Full Power 9mm Powders

The one down side to blue dot is...it don't meter very well.
So I'm a fan of power pistol.

What Longshot loud?
It is much quieter that a 747 at full power. (ok well maybe not much)
(Does seem to work well for FP stuff however)

If I didn't know better I would suspect an evil marketing person having them make it loud on purpose.
Marketing to engineering "If it's loud shooters will think it must be more powerful right? Put in extra loud stuff"

Haven't had a chance to try the Silhouette I ordered yet, but I have used BE86 and CFE-P, possible choices.
Both seem happier a the higher side of their charge range, for me a least CFE-P worked a little better than BE86 on the low side but a non issue since your after full power stuff.
BE86 has a slight edge velocity wise over CFE-P on paper and in my limited tests.
(I do think Alliant's data for BE86 in 9mm runs on the warm-hot side)
WSF shoots works well but you give up some velocity.

Looked for some of my old chrono data when I did them but lost some data due to a HDD failure. (and not backing up as much as I should have and having the backups in at least two places.)
HDD backups were on failed attempting to recover some backups
( I do know better than to put all my eggs in two baskets....)

Powerpistol seemed to work ok for me but seemed loud, (louder than BE86) not as loud as Longshot but trying to get there. BE86/CFE-P/WSF are less flashy than PP IMO.
Another poster mentioned BE86 is about the same burn rate as Universal.
For me in 9mm it seems to be slower much closer to CFE-P speed wise. YMMV

Edit: CFE=P, BE86 both meter well, CFE-P is a little denser than BE86.
CFE-P VMD .about 075 quite close to whats listed in my lots, BE86 is listed at .089 but my couple jars seemed closer to .091

Charlie98 said:

...and there is always Unique...

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5 gr Unique works well with plated and cast for me, but what a pain to meter. Dirty, too.

I have tried Power Pistol and did not care for it.

I also tried working up some BE-86 loads, and while I preferred it to Power Pistol, it just did not thrill me. Maybe I was expecting too much based on all of the great reviews I have read about it on this site.

I am back to using my trusty Titegroup. It just works well for me.

Obviously your velocity demands will be driven by the projectile design. Gold Dots and especially HSTs expand readily at moderate velocities. I push the RMR 124gr. 'multipurpose' jacketed HP to 1150fps with CFE-P, which is probably a hair into +P. This is plenty to expand this bullet reliably. Here are some comments Jake (the owner of RMR) posted on driving 124 MP bullet with BE86:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...24-gr-rmr-mp-hp-for-xd9.826129/#post-10640747

CFE-P, BE86 and Power Pistol are all proven excellent in full-power 9mm so it really boils down to the minutia of your specific combination should a clear accuracy winner emerge.

ArchAngelCD, what gun will you be shooting this ammo from?

Here are some of my load data points using BE-86 in a SIG P320.

CALIBER/ BULLET/WT/ POWDER LOAD/ OAL ROUNDS & AVG VELOCITY/ STD DEV/ ES/ GUN/ PRIMER / BRASS /WEATHER

9MM 125gn SIERRA JHP BE-86 5.5 1.07 10/1132 7 20 SigP320C WSP SPEER 80 Sunny
9MM 124gn SPEER GDHP BE-86 5.5 1.12 10/1118 7 27 SigP320C WSP Win 80 Sunny

9MM 125 Sierra JHP BE-86 5.5 1.075 10/1137 12 42 SigP320C WSP SPEER 32 Sunny
9MM 124 SPEER GDHP BE-86 5.5 1.12 10/1110 18 60 SigP320C WSP SPEER 32 Sunny

9MM 124 Xtreme FMJ BE-86 5.5 1.16 30/1094 10 34 SigP320C WSP Win 68cloudy

I did not see a need to go above the 5.5 load based on my numbers, so that is where i stopped.

I have tried, PP, Longshot, W231, and prefer BE-86 for max performance loads.

LeftyTSGC

ArchAngelCD said:

SIG P320 Compac which has a 3.9" barrel. I will be trying some 124gr Speer GDHP bullets first.

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For decades, since I used factory Speer Gold Dot/Remington Golden Saber JHP ammunition, I have reloaded practice rounds using same Gold Dot/Golden Saber bulk bullets with WSF for higher velocity full power loads but since Alliant released BE-86, it is now my favored powder for full power loads due to greater accuracy.

HS-7, 3N37 and silhouette for “full powder”.

ArchAngelCD said:

Longshot delivers good accuracy and good velocity but it's very loud..

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I had to chuckle when I read this. Several years ago I was shooting an IDPA match, using my S&W 681 with .357 Magnum loads with a near-max charge of Longshot under a 158-grain JHP. After one stage, I had the following conversation with another shooter...

Him: "What loads were those? They hurt my ears when you were shooting."

Me: "Those were .357 Magnums, loaded with Longshot powder. You should've been wearing your hearing protection."

Him: "I was wearing my hearing protection."

Another vote for Accurate #7, I use it with 135 gr Xtreme plated to mimic my carry load. #7 meters very well and is low flash.

cfullgraf said:

Take a look at True Blue. I discovered it during the first Obama era shortage and have been using it in my 9x19 ever since.

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I tried True Blue for 9x19 and thought my chronogragh was messed up. In a seven shot string this what I got,
XDS 9x19 3.3" here is what I came up with.
brass, Blazer
primer, CCI 500
bullet, X-treme 135gr plated HP
COL, 1.095"
charge, 5.3 gr True Blue
H= 1013 fps
L= 1000 fps
es= 13 fps
sd= 4
shots= 7
I wish the accuracy was as good as numbers, but to my surprise it was not. IIRC 5.4 gr of TB had a sd of 2 but the accuracy did not reflect it.

joneb said:

I wish the accuracy was as good as numbers, but to my surprise it was not. IIRC 5.4 gr of TB had a sd of 2 but the accuracy did not reflect it.

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Accuracy does not appear to be positively correlated with velocity standard deviation. https://americanhandgunner.com/exclusive-consistent-velocity-accuracy/

Walkalong said:

How about it Paul?

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Yes, BE-86 is certainly very similar burn speed to our Unique(R), and Universal was designed to be a clone of Unique, so if A=B, and B=C, then A=C.
No, Power Pistol and BE-86 are most definitely not the same. Nor is BE-86 just Power Pistol with flash suppressant added. Power Pistol is the canister version of BE-84, which is slower burning than BE-86, which is the canister version of BE-86. They are not that far apart, and the formulations are identical, but the deterrent percentage is higher for Power Pistol (BE-84) compared to BE-86.

Paul, thanks for the clarification.

Updated the "Same/Comparable Powders" thread - https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-different-labels.797388/page-6#post-10727894