Sillhouette vs. HS6 vs WAC

[Aircooled6racer]

Aircooled6racer,, for me, I would say yes.. wac felt better then hs6.. I may be the odd man out, but that is not un-common. I will say that the pf may have not been exactly the same but within a couple points. my loads were 8.7 hs6/125 zero jhp @1.235oal,,7.5 wac 124cmj mg @ 1.260 ,, 8.3 silhouette 125jhp zero @ 1.235 oal, & 7.9 n350 125 jhp @1.235 oal . the vv n350 and hs6 felt similar to me..Silhouette was the champ for me. outside temp was 60 degrees and cloudy in s.e. georgia.. your results may/will vary

Hello: With those OAL looks like you are loading 38 super? I am using 115 grain bullets so that could be some of the difference. I just found WAC made the dot do strange things at 171-173PF and 115's. Not as bad as 3N37. I suggest you try some different pwders and see what suits you best. Then buy lots of it and shoot it. Thanks, Eric

[CocoBolo]

Aircooled6racer,, for me, I would say yes.. wac felt better then hs6.. I may be the odd man out, but that is not un-common. I will say that the pf may have not been exactly the same but within a couple points. my loads were 8.7 hs6/125 zero jhp @1.235oal,,7.5 wac 124cmj mg @ 1.260 ,, 8.3 silhouette 125jhp zero @ 1.235 oal, & 7.9 n350 125 jhp @1.235 oal . the vv n350 and hs6 felt similar to me..Silhouette was the champ for me. outside temp was 60 degrees and cloudy in s.e. georgia.. your results may/will vary

I'm always puzzled by the variance in loads to get to major, but first let me say yes Silhouette is my favorite. With Sil in the winter I run 7.4gr w/125gr SPM primer 1.165 and get about 168pf, in the summer I run 7.7gr with SPP get about 168 pf. My 172pf autocomp load is just 7.0gr, and HS6 it takes only 8.3gr. So your gun got a hole in it or something else.

I learned that Silhouette was reverse temp sensative at Gator one year abourt 32 or so, and I hit the corno with my 170pf load and clocked 189pf. The gun was a bit hard on the hand till about the 3rd stage when it started to warm up then in the afternoon it felt very good almost under powered. But I've learned to adjust it and still just keep shooting it since nothing is as good.

I had some time to piddle so I have test loads made up of most powders to try next time I go crono, 20 of each just to see if maybe now that I have been shooting Silhouette for over two years if I missed something in the original tests. HS6, AC, N350, 3N38, 3N37, WSF, IMR7625 and TrueBlue.

[Hammar]

Interesting. I have found the opposite with losing power factor in lower temps with silhouette.

[pbosik]

To cocobolo,, my pistola, having holes is a understatement,, go check out open gun pics in the gallery..its the most recent photo posted..Merry Christmas to all

[Parallax3D]

Personally, the only one of the three I've tried is WAC, but my friend, (a master class), used to use Silhouette, but switched to True Blue. He said it was cleaner. You may want to give True Blue a try.

[RippSpeed]

Probably something to do with either reliable ignition of breach face erosion.

I can't imagine using a soft Fed SPP in a 9MAJOR. My guess it they spring the guns very light to get the trigger weight lowww.

SVI guns are Wolf 17lb mainspring with 2 coils cut off

[CocoBolo]

Personally, the only one of the three I've tried is WAC, but my friend, (a master class), used to use Silhouette, but switched to True Blue. He said it was cleaner. You may want to give True Blue a try.

I'd recommend caution with TruBlue, I used it in 38S and it tends to pressure spike, but then all 9 major loads deserve caution. A friend used it in his 9 Major thought it was the shit, till one day at a match we traded 10 rounds, my load is Silhouette, next time I saw him he was a Silhouette convert. No I didn't like his TruBlue loads but they were close, but about the same as HS6.

My order of preference is Silhouette, HS6, AutoComp, then AA#7. Only thing I have not tried that is on my todo list is 3N38 and I know it will sling out so no hurry.

[Lebayer]

Been working on finding a reliable recipe for my Caspian 9Major. Started with a MG 124 JHP, at 1.165", but it wasn't 100% reliable with my mags. So I went a little longer, 1.175" with MG RN bullets and have had no malfunctions. Went out today - at 50 degrees - and ran the ammo through my crono, in preparation for a match next month in Tri-Cities. I averaged 1433, for 10 rounds, with a warm gun. That's 177.67 PF and more than I need. That's with 7.8g of True Blue, at OAL of 1.175". I understand there is an advantage to running more gas for comp efficiency but I'm looking to slow things down and hold around 170 or maybe even slightly less. It's likely to be in the low 60's at the match so don't think temperature will be a big issue but I would appreciate some advice about what is a reasonable target velocity that will provide good comp performance without too much wear and tear on my new gun and on me! Thanks.

[Lebayer]

I think my scale was off and I was running hotter than normal. I checked drop weights with two other scales, loaded rounds at 7.2, 7.4, 7.6, and 7.8 - checking the weight of each round in the test group - and ended up with lower speeds than I had run the day before. Only the 7.6 and 7.8 loads made major. I did discover remarkable accuracy differences between 124g MG RN and 124 JHP bullets. At 18 yards, I could hold the JHP rounds in a 3" circle, with lots of touching holes for a 10 round group. With the RN bullets, I was out to 6". How about the 115g MG RN bullets? Are they as accurate as the JHP?

[mpolans]

Shouldn't this be in the reloading subforum? Where's a Moderator when you need one?

[gzo]

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

[Desmo412]

My HS6 load is 9.1gr under a MG 115 JHP at 1.165" with a Fed SR primer. That gives me a 175 PF in a 5.4" barrel with no holes. I have a slower lot of HS6, so I would start around 8.5 and work up from there.

[Foxbat]

8.2 gr with 124gr MG JHP give me PF of 173, with two fairly large popple holes.

[OpenDot]

124gr mg jhp

wsrp

7.5 autocomp

177.9 PF

9 major

Guess i'm the outlaw here and like autocomp....couldn't really tell that much of a difference between the 3 powders that the OP discussed. I've shot all 3....I like the recoil of the Autocomp, the higher the load..the more gas to work the comp...

now AC with lower powerfactor sucks ass, 167PF mark the gun jumps like a .45... the higher i went up in charge and watching the primers and cases... the flatter it got till i hit that sweet spot.

I can tell a difference in recoil between 171-172PF as well.... I really want to bump it up to 7.6/7.7 and give that a try as well (obviously checking everything between shots gun/brass wise) but as for now 7.5 is the sweet spot with my PT Banshee

[CocoBolo]

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

Ok my off the charts non safe load that I have shot 20K rounds of with 124gr MTG is 7.7gr of Silhouette. I can't say that will work for you since you did not list an OAL, but mine is 1.160.

Be advised that Silhouette varies a bit lot to lot, it also takes a bit more powder to make major in hot weather. My 7.7gr load is 172pf at 100 and 189pf at 28.

Like the Predator guy I like my loads hot, I can make major with 7.4gr and the gun bounces push it up it tames it down. Magnum, Rifle, or Pistol primers only produce about 10 fps difference, I shoot what I can find.

[gzo]

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

Ok my off the charts non safe load that I have shot 20K rounds of with 124gr MTG is 7.7gr of Silhouette. I can't say that will work for you since you did not list an OAL, but mine is 1.160.

Be advised that Silhouette varies a bit lot to lot, it also takes a bit more powder to make major in hot weather. My 7.7gr load is 172pf at 100 and 189pf at 28.

Like the Predator guy I like my loads hot, I can make major with 7.4gr and the gun bounces push it up it tames it down. Magnum, Rifle, or Pistol primers only produce about 10 fps difference, I shoot what I can find.

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

Ok my off the charts non safe load that I have shot 20K rounds of with 124gr MTG is 7.7gr of Silhouette. I can't say that will work for you since you did not list an OAL, but mine is 1.160.

Be advised that Silhouette varies a bit lot to lot, it also takes a bit more powder to make major in hot weather. My 7.7gr load is 172pf at 100 and 189pf at 28.

Like the Predator guy I like my loads hot, I can make major with 7.4gr and the gun bounces push it up it tames it down. Magnum, Rifle, or Pistol primers only produce about 10 fps difference, I shoot what I can find.

I had my OAL listed its longer 1.175

Any HS-6 loads I have a few pounds of that hanging around?

Edited March 22, 2013 by gzo

[CocoBolo]

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

Ok my off the charts non safe load that I have shot 20K rounds of with 124gr MTG is 7.7gr of Silhouette. I can't say that will work for you since you did not list an OAL, but mine is 1.160.

Be advised that Silhouette varies a bit lot to lot, it also takes a bit more powder to make major in hot weather. My 7.7gr load is 172pf at 100 and 189pf at 28.

Like the Predator guy I like my loads hot, I can make major with 7.4gr and the gun bounces push it up it tames it down. Magnum, Rifle, or Pistol primers only produce about 10 fps difference, I shoot what I can find.

I have some HS-6 but being new to the open 9mm it's hard to figure out what a good safe start Load my be and then chrono from there.

You guys have any suggestions for a start load for either 115 Gr MG or 124 precision delta 9 mm open gun with 5 inch kart barrel ported and comp?

I have been using Sil 8.5gr over the 115 MG FMG 1.175 oal 171PF with CCI400 I have not figured out what to drop the charge down to for the 124 Presision Delta FMJ .

Any special formula for calculating this? (115 vs 124 gr bullets and the load differences)

Ok my off the charts non safe load that I have shot 20K rounds of with 124gr MTG is 7.7gr of Silhouette. I can't say that will work for you since you did not list an OAL, but mine is 1.160.

Be advised that Silhouette varies a bit lot to lot, it also takes a bit more powder to make major in hot weather. My 7.7gr load is 172pf at 100 and 189pf at 28.

Like the Predator guy I like my loads hot, I can make major with 7.4gr and the gun bounces push it up it tames it down. Magnum, Rifle, or Pistol primers only produce about 10 fps difference, I shoot what I can find.

I had my OAL listed its longer 1.175

Any HS-6 loads I have a few pounds of that hanging around?

My non powder MFG approved HS6 load is 8.2gr with 124gr MTG CMJ or JHP set 1.160-1.165 with either SPP, SRP, or SPM, for 115gr that don't shoot accurate in my guns it took 9.0gr of HS6 same OAL and same primers.

These load produce about 172pf. They have not blown up anything, but again 9 major is off the charts, not a single powder MFG has a major load for 9 mm.

Use good once fired brass one time and you should be ok.

Autocomp shoots about the same as HS6 for me YMMV, 7.0gr with 124gr, never tried it with 115gr.

Edited March 23, 2013 by CocoBolo

[Jaxshooter]

I changed from True Blue to Silhouette because it is cleaner in my gun.

[supreme135]

Sillhouette has been great for me. I have tried other but I always sem to come back. One thing I have noticed is it's an easy powder to get.

[supreme135]

One last thing, I have used Sillhouette for 9mm, 38super C, and 40. It works all the way around.

[Lebayer]

Haven't tried Silllhouette but will when the market opens a bit. Did develop a load for my Caspian that is surprisingly reliable: 130g MG RN bullets (.356) atop 7.2g of True Blue at an OAL of 1.175". PF of 172.5. Tried hotter and softer but not much difference in muzzle lift. I also tried shorter (1.145 to 1.165") but neither was reliable with Caspian mags, although both work fine in my SV/STI. The 1.175" load in the Caspian, using a 124g MG RN bullet, has about half the accuracy of the 130g bullet. The ogives are quite different, for sure. The 124g have 5" groups at 50 feet; the 130g was half that, from a fairly supported position. Neither shoots as well as the 124g MG JHP (under 2") but have not found the bullet to be reliable in the Caspian although it is VERY reliable in the SV/STI.