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What are your Favorite Loads for Common Pistol & Rifle Calibers


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Question: I have reloaded 9mm and .40 on a buddy's machine a while ago, and recently bought my own for 9mm and .45acp; what would be a good powder to use for both? I used VV320 previously, but the concensus here seems to be Clay's or Titegroup for .45. Thanks.

I have been wondering the very same thing. After reading the posts in here and talking it over with everyone I could, I settled upon Solo 1000 as the primary powder for 9mm 124/125gr LRN, 45acp 230 LRN and 45 acp 185 gr JPP Tgt. I will also be using Clays as a back up as I have a bunch of it.

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Titegroup is VERY temperature sensitive!!!

Hot weather = fast

Cold weather = slow

Thanks!!! I didn't know that!

This may be true but it certainly doesn't jive with my experience. Based on my chrono and match chronos here in the South ranging from hot and humid May to early in cool mornings in October, I find Titegroup stays within a couple of PF points for me. YMMV.

Curtis

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9mm

147gr Frontier CMJ

3.9gr/Unique or 3.6gr/N320

--------------------------------------------

38Sp

158gr Frontier CMJ

4.4gr/TiteGroup

-------------------------------------------

40 S&W

180gr Frontier CMJ

4.7gr/Titegroup or 4.6gr/N320

-------------------------------------------

.308Win

175gr Sierra HPBT MatchKing

43.1gr/RL15

Fed 210M

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9 mm 125gr minor WST

40 S&W 185gr Moly WST 200gr Jacketed TiteGroup (N320 as backup)

45 ACP 200gr Lead WST or N320

38 SC Major - Accurate #7, others N350, N105, IMR7625, IMR4756, TruBlue, HS6 order of preference.

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9mm - Accurate #5, with both 115 and 124gr bullets. A bit dirty, but much cleaner than Unique it replaced.

40S&W - Universal Clays, very clean

38SC - Vihta 3N37, increadibly clean. I seldom need to clean the gun, there's simply no residue.

45ACP and 38 Special - Win 231. Clean and economical

LT

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Just bought TAC powder for 5.56 and .308. Any load info you have would be appreciated. I am loading 69gr HPBT Match Kings in 5.56 and 155 gr Palma Match Kings in .308. I am shooting both loads in Rem 700 bolt guns, Springfield SOCOM, and a JP CTR-02.

Thanks

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  • 2 weeks later...

.38. .40 .45ACP: Titegroup

.308: Varget

.44 Mag: H-110

Titegroup isn't the perfect powder for each caliber, but it's a good powder for ALL these calibers which reduces my inventory, the number of expensive powder measures I need and the powder is very economical to use and seems to meter very well in my SDB, 650 and RCBS systems.

Varget is for precision .308, really a good powder for that.

H-110 is for hot magnum loads, big fun.

And since I cannot find any other powders in stock, these are my powders for the duration of the ObamaScare.

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  • 4 weeks later...

:roflol::roflol::roflol:

I'm out of the loop on modern-day powders. This would be a good resource to have all in one place, and also, since I get this question every day on the phone -

What are your favorite Powders for 9, 40, 45, 223, & 308?

(And add additional calibers if you wish.)

Please be as specific as possible, e.g., list in order of preference, and add comments if you have them.

For example, if I were listing my favorite powders for 40 S&W, I'd say;

40 S&W

Vihtavuori 320

Extremely clean burning; Very light recoil; But a little fast burning/high pressure for maximum loads; Expensive, more difficult to locate.

Hodgdon Clays

Very clean burning; Very light recoil; But a little fast burning/high pressure for maximum loads; Reasonably priced, easy to locate.

Hodgdon Tight Group

Medium clean burning; Fairly sharp recoil; Very low pressure for all loads; Reasonably priced, easy to locate.

9mm Accurate 7, works well and I have lots

.38 super Accurate 7, 130 to 158gr lead, very accurate and I have lots, testing 4756 now

.45 Bullseye, 3.5 to 5.0 gr with H&G 68 200 swc, I have lots, very economical

Unique, 7.2 gr with 230 rnl

.44 Russian Bullseye

.223 H4895 with 52/53 gr Sierra match load

.244 Rem IMR 4064

.25-20 SR4759 with 86gr lead, very accurate

.308 IMR 4350 with 168gr MK, very accurate long range

.44-40 SR 4759 with 200gr lead, very accurate with Lyman 42798

.45-70 SR 4759 with 405gr lead target load

" 330gr hp Gould expess for hunting

IMR 4831, 55gr with 405gr lead magnum primer for hunting, leaves lots of unburned powder in bore but very accurate, compressed load

Mostly 'old' powders I guess, from 50 years reloading experience

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  • 1 month later...

I use HS-6 in:

9mm with 147gr. - minor

38 super with 124 gr. - major

40 cal. with 180 gr. - major

One powder that works good with all three, meters good, you can find it at most gun shops and it's less expensive than some of the other pwders

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9mm - WSF. It is what I have on hand. When that runs out I might try one off of this page. I do not find it to be dirty at all. I am shooting 115gr Remington FMJ's. I will be switching to some 147's when I run out of those.

40 S&W - 180gr JHP form Montana Gold. Started out using WSF and it was good, clean burning. I since got a hold of some VV N320 and it is a softer recoil as opposed to a sharper snap with the WSF so I have switched. It is more expensive and can be hard to find (even in good times) but I try to stock up and I am willing to pay the $100 - $200 more per year for the amount of shooting I do.

308 Win - I use Factory Winchester brass that I prep and WLR primers.

For bolt guns I use Varget for anything from 155gr - 178gr. Another popular choice is RL-15 but people complain that it is temperature sensitive.

For my M1A 41.5gr of IMR-4895 with a 168 SMK at magazine length. I load to 2.82" OAL That has been THE load for that gun for a while now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

for 38 super- been running VV 3n37 for a number of yrs, even now can still get it(thank you powder valley) expensive??? yes, but extremely clean burning

for .40 S&W I have been using WST, very clean burning makes major w/out worries of KB, and at the time i got mine it was....10 bucks a lb!!!!!!!!!!!!

223/5.56- been very happy with AA 2230 once my stash of BL-C2 dried up....

44 mag- for desert eagle loads win 296(lots of it) for plinkin w/ lead lire loads WST

45 acp- WST

9mm- everything from AA 2 and AA7 and AA9, to VV3n37

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  • 2 weeks later...

What's the difference between the different powders for .223? I know varget doesn't meter well, but I'm not sure exactly what that means for me and my xl650. I'd ideally like one powder for all .223 loads.

Seems like most people advocate BLC2, Varget, H335, 2230, etc. I don't know how to pick one over the others.

My purpose would be 3-gun, using my FB15.

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What's the difference between the different powders for .223? I know varget doesn't meter well, but I'm not sure exactly what that means for me and my xl650. I'd ideally like one powder for all .223 loads.

Seems like most people advocate BLC2, Varget, H335, 2230, etc. I don't know how to pick one over the others.

My purpose would be 3-gun, using my FB15.

Bullet weight dictates burn rate. 52-55 grain I love H335. Heavier bullets work better with slower powders, such as Varget, RL15. Ramshot TAC is slow enough for heavy bullets. What range are you competing at? That has a bearing on bullet selection.

Really, I recommend purchasing a loading manual or two. They don't just have load data, but, lot's of information. Sierra would be my first choice.

Edited by Dan Sierpina
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  • 1 month later...

I just joined the forum. I was wondering if ya'll have any opinions on hp-38 in 9mm? Is it a clean burning powder? Right now I'm just loading for practice and really tired of buying reloads that are extremely dirty. Planning on loading MG 124 jhp. Any info/load data would be greatly appreciated. BTW...did search and came up with data using other powders.

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I just joined the forum. I was wondering if ya'll have any opinions on hp-38 in 9mm? Is it a clean burning powder? Right now I'm just loading for practice and really tired of buying reloads that are extremely dirty. Planning on loading MG 124 jhp. Any info/load data would be greatly appreciated. BTW...did search and came up with data using other powders.

HP38/WW231 is a dirty powder.

Try Unique, not the cleanest but cleaner than HP38.

A very clean powder is VV N320.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I saw my old post in this thread from almost two years ago. Having learned a few things (some of them the hard way), i'd like to update my list of favorites:

40 S&W:

180 and 165 jacketed: Titegroup

180 and 165 lead or moly-coated: WSF

9mm minor:

115 and 124 jacketed: Titegroup

124 lead or moly-coated: 231

135 lead or moly-coated: WSF

147 lead or moly-coated: WSF

147 jacketed: WSF

45 ACP:

230 and 200 jacketed: WST

185 jacketed: Clays

230 and 200 lead or moly-coated: WST or Clays

180 lead or moly-coated: 231

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