Landshark9025
11-25-2018, 11:27 AM
I've looked at the Fiocchi primers several times as they have a tendency to go on sale every so often. However, all I've been able to find in the way of reviews were "they all went bang". Not entirely helpful. I recently did a test with them vs CCI-500 in my 8.5" 9mm PCC with 147g bullets and TiteGroup and found no appreciable difference in Velocity, ES, or SD.
As I recently picked up a pound of Shooter's World Clean Shot powder, I thought this would be a good opportunity. I would do a load workup and compare them. All rounds were loaded on a Hornady LnL progressive press. Once the powder measure was set and verified by throwing 10 charges and weighing the total to be within .2g (ie- if the goal is 3.0g, then 10 charges must weigh 30g +/- 0.2g) 10 rounds were loaded with CCI-500 and 10 rounds were loaded with Fiocchi.
As to the powder, I can say that it is VERY FINE powder, meters well.
One observation is that the Fiocchi primers are significantly harder to pick up with the pickup tube. This might be due to the CCI primers being nickle coated. However, I don't recall that being the case with some Wolf primers I used a few years back. It's not a deal killer, but it is kind of a pain.
Also, Fiocchi primers come in 150 ct. sleeves and 12,000 ct. cases. Odd, but I can easily overlook that as the 12,000ct case comes in a very nice wooden box. A couple of small, brass hinges and you have a handy storage container.
I didn't see any data for lead bullets on the Shooter's World reloading guide (https://shootersworldpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ShootersWorldMaualInterior_072618.pdf), so I went to the Lovex Guide (https://explosia.cz/app/uploads/2016/11/reloading_Lovex_EN.pdf).
NOTE: later, I found on the final page of the Shooter's World manual a section for lead bullets marked "Competitive Shooter Data" and this range goes from 1.7g(not a typo) to 4.1g.
They had a lead 127g with a range of 2.9 to 3.5g for the D032 which is the same as the Shooter's World Clean Shot. They also had a 124g load from 2.9 to 3.8g, and another 124g load from 4.0 to 4.4g. I opted for the more conservative 2.9 to 3.5g load. I opted to start at 3.0g as my Canik with a 5" slide does not lock back on minimum charges. It usually takes at least 1/3 of the way up to almost mid level. So I settled on 3.0 to 3.4g.
For the tl:dr crowd, I found a surprising lack of difference between the two.
These are the averages across all five loads:
Velocity:
CCI-500: 944
Fiocchi: 946
Extreme Spread:
CCI-500: 39
Fiocchi: 39
SD:
CCI-500: 13
Fiocchi: 13
Average Group Size (25yds)
CCI-500: 4.24
Fiocchi: 3.58
Based on this and a previous test that was close, but not THAT close, I'd interchange them.
Given that even at 3.4g it failed to lock the slide back, I'll probably test this powder again at 3.5-4.0g. I'm pretty sure that by the time I get to 4.0, I'll probably be hitting the mid 1100. We'll see.
Here's the full data(apologies for the poor formatting):
Pistol- Canik TP9 SFX w/ Vortex Venom Red Dot
Bullet- Lead (93/5/2) Cast from Arsenal 358-125 TC mold, Powder Coated
Cases- Federal
Powder- Shooter's Choice Clean Shot
Distance to target- 25 yards
3.0g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 909 914
ES 45 24
SD 15.1 7.5
Group Size 4.6 3.4
NOTES: Both had stovepipes and FTF. Neither locked slide back.
3.1g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 924 933
ES 21 30
SD 5.6 `10.4
Group Size 4.4 3.8
NOTES: CCI had one failure to feed, neither locked slide back
3.2g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 946 945
ES 38 50
SD 13.2 `15.6
Group Size 3.6 3.2
NOTES: CCI did not lock slide back, but Fiocchi did
3.3g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 965 968
ES 44 43
SD 15.1 14.8
Group Size 4.2 3.6
NOTES: Slide did not lock back on either.
3.4g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 977 973
ES 47 48
SD 16.1 17
Group Size 4.4 3.9
NOTES: Slide did not lock back on either.
Averages
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 944 946
ES 39 39
SD 13.0 13.0
Group Size 4.24 3.58
As I recently picked up a pound of Shooter's World Clean Shot powder, I thought this would be a good opportunity. I would do a load workup and compare them. All rounds were loaded on a Hornady LnL progressive press. Once the powder measure was set and verified by throwing 10 charges and weighing the total to be within .2g (ie- if the goal is 3.0g, then 10 charges must weigh 30g +/- 0.2g) 10 rounds were loaded with CCI-500 and 10 rounds were loaded with Fiocchi.
As to the powder, I can say that it is VERY FINE powder, meters well.
One observation is that the Fiocchi primers are significantly harder to pick up with the pickup tube. This might be due to the CCI primers being nickle coated. However, I don't recall that being the case with some Wolf primers I used a few years back. It's not a deal killer, but it is kind of a pain.
Also, Fiocchi primers come in 150 ct. sleeves and 12,000 ct. cases. Odd, but I can easily overlook that as the 12,000ct case comes in a very nice wooden box. A couple of small, brass hinges and you have a handy storage container.
I didn't see any data for lead bullets on the Shooter's World reloading guide (https://shootersworldpowder.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ShootersWorldMaualInterior_072618.pdf), so I went to the Lovex Guide (https://explosia.cz/app/uploads/2016/11/reloading_Lovex_EN.pdf).
NOTE: later, I found on the final page of the Shooter's World manual a section for lead bullets marked "Competitive Shooter Data" and this range goes from 1.7g(not a typo) to 4.1g.
They had a lead 127g with a range of 2.9 to 3.5g for the D032 which is the same as the Shooter's World Clean Shot. They also had a 124g load from 2.9 to 3.8g, and another 124g load from 4.0 to 4.4g. I opted for the more conservative 2.9 to 3.5g load. I opted to start at 3.0g as my Canik with a 5" slide does not lock back on minimum charges. It usually takes at least 1/3 of the way up to almost mid level. So I settled on 3.0 to 3.4g.
For the tl:dr crowd, I found a surprising lack of difference between the two.
These are the averages across all five loads:
Velocity:
CCI-500: 944
Fiocchi: 946
Extreme Spread:
CCI-500: 39
Fiocchi: 39
SD:
CCI-500: 13
Fiocchi: 13
Average Group Size (25yds)
CCI-500: 4.24
Fiocchi: 3.58
Based on this and a previous test that was close, but not THAT close, I'd interchange them.
Given that even at 3.4g it failed to lock the slide back, I'll probably test this powder again at 3.5-4.0g. I'm pretty sure that by the time I get to 4.0, I'll probably be hitting the mid 1100. We'll see.
Here's the full data(apologies for the poor formatting):
Pistol- Canik TP9 SFX w/ Vortex Venom Red Dot
Bullet- Lead (93/5/2) Cast from Arsenal 358-125 TC mold, Powder Coated
Cases- Federal
Powder- Shooter's Choice Clean Shot
Distance to target- 25 yards
3.0g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 909 914
ES 45 24
SD 15.1 7.5
Group Size 4.6 3.4
NOTES: Both had stovepipes and FTF. Neither locked slide back.
3.1g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 924 933
ES 21 30
SD 5.6 `10.4
Group Size 4.4 3.8
NOTES: CCI had one failure to feed, neither locked slide back
3.2g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 946 945
ES 38 50
SD 13.2 `15.6
Group Size 3.6 3.2
NOTES: CCI did not lock slide back, but Fiocchi did
3.3g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 965 968
ES 44 43
SD 15.1 14.8
Group Size 4.2 3.6
NOTES: Slide did not lock back on either.
3.4g
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 977 973
ES 47 48
SD 16.1 17
Group Size 4.4 3.9
NOTES: Slide did not lock back on either.
Averages
CCI Fiocchi
Average Velocity 944 946
ES 39 39
SD 13.0 13.0
Group Size 4.24 3.58