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Alliant

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Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse

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Oct 11, 2018
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Good morning,

I was perusing the internet and found a 4 lb can of Power Pistol for a reasonable price. Having gotten tired of purchasing 1lb cans of powder, I was going to pull the trigger. I went the the Alliant site to see what type of powder that is (ball, flake, etc.), no joy.

Can anyone tell me what type of powder Power pistol is and how well it meters?

Also, while at the Alliant site, I came across Sport Pistol powder? Has anyone used both of these powders? What's your take on it.

I read that the Army competition team used Power pistol for shooting targets out to 50 yards, but don't know which would be better for loading 124gr RMR FMJ RN bullets and coated 124/125gr ACME lead bullets.

Lately, I've been using WST with coated lead with excellent results. It meters extremely well and fills the cases nicely. It burns super clean. The only thing I don't like about it is that because it fill the case quite a bit, as I cycle the LnL press, I always get some powder shaking out of the cases which makes WST the messiest powder I've used. I've been able to slow down to keep powder spillage to a minimum. That is the only issue I have with WST-aside from Winchester publishing load data on WST for only 45acp and 38 special. However, with the help from folks here I've been able to work with WST and 9mm reliably and accurately. Prior to WST, I was using CFE for 9mm and 45acp. Excellent powder, but not as clean.

TIA

CH
 
PP = small flake. Meters wonderfully. Very loud report with lots of fire. Causes me to develope a flinch quickly.

Sport Pistol I have no experience with but the description says it was developed with coated bullets in mind.
 
Power pistol is a favourite for me on 10mm. I'm testing some loads today in fact. I average a very small dispersal of less 0.1-0.05gn from my redding 10x powder measure. Good enough to load max loads from a throw in my opinion and it meters with the best of them in my experience.

I haven't tried it in 9mm but I'm going to.
 
Power Pistol (BE84) is a very accurate powder in 9mm but it has an obnoxious white flash with higher loads of it. I've used it in all the handgun calibers I load, as a replacement for Unique. It meters much better but is just a tad slower than Unique.
After BE-86 came out I quit using Power Pistol. BE-86 is supposed to be the next iteration of BE-84 (Power Pistol). BE-86 has a flash suppressant that knocks the flash of the Power Pistol down to more very reasonable level. The flash suppressant speeds up the burn to just a little faster, but more on par with Unique.
With lighter loads of Power Pistol I don't really notice the white flash.
It's a good, accurate powder that really shines in 9mm and works well in .357mag also. Really has no problems other than the white flash with higher loads.
 
I shoot a lot of unique, power pistol, tightgroup, and siloette. They all have their own character. Unique is a little dirty but I love it. Power pistol seems a little cleaner but the flash and report is excessive. Tightgroup is clean but snappy. Siloette is the best middle of the road for me. I will not be buying any more PP.
 
Alliant classifies Power Pistol as an extruded powder. However, it is very fine, cut short, and meters well in drum measures like the Uniflow and Hornady LNL.

Sport Pistol is faster than Power Pistol and also meters well.

In most applications Power Pistol will give greater case fill than Sport Pistol or WST. Case fill with Sport Pistol will be similar to WST in the 45 Auto. Some shooters have found Sport Pistol to give high velocity variations (poor SD) in the 45 Auto.
 
Power Pistol has lots of flash, Longshot is very loud.

Sport Pistol is great for reduced load 9MM, should work very well for other things.

BE-86 is very good for full power 9MM, and is good for other things as well. .45 Colt comes to mind.

I don't think you can go wrong trying either Sport Pistol or BE-86.
 
Power pistol is a flat circular disk, flake type powder. Heavily graphited and good measuring.

It is the H-110 of small capacity pistol cases.
I like it a lot.:)
I gives me more velocity than Hp-38, with negligible cost of report.

I like LoudShot and Silhouette as well.

For all the different shapes, they all meter great.
 
As others said I’d call it a small flake. Meters great. Very accurate in my tests for 9mm but I find the flash distracting at least indoors. I haven’t loaded enough of it to see if it’s bothersome at an outdoor match. Noticeably boomier than some other powders but as the OP said you wear earplugs/muffs anyway.
 
Friend of mine loads it in 9mm, and honestly im not noticing a difference in bang or flash from any of the guns weve run it thru. His loads with 124rmrs chrono 1100 some odd from my SFX, and stack shots at 25yds.
 
BBarn said:
Alliant classifies Power Pistol as an extruded powder. However, it is very fine, cut short, and meters well in drum measures like the Uniflow and Hornady LNL.

Sport Pistol is faster than Power Pistol and also meters well.

In most applications Power Pistol will give greater case fill than Sport Pistol or WST. Case fill with Sport Pistol will be similar to WST in the 45 Auto. Some shooters have found Sport Pistol to give high velocity variations (poor SD) in the 45 Auto.
Click to expand...

Several folks have chimed in, several that have given me good advice in the past. with a vote for BE-86 and Power pistol, will have to look around for it as it is out of stock in a couple of sites I've looked at.

Good to know. That rules out Sport Pistol not to mention several comments on flash and noise.

I was looking at WSF thinking it might be similar to WST in cleanliness and performance-with published load data for 9mm and 45acp. It's a ball powder but reviews have been mixed. If WST was not as messy and sticky (it seems to stick and difficult to clean) I would commit to a 4lb can. Accuracy, recoil, and brass cleanliness after firing have been excellent with WST. I have about 1 1/2 pounds left so I have a little time (so long as folks don't panic with media reports of COVID numbers going up again).

Thanks all for the comments and recommendations. It is much more helpful than just reading about what powders were developed for, in powder manufacturer websites. Expectations and developments aren't always reality.

CH
 
I was looking at WSF
Click to expand...

I really like WSF for 9mm.
My current match load is 4.4gr of WSF with a 124 MPR at about 1.09. Gives about 1030 fps.
WSF works well across it's charge range in 9mm makes nice full power loads but gives up some vel compared to say BE86 on top.

Haven't used a lot of WSF in .45 but works well for full powered .45 loads, for anything less than full power loads I prefer something with a faster burn rate in .45.

Sport pistol meters very well for me in my Lee disk and drum measures and in my Hornady LNL measure.
Makes nice mid power 9mm loads, shot well enough for me there it would be a second choice for match loads if I couldn't get WSF.
Only a quick test in .45 results looked good, but not enough testing to say for sure but about the burn speed I like for mid power .45 practice loads.

Several folks have chimed in, several that have given me good advice in the past. with a vote for BE-86 and Power pistol, will have to look around for it as it is out of stock in a couple of sites I've looked at.

Good to know. That rules out Sport Pistol not to mention several comments on flash and noise.
Click to expand...

You may have PP and SP confused in the above. PP is flashy SP is not really.

If you are after PPs burn speed for Full power 9mm loads I would say try BE86 instead.

If you want to try PP I would suggest just getting 1lb first, people tend to like it or not care for it very much IMO.
 
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