Be 86 and 45

I've been doing very much the same thing... what I found is BE-86 works pretty well with 200grn .45ACP, I haven't really tried it with 230grn bullets just yet. This is in my 4" Kimber, so I've been trying to reduce the muzzle flash of Unique with the 4" barrel. I think BE-86 would be a good bet with 230's in a 5" barrel, and, certainly, with 200grn bullets.

In the 9mm, I've found, with 124grn bullets in a 4" barrel (Kahr CW9) there is a point of diminishing returns... 5.4grn BE-86 worked well, 5.8grn dumped unburnt powder on my hand. YMMV.

I'll add a suggestion to consider Alliant's Sport Pistol. It meters like water, burns extremely clean, and is super accurate. I have done pretty extensive load testing in 9mm with 115/124 gr bullets and found that the load data is almost identical to W231 (HP-38). I have read that many of the hardcore bullseye 45 ACP shooters are replacing their expensive Vihtavouri powders with Sport Pistol.

As far as being economical, my 9mm Sport Pistol pet load uses a lot less powder than my best 9mm BE-86 pet load so you will be able to load more rounds from a pound of powder.

There is a pretty extensive thread on Sport Pistol her on THR if you are interested.

Just my $.02.... Good luck!

BE86, for me, is an extremely versatile powder. I've used it in 380, 9, 40, 45acp, 38spl, 357mag, and 44 mag. I will be trying it soon in 460 S&W.

Having said all of that, BE86 works in 45acp fairly well, but a little dirty at the lower charges. I got very good results with it using 200 or 230gn plated bullets.

If you use the plated bullets from RMR, get the 200gn, or the regular 230gn bullets (not the "HC" or Hard Core version). The HC version has a very short ogive that some guns will not feed as reliably as the longer ogive bullets. I thought they had discontinued the HC version, but a few days ago they had a sale of some blem 230s that ended up being the HC. I've shot a bunch of the RMR 200 plated and they work very well for me. The 230 may be slightly more accurate, though.

In the 9mm, I've found, with 124grn bullets in a 4" barrel (Kahr CW9) there is a point of diminishing returns... 5.4grn BE-86 worked well, 5.8grn dumped unburnt powder on my hand. YMMV.

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Weird

Rbstuartjr said:

Ruger 15 I had not thought of Sport Pistol , I will have to check that out. Now I might have to buy some of that as well. I’m trying to consolidate and now am thinking of another powder to try./

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Here's a link:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/new-alliant-sport-pistol.816514/

1KPerDay said:

Weird

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I thought so, too... I haven’t had that happen in a while. The velocity told the tale, though... that additional .4grn powder only added up to 10fps additional in the Kahr... in it’s 3.6” barrel, and the same in the shorter CM9.

OP, I don’t think you could go wrong with BE-86 as a starting point with both 9mm and .45... even more so than my favorite Unique, which I don’t have good luck with in 9mm.

I've found it's better to have multiple powders instead of trying to have a one size fits all approach. .45 ACP works best with faster powders and 9mm works best with medium rate powders.

I've used close to 25 powders to load .45 ACP and have settled on Winchester WST as my goto powder. Also Vectan A1 is moving up the charts for me too.

9mm, Ramshot Competition, WSF or Sport Pistol all work quite well.

My WST load for the .45 is 4.4 gr for a 200 gr lead SWC, 4.2 gr for a 230 gr lead ball. It's a very economical powder.

My 9mm Competition load is 2.7 gr under a 147 gr lead rn bullet. I've used 2.9 gr of Sport Pistol and it works fine but it's much snappier than the Competition load.

.45 ACP works best with faster powders and 9mm works best with medium rate powders.

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I agree. I like HP38/AA#2 for .45 (testing Sport Pistol and W244) and WSF for 9mm.
Full power 9mm I get more velocity with BE86, Silhouette is close. For the full power ones Silhouette or CFE-P shot a bit better for me.
WSF works well for me midrange to high but not quite as much velocity as CFE-P or Silhouette on top.

4.7 or 5.0gr of HP38 shoot well for me with the RMR plated 230gr RN.
4.7 is softer 5.0 is maybe a hair more accurate.

was looking at Be 86 to be my 9mm and 45 powder. There is a lot of great threads on it for 9mm but was wondering what people’s opinion of it is on 45 acp

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For a while now, I've been using BE86 for 380, 9x19, 38 Special, 40S&W, and 45ACP. It serves all of those chamberings reasonably well, and meets my goal of having a single 'go-to' powder for my non-magnum needs. It probably isn't optimum for some chamberings, but it works well enough for range use that I don't feel that I've handicapped myself by using it.

For 45ACP, I use 7.5gr for 185gr cast, 6.5gr for 230gr cast, and 6.8gr for 230gr FMJ/SP/HP.

I have been using BE86 for 9MM 124gn and 45ACP 230gn coated bullets with good results for the last two years. Just bought my 3rd 8lb jug.

Thank you for purchasing our BE-86(TM) Rbstuartjr. I'm sure you will be pleased with it, as it is a really versatile, charges well and delivers very good performance. I find it downloads well also, so have fun finding loads that you like.
I have had quite good luck in 45 Auto with a medium/light load of 5.6gr behind a 230gr hardball at 1.265" COAL. It shoots better in my Series 70 Colt than I am capable.
I also use it with a 185gr FMJSWC to duplicate the Federal Gold Medal load, but I don't recall the charge to obtain 775ft/sec (maybe 5.7gr?)
There are so many powders that are capable of shooting well in 45 Auto, and BE-86 is one. I like to refer to it as the "modern Unique" purpose built for pistol. We also have a shotshell version "modern Unique" in 20/28(TM). Those two are absolutely not the same propellants, so make no mistake there. They were each designed to better serve their applications in pistol and shotshell.
Shoot well,
Paul

Love BE86 in 45. All I use for mine, 200grn plated.

I have been using BE-86 in my 9mmm, 357 Mag, and 38sp, it makes it nice to have one powder for multiple loads. There is a whole bunch of data in the Reloading Library of Wisdom thread under the BE-86 sticky.

Rbstuartjr said:

I do have some HP-38 on hand so I will work some 45 loads with that. I will probably pick up some Sport Pistol in the future, due to all the recommendations.

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IMO W231/HP-38 and the 45 ACP are a match made in heaven. I hardly use anything else. I also use it a lot in the 9mm for all but the hottest loads. It makes a great 9mm range powder.

All the powders mentioned already are also good choices. I'm just stuck in my ways added to the fact I have about 12 lbs of W231 lol.

With W231/HP-38 in a 9mm I charge between 4.0-4.4gr with a 124/125gr bullet and with any 230gr bullet in the 45 Auto I charge 5.5gr. I find it extremely accurate in the 45 Auto. Not all that bad economically.