Soot on outside of case

Were your loads on the light side?

How many grains did you load them at?

I see a dark "photobucket" banner across the middle of the pic that pretty much obscures what you're trying to show us.

Despite the photobucket banner, I can see the soot on the 3 on the right, and the 2 clean factory rounds in the left.
ive never used that powder, but;
That sure looks to me like gases getting by, because of insufficient pressure to seal the case to the chamber.
But you said they were at max, per Hodgdon.

how was recoil vs the factory rounds?

Your loads are simply too low. CFE is a slower powder and needs to be loaded at mid-range or above to "clean up".

I'm following this thread. I am getting the same soot covering with max load of western powders Zip.

I to use CFEpistol in 9mm. And that soot is exactly what I get with X-Treme 9mm 115gr bullets at 5.5g of powder.

In the following pistols with that load these are the velocities obtained.

XDm 3.8 gets 1,031 fps
CZ Shadow2 gets 1,070 fps
CZ TSO gets 1,096 fps

The soot comes off easily in a vibratory polisher.

I too get soot on my cases like this and I don’t get too crazy with trying to make it go away. I have to believe it’s also one reason I need to clean my gun after a shooting session since I have to believe those escaping gases carry a lot of debris.

In that powder range things can soot. Other than soot on the cases nothing bad is going to happen. I will start in the mid lead range for loads and work up to mid jacketed data for a plated bullet with the same weight and type ( RN to RN, HP to HP). That was the way I was taught to treat a plated bullet before there was much data on the web for them. Going to a faster propellant will make things seal faster but I find more of a sharper felt recoil when I do that. YMMV

I get the same thing using Hodgdon Universal. Gun functions fine and the reloads are accurate so I don't worry too much about sooty cases.

I get that too, but not to worry, when you wash them, it goes away !

CFE Pistol is one of my favorite powders. My loads are pretty hot on most of my cartridges but I never noticed the soot problem. But then, I only load jacketed bullets. I'll pay attention next time for sure.

Ball powders need a mag primer. I would work up to 5.9 grs. If it doesnt clean up, go to a much faster burn rate powder. Like 231. Or Bullseye.

But first neck tension needs to be checked. The bullet may be moving to soon.

I would never be happy with these cases.

packetloss said:

sorry about the photobucket banner, redid the picture.

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Whoa. That’s a lot of soot.

What’s your COAL?
Perhaps seating deeper incrementally will find a spot that has a better grip on the bullet.

What do they size at?
A tighter die may hold the bullet better.

Is the chamber on the big side?
Moving the brass can sap energy, . If it’s too big call the manufacturer.

CFE Pistol did the exact same thing to my 9x19 even at max loads.

It's the only powder I ever recall doing this, this severely.

I gave away most of the pound to a friend.

packetloss said:

I loaded these from 5.1 up to 5.4 which was the max that Hodgen recommends for lead round nose. This happened to all of them, even the 5.4s. They do list 5.3 to 5.9 for GDHP. My understanding is for plated you are supposed to use LRN values.

Click to expand...

That's part of your problem. Berry has the thickest plating around, so it's more like loading a jacketed bullet. They used to explain all that in their FAQ section, but now it's been removed. I don't know why. If you were shooting Ranier or Xtreme then your assumption might hold true.
.

Get I’ve gotten some sooting using both W231 and sport pistol using RMR 124gr match winners and 115gr coated lead.

nothing near that bad nor excessive and it’s not uniform on all cases, some have more the others.

243winxb said:

Ball powders need a mag primer.

Click to expand...

I don’t believe I have ever heard this about pistol loads before.

Some would be the hardness of the brass not wanting to conform to the chamber due to being fired to many times. We can't really anneal 9mm brass because it's so short.
Sometimes you will see discoloring on one side of the brass and the other side is cleaner.
That's the ejector pulling the brass sideways in the chamber and creating more room on one side then the other and the brass can't expand far enough, fast enough, on the loose side to seal the chamber before the gasses get in there. But that is discoloring from heat, not raw soot like you have.
Your problem is simply low pressure in a loose chamber.

rskent said:

I don’t believe I have ever heard this about pistol loads before.

Click to expand...

My general rule when looking for a problem like the OPs. The small amount of powder used may not need a mag? Something to try to raise pressure.
The 9mm +P maximum loads run as 38,500 PSI.

But neck tension, bullet hold needs to be checked first.
Test- measure the case before and after seating a bullet. After seating, the outside diameter should increase by a minimum of .002" With this problem , more is better, up to .004" should be ok? To much and bullet diameter may get smaller. Mostly soft lead bullets.

Seating the bullet deeper may help increase pressure.