9mm powders ?

[Bullwolf]

Bullwolf

Do you find like others that Blue Dot does not burn efficiently and you get
powder flakes ? That is most definitely a issue with 800X which does not meter
well and burns filthy.

I find that Blue Dot burns cleanest at close to near maximum charges. You have to realize though that Blue Dot is primarily designed to be a shotgun powder though, it also seems to work better in longer barrels, than in shorter ones.

In my experience lighter charges of Blue Dot aren't as clean as heavier ones, but most bullet lubricants aren't exactly what I would call clean burning either.

I don't find Blue Dot to be very dirty. If a starting load isn't as clean as you were expecting, don't fret it, and keep working with the caliber, as you get closer to maximum loads it cleans up quite a bit.

As you can tell, I like Blue Dot, and as we get older, we all tend to get just a little a bit opinionated.

Blue Dot is a somewhat bulky powder, so loads will be near max case capacity. I think this is a bit safer, and burn rates along with accuracy seem to be more consistent because of this.

You will not accidentally double charge a 9mm shell with Blue Dot, without the powder spilling out.

I will also say that when using Blue Dot, I have never had to dump a powder measure, and throw it out because I wasn't 100% sure what was in it.

The unique blue colored identification flakes that give the powder its name are actually pretty neat. If someone else was using the machine, and left the powder hopper full.... well better safe than sorry, and I really hate to have to throw any powder away.

All that being said, Blue Dot is very good at what it does, and is a very useful tool in your re-loading toolbox.

There is a good reason that people use Blue Dot, and it's name keeps coming up. Quite a few people have found it a convenient powder to achieve major velocities with in 9mm, without showing signs of excess pressure. It also seems to work good with gas sealing particularly troublesome cast boolits. I think you should give it a shot, it might just do what you are looking for.

The concern with flake powders with me is metering and powder flakes unburnt. Its why I have asked about Blue Dot and other 9mm friendly powders.

I think it metering well all depends on what type, and or brand of powder measure you are using. I have had good results with it in a RCBS Uniflow, it might not meter well in say a Lee Auto-disk, but you would have to ask someone who has used it, in your brand of powder measure, or just try it out yourself to see.

In the end you will be the final judge on how well it works for you, and what is an acceptable level burnt, or unburnt powder.

If I place a white towel down on the shooting bench when shooting ball or spherical powder, I tend to notice quite a bit of smaller pieces of unburnt powder that I ordinarily would not have seen, or I may have possibly mistaken for soot or fouling.

An unburnt piece of flake powder however is much easier to spot, but a couple of pieces of unburnt flake, or ball powder don't really hurt anything, or cause any malfunctions.

If a powder is a little dirty, or leaves unburnt flakes, but it is the only powder that keeps my gun from leading, or lets me achieve the velocity that I am looking for, I can live with a little bit of unburnt powder. I will just clean the gun after I shoot it.



- Bullwolf

[CZ shadow]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new member, so forgive any mistakes.

I have recently taken up the fantastic sport of pistol shooting. I have bought my first pistol a CZ shadow 9mm.
I already reload, but i want to get into casting my own boolits for the shadow.

I'm looking to cast 124-125 grain what I would like to know is:
1. how hard should my lead be have been told Lymans No 2 should be OK
2. what sizing die would be best, have read conflicting info I know 9mm is a standard .355 and that .356, 357, 358 works.
3. would range lead be Ok to melt down and used in my CZ.

Thanks I ook forward to reading what people can advise me.
Thanks
Ray

[MtGun44]

Please read the sticky on setting up a new 9mm for boolits.

#2 is harder than needed, .355 is almost always wrong in lead and most folks have
success with .357 or .358, but some guns demand .359. Range lead is very soft,
but may well work with some luck, a good boolit design, a good lube, good fit
and care in loading.

I have shot 8 BHN range lead in .357 mag at full power with no GC and great accy,
which many folks will call impossible.

Bill

[Bullwolf]

The best advice that I can give you is to slug your CZ and find out what size the barrel really is.

Measure the slug, and go with a boolit that is a tad larger. IE if your barrel slugs at .356 try a .358 boolit assuming you can get a .358 dummy round to chamber.

In my experience 9mm barrels are often larger than .355 unfortunately.

There is a nice sticky post by MtGun44 on setting up boolits in a new 9mm.
Here is a link to it.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=121737

Regarding your alloy question, there is no single perfect answer.

There is nothing wrong with using range scrap, if you find out you need more hardness you can always water drop it, but don't rush into a super hard alloy immediately.

Try what you have" as is" first, and adjust it if you are not pleased with your results. Sometimes a softer alloy will shoot better than a harder one . A hard cast boolit is not always the solution to every single problem.

The right hardness, or softness of your alloy will depend on your powder choice, and the pressure that your specific 9mm loads operate at.


- Bullwolf

[milprileb]

Please follow what the two gents have posted as I have gone thru this recently and got into a quagmire. 9mm is temperamental to reload for but worth the effort to find right alloy, sizing and powder charge for your pistol.

Unless you desire (I did not) a collection of sizing dies on hand with the expense that entails, do the slugging of bore and find out what you need. I did not understand this and bought .356, then .357 (which is working) and have .358 dies in bound which will be ideal. I did not slug and that wasted time and money.

The answers will come, you just got to hang there and see what you pistol demands. My Taurus 1911 in 9mm wants a specific alloy, sizing and seating depth and powder. My High Power shoots anything well: clearly barrel is tighter. Pistol specific needs will be obvious as you journey down this trail.

[garym1a2]

WSF seems like a great powder for a beginner like me in 9mm. It gives good preformance and you don't have to worry about double charges as it won't fit. It meters very well also and with my Glock and aftermarket barrel it shoots clean.

[Lizard333]

Am I the only one that uses HP-38 for my 9mm?? I find it burns clean and I have no leading. As far as metering is does very well in my Dillon. Not BD, but a very good powder for my needs.

[Shiloh]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new member, so forgive any mistakes.

I have recently taken up the fantastic sport of pistol shooting. I have bought my first pistol a CZ shadow 9mm.
I already reload, but i want to get into casting my own boolits for the shadow.

I'm looking to cast 124-125 grain what I would like to know is:
1. how hard should my lead be have been told Lymans No 2 should be OK
2. what sizing die would be best, have read conflicting info I know 9mm is a standard .355 and that .356, 357, 358 works.
3. would range lead be Ok to melt down and used in my CZ.

Thanks I ook forward to reading what people can advise me.
Thanks
Ray

1) Lyman #2 is plenty hard. I'm using lead that is less hard than that with great results so far.

2) As stated slug your bore. If yours goes .355 you are fortunate indeed. Mine go as high as .3563
I size to .358

3) Works good in a several pistols for me, and several more for friends. None are a CZ, but I see no difference. Mine is sweetened with just a bit of lino and water dropped. After 7-10 days, you cant dig your nail into it. You can when just cast though.

Shiloh

[Shiloh]

I think I got my eyes opened by this thread. I thought that either Unique or Bullseye was the preferred powder for the 9MM. Got something new to try!!!!!!!

Both good powders.

I have used both of them. I prefer Unique to Bullseye and AA#5 to Unique for the 9mm.

To me, Bullseye is a bit too fast for 9mm. Unique and Bullseye Shine with .45ACP.

Shiloh

[MtGun44]

HP-38 is the same powder as W231 and is a good choice for 9mm. You might
not be able to get quite the absolute max possible velocity with it, but so what?

Bill

[Lizard333]

If the OP wants the fastest velocity available stick with jacketed rounds. If be wants a reliable, accurate, budget friendly round, do what works.

[GabbyM]

Oh blasphemy. Can't believe my eyes. I must be on the wrong forum

Cast will shoot faster than jacketed in a 9mm.
So I have to disagree with your conclusion.

[milprileb]

Before the Food Fight starts on velocity , I am the OP and my intent was to finding slower burning powders for 9mm that meter well and burn completely. Not chase high velocity rainbows.

A non leading load for 9mm that can be prepared with a slow burning powder that meters well and burns well : the end state.

I think I got enough input to allow me to make some good powder choices and pursue such loads for 9mm.

If the interests now are to chase velocity, then it will be interesting to read what your experiences are doing that. However, be sure to tell us alloy, OAL, Lube, load data , bullet style, air or water quench cooling etc etc etc.... and if it leads !

[fecmech]

A slow powder that meters well is Hodgdon Longshot and IMO it's the accuracy champ with cast in the 9MM, it is a very fine ball powder.
That said there are times when metering well is meaningless and Blue Dot and the 9MM is one of those times. If you Blue dot load should vary + or - .3-.4 grain so what?? You can't overpressure a 9MM with BD ( you run out of space before you overpressure with any bullet weight). Most 9MM's are 3" 25 yd guns so if the velocity vary s 50-70 fps you won't see it on the target. Plus a slower powder with a few tenths variation will give a smaller velocity spread than faster powders like Unique. Looking back through my loading notes SD's with BD run between 13 and 21 fps over about 10 different loads with 3 different bullet wts. Those are loaded on a progressive with a sliding bushing powder measure. It is not a powder for light loads and should be used IMO for mostly duplicating standard and +P velocity of jacketed loads with cast bullets.

[Doble Troble]

I think its hard to beat Unique for the 9. It meters fine, it works with a wide range of bullet weights, it's accurate, and it works acceptably well for just about anything else you'll every want to load - 32 ACP to 30-06 to 12 ga. The leading issue is more a function of bullet sizing; like a few other things in life, bigger is usually better.

[jimkim]

AA#7's burn rate is very close to Blue Dot's. It works great in 9mm's and meters very accurately in my Lee ADPM. It is very fine so if your measure is loose in any way it will probably leak.

[roysha]

700X. I have used this powder for 1000's of 9mm , 38 Spec. and 45ACP rounds and have found nothing cleaner nor more efficient and it meters as well as anything else and better than most.

I had a bad experience with BD in the 9mm which Alliant made right but I can't get past that so don't really care for BD.

[Tinbullet]

I have used Win 231, it meters best and 5 gr. yields 1125 fps from a 3.5 " S&W. I also use 4.0 to 4.5 gr. of Unique yielding 975 to 1145 fps. But Unique tends to be smokey. I'm currently using 4.0 gr. of Titegroup with good results. 4.0 gr. yields 1100 fps from the Glock 19 that I use for N R A Bullseye comp. I've only noticed leading once using the stock Glock barrel. All of the cast bullets used are made by by myself and are 14 to 15 BHN. Have fun casting, loading, and shooting.

[blikseme300]

Am I the only one that uses HP-38 for my 9mm?? I find it burns clean and I have no leading. As far as metering is does very well in my Dillon. Not BD, but a very good powder for my needs.

Nope, you are not alone Lizard. I use HP-38 for my 9's, 38spl, 40s&w and 45acp. I especially like this powder because it is available in 8lb jugs. A very versatile powder and it meters well in my progressive loaders.

My recipe for 9mm happiness is simple: size at .357, lube using BAC, 4.2gr HP-38 and modified Lee expander to prevent boolit squeezing. (It works similar to a M-die.)

YMMV-UWC <- your mileage my vary, use with caution.

Bliksem

[Boolseye]

milprileb: my work with the 9mm lead me to conclude that AA #5 or #7 were the best powders for cast load (IMO). This is with the much-maligned Lee tl356-124tc. I have dialed in loads that are accurate and don't lead (much). I did a fair bit of testing with Blue Dot, Bullseye, 700x and a couple others.
-jp