Edited by al503
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al503, that is interesting. I ran out of S1000 recently and so I switched to WST. Both loads were 5.0gr under a 124gr MG JHP @ 1.085. Both loads chrono'd at 138pf (WST was a few FPS slower). I found WST to be noticeably softer at the same PF.

Yeah. Its hard to describe. I was shooting both loads at exactly 134 PF. The WST felt like a small firecracker going off in your hand, which is something I haven't felt with Solo, n320, titegroup, clays, or e3. It was distracting and my bud had the same reaction to it. Both of us agreed that Solo 'felt' better in the two 2011's we were shooting. It was butt @ss cold out there so we didn't do anything on the timer, though. I'm probably going to lower the charge weight and shoot it around 125-130 PF for practice until its gone.

I'm shooting Bear Creek 147 Molys at 1.18" You and I are definitely not comparing apples to apples. That may explain the difference.

How many grains of Solo are using for your load? I've been using Solo for my .40 and really like it and would like to work up a load for 9 with the same 147 bearcreek molys

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I've been anywhere from 3.4-3.8 gr solo for 147gr lead/moly. I would start at 3.2 and work up to desired PF. Remember, it gets faster as it gets cold out. So, re-chrono in the spring as it warms up, because your load will slow down.

Since PV was out of Solo when I made a big order, I picked up 4lbs of WST to try. So I'll be able to do some direct comparison.

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