Alternative 9mm Powders: TiteWad, Nitro 100NF, MP254

[dverna]

That Rossi is interesting. I don't need to be subsonic for critter control so I might be better off with jacketed 125 gr bullets at 2000 fps or 158 gr at 1700 fps if they will work. Should be effective for deer out to 125 yards as well.

My plinking/fun load is a 125 gr cast bullet in .38 Spl cases. Wonder if it will work at 1000 fps with that twist?

[steve urquell]

That Rossi is interesting. I don't need to be subsonic for critter control so I might be better off with jacketed 125 gr bullets at 2000 fps or 158 gr at 1700 fps if they will work. Should be effective for deer out to 125 yards as well.

My plinking/fun load is a 125 gr cast bullet in .38 Spl cases. Wonder if it will work at 1000 fps with that twist?

I just chrono'ed the 125gr J-words with 8.0gr MP254. A leisurely 1445fps.

I'll load up a few 125 cast at 1000 and let ya know. It's raining here. Thank God for my waterproof target.
ETA: I cut some brush back so I can put a target stand at 50-60yds back and will post some groups shot at that yardage. I'm making my second target stand and target waterproof as well.
125 J-word at 1445fps

[Recycled bullet]

I wonder how well it will do with 125 grain cast hollow point and four grains of Bullseye. That load shoots accurately out of all the revolvers and the 77 357 bolt action rifle.

[racepres]

I wonder how well it will do with 125 grain cast hollow point and four grains of Bullseye. That load shoots accurately out of all the revolvers and the 77 357 bolt action rifle.

Kinda a Non Starter to obtain Bullseye here in my part of the Rhubarb patch.. Been using Nitro-100NF in it;s stead.. a bit less charge weight but..You'll know if ya go too Low...some Smokey stuff!!

[Recycled bullet]

Kinda a Non Starter to obtain Bullseye here in my part of the Rhubarb patch.. Been using Nitro-100NF in it;s stead.. a bit less charge weight but..You'll know if ya go too Low...some Smokey stuff!!

The good news is that there are a lot of Bullseye substitutes!

[steve urquell]

I wonder how well it will do with 125 grain cast hollow point and four grains of Bullseye. That load shoots accurately out of all the revolvers and the 77 357 bolt action rifle.

It looks like the 30:1 twist is not going to be a problem. It does not like really slow subs though. Below 950fps and they won't group well. 1050 is the sweet spot on subs. I do not have any cast here sized at .358 but did load some Lee .357" TC with 3.1gr TiteWad @ 950fps just to see what they did. I will get around to loading some supers but the subs are going to do just fine.

[steve urquell]

I wonder how well it will do with 125 grain cast hollow point and four grains of Bullseye. That load shoots accurately out of all the revolvers and the 77 357 bolt action rifle.

I wish I had some .358" PC boolits but the closest I could do is those Xtreme plated 125s. Your load is a great one. I was leaning on the side of my wife's truckbed for these and feel like the last one(to the right) got away from me. That is 5 shots--4 in one hole. That is a black sharpie dot in the middle. With my new scope I needed a little better spot to aim at.

[sharkey]

Hi Steve,
Have you tried the Tite Wad loads with your suppressor? They look like theyre right in the sweet spot.

[steve urquell]

Hi Steve,
Have you tried the Tite Wad loads with your suppressor? They look like theyre right in the sweet spot.

Yep, everything went thru the suppressor, even the 1400fps supers. The TiteWad loads were pretty good but that Bullseye load won the day on the subsonics. I am almost out of TiteWad and will transition to Nitro 100 as soon as it's gone.

[steve urquell]

It's getting into armadillo season and I had bought a bunch of pulled 115gr XTPs. Worked up a little hotter load on them today.

3.6gr TiteWad
115gr XTP
1.071OAL
1080 FPS (5"BBL)



I shot 4 water jugs and it did pretty well. 4th one is below the gun the rest are in order of 1-3rd hit L->R



Back side of the 4th jug



Good expansion and penetration. Should be a good dillo round



Last check was where it hit with the laser. Top hole is 10ft, middle 25ft. Low left hit is from 20yds with the red dot sight.

[steve urquell]

Playing with 9mm and the Lee 125RF at 35 yards today. I got all fancy and sorted some cases by headstamp and chamfered the inside of the case necks. No other case prep and as always only using my Lee 3-die set with the seater set to just iron out the case mouth flare--no crimp.

[steve urquell]

I switched to the MP130 bullet. Looks decent at 35 and 50yds. I could tighten up the 50yd group. It was the last 5rds I had left and I wasn't confident that I was set on the shots. Also getting dark and my back is killing me so I wasn't focused. I think I could easily carve it down to 1.5" or less.

[steve urquell]

Decided to take a look at Ramshot Silhouette. 148gr HSTs, 1.150", ladder of 4.6 to 4.9gr. Looking for 1050fps.



9/13 UPDATE:

All of these chrono'ed from 960-980fps. Not in order on fps(980 at 4.7gr)
Not much difference with charge wt increase. I will load some at 4.7gr for armadillo fodder.

[steve urquell]

Well, sub 2" 9mm 50yd groups were a piece of cake. 5" bbl AR pistol.

[elmacgyver0]

Could ya ship a few of those dillos up my way? sound like fun targets!

[steve urquell]

Could ya ship a few of those dillos up my way? sound like fun targets!

You really don't want these destructive roly-polly bugs up there. I'm sure they will make their way to you though. Maybe I should start hosting "Dillo Hunts"?

Ok, I lined up at 100yds, settled in on the rest really good and popped off 10 rds. Using one of the reticles to adjust for 10" of drop. I couldn't see the holes but could hear the steel ringing behind the target--my 1/2" thick steel tree guard.



Walked down there and almost fell over from the surprise I found! 6 shots in 1.25", 8 are in a 2" group and the farthest flyer makes it 4". Pretty shocking for a 5"bbl 9mm with a mil-spec trigger shootng cast bullets.