Trying new powders need recommendations

[mr renwick]

I am working on getting a good uspsa load for my 229 and a buddy gave me some new powders to try out. i was wondering if any of you have any experience with them and if so what loads did you use?

powders

unique

blue dot

800x

power pistol

hs-7

Bullets

lead 180gr

lead 155gr

jacketed 135gr

Thanks

[Joe4d]

well free powder is good powder. Just check any decent manual and you'll find loads that make power factor. You didnt mention division so not sure if your loading minor or major but none of the powders you listed would make "good" USPSA loads for Limited or Production. If your gun is compensated the 135's and HS7 or Bluedot would make an ok open load.

Do some reading here on loads and you'll find a common theme. Fast powders use less powder and generate less recoil, noise, and muzzle flash. So generally the fastest burning powder that can still make powerfactor for you will be about right. Other factors come into play like cost, availability, smoke, and how clean or dirty it is and if you can get sufficient case volume to maintain acuracy. Some powders like Tightgroup dont like very light charges and your groups will open up. All of the powders you have listed are on the slow end of the pistol powders. Not saying they wont make acurate reliable ammo they will just generate more recoil and muzzle blast doing the same work. Now if you were shooting bowling pins or someother application where you were trying to squeeze the top velocity out of it the powders listed would do it. I would probably use the powder to develop practice ammo that feels like my match ammo.

[mr renwick]

well free powder is good powder. Just check any decent manual and you'll find loads that make power factor. You didnt mention division so not sure if your loading minor or major but none of the powders you listed would make "good" USPSA loads for Limited or Production. If your gun is compensated the 135's and HS7 or Bluedot would make an ok open load.

Do some reading here on loads and you'll find a common theme. Fast powders use less powder and generate less recoil, noise, and muzzle flash. So generally the fastest burning powder that can still make powerfactor for you will be about right. Other factors come into play like cost, availability, smoke, and how clean or dirty it is and if you can get sufficient case volume to maintain acuracy. Some powders like Tightgroup dont like very light charges and your groups will open up. All of the powders you have listed are on the slow end of the pistol powders. Not saying they wont make acurate reliable ammo they will just generate more recoil and muzzle blast doing the same work. Now if you were shooting bowling pins or someother application where you were trying to squeeze the top velocity out of it the powders listed would do it. I would probably use the powder to develop practice ammo that feels like my match ammo.

Thanks for the advice. I am going for minor loads and am shooting production. I also have some hp-38 as well. what do you think of it. i shot my first match the other day with 135s in front of 7.1 of hp38 needless to say they weren't even close to being slow.

[Joe4d]

Not quite what I would consider a production load. Your way into supersonic and generating alot more recoil, flash etc. HP38 aka W231 is a decent game powder and many people use it. It takes up more room in the case than tightgroup so you should be able to download all you want and stay accurate. Go to Hodgdon's websight and download a burn rate chart. You'll find HP38/W231 on the fast end and teamed with either 155 or 180 gr bullets should make a fine minor pf load. The only complaint I have heard is the powder is dirty and smokey. If you can get through a match without any hangups that shouldnt matter. Load the 180's to 800 fps and the 155's to 900fps. I have found that most stock 40's will run on 140 or so pf ammo without changing springs or retuning in a way that may damage the gun if you switch to full power defensive ammo.

[mr renwick]

Not quite what I would consider a production load. Your way into supersonic and generating alot more recoil, flash etc. HP38 aka W231 is a decent game powder and many people use it. It takes up more room in the case than tightgroup so you should be able to download all you want and stay accurate. Go to Hodgdon's websight and download a burn rate chart. You'll find HP38/W231 on the fast end and teamed with either 155 or 180 gr bullets should make a fine minor pf load. The only complaint I have heard is the powder is dirty and smokey. If you can get through a match without any hangups that shouldnt matter. Load the 180's to 800 fps and the 155's to 900fps. I have found that most stock 40's will run on 140 or so pf ammo without changing springs or retuning in a way that may damage the gun if you switch to full power defensive ammo.

It was kind of funny how that load came about. See i got all my reloading stuff then had to raise funds to get the bullets. well the match was on saturday and i got the bullets wednesday. i loaded them starting at 5.3gr of hp38 then went down incrementally to 3.2gr 10 of each. i am really excited about how i am going to get my load tuned out fairly close. However what i didn't account for is that i didn't have a crimp die. i didnn't even know i needed one. i go to the range to test friday night. i started with the hottest and to my dismay it wasn't enough to cycle the gun. so i have 80 rounds that won't cycle the gun not to mention that it was friday night and now to late to test any more. So after consulting a buddy i loaded them on the top end to make sure i would make pf and cycle the gun.

i went to the range today to retest some of the rounds with the crimp die and using the 155s 5.3gr would cycle the gun now i need to go chrono them and see what the are running. i am going to pick up some lead 180s dec 20th. it seems that most people favor them.

[Waldog]

BTW: HP-38 and Win 231 IS THE SAME POWDER. Loading DATA is interchangeable.

I had a about 1000 Rainier Plated 180gr FP bullets laying around and wanted to shoot them in my 40 S&W standard M&P.

I used 4.3 grs of W-231, Federal primers.

With a Caldwell Machine rest at about 25 yards, my M&P shot 20 rounds into slightly less that 2".

I started with 3.9 grs and worked up to 4.5 grs of W231. Most grouped at 3"-4", some as high a 6". But, my M&P really like that 4.3gr load of W231

Nice load that worked great on last weekends IDPA match.

[Guy Neill]

Best practice is to start with the lower loads first, not the higher. That way you can see if pressure signs are occurring before getting into potentially dangerous loads.

Guy

well free powder is good powder. Just check any decent manual and you'll find loads that make power factor. You didnt mention division so not sure if your loading minor or major but none of the powders you listed would make "good" USPSA loads for Limited or Production. If your gun is compensated the 135's and HS7 or Bluedot would make an ok open load.

Do some reading here on loads and you'll find a common theme. Fast powders use less powder and generate less recoil, noise, and muzzle flash. So generally the fastest burning powder that can still make powerfactor for you will be about right. Other factors come into play like cost, availability, smoke, and how clean or dirty it is and if you can get sufficient case volume to maintain acuracy. Some powders like Tightgroup dont like very light charges and your groups will open up. All of the powders you have listed are on the slow end of the pistol powders. Not saying they wont make acurate reliable ammo they will just generate more recoil and muzzle blast doing the same work. Now if you were shooting bowling pins or someother application where you were trying to squeeze the top velocity out of it the powders listed would do it. I would probably use the powder to develop practice ammo that feels like my match ammo.

Thanks for the advice. I am going for minor loads and am shooting production. I also have some hp-38 as well. what do you think of it. i shot my first match the other day with 135s in front of 7.1 of hp38 needless to say they weren't even close to being slow.