Need a powder recommendation for 9mm and 40S&W

I find that I am shooting a lot of power pistol in 9 and 40. It meters well, is accurate and works well with jacketed bullets.

HS-6

I like Hodgdon's HS-6 in my 9MM and .45acp. loads. I think it should do well in the .40 S&W also...

I use IMR-700X for 9mm Luger; 9mm Largo, 38 Special; 40 S&W; 44 Magnum; and 45 ACP

There's also Universal Clays - very similar to Unique, but MUCH cleaner

Your choices are virtually limitless. I prefer WSF in 9mm and for powder puff loads in 40 S&W I use either American Selct or WST. Recently I have been using Alliant's PROMO in 9mm and light 40 S&W loads as well as 12 and 16 ga shotgun. Great powder for $75 /8lb.

How bout #5,have also used Power Pistol,Red Dot.

I've been using Power Pistol for my 40. Seems to work well....

+1 for HS-6. its my go to powder for almost all of my auto loads. there are specific powders i keep on hand for special loads but day to day it hasnt failed me

I use HS-6 exclusively in 9MM and .40

I like HP38, Accurate #2, Accurate #5 and Power Pistol for my auto pistols.

ST

WSF for hot loads, Bullseye for mediums, Promo or Red Dot for economical target loads.

solo1000 or titegroup

I use VV N340 in the 40 S&W. Mine did not like Power Pistol, too much unburnt powder and large charge weights. Even with the higher cost, N340 is still more economical and is pretty clean to boot. BTW Red Dot is way too fast a powder for the 40. Too fast of a pressure spike. Not sure if the 40's case will take it. If you are looking for something for both calibers look at al the powders that are listed for the 40 and see if they are also listed in a load for the 9mm. DO NOT pick a powder on just a recommendation. Look through a powder manufs books and see which ones are compatible. All of the load data is available online, many at the powder makers own website.

Riss, you meant N340 and not N240?

I haven't tried N320, but Walkalong posted very clean burning results with it. Clays is another clean burning powder.

I clean all my pistols after each range session, so how clean it burns is not that critical for me.

Using W231/HP38/WSF as my reference (they are nowhere close to clean as Clays), my recent Promo/Green Dot loads did not seem much dirtier. Powders in general tends to burn cleaner higher in the load data charges.

Red Dot is way too fast a powder for the 40. Too fast of a pressure spike. Not sure if the 40's case will take it.

Click to expand...

I thought so too. But when I range tested Promo using Red Dot data for 9mm and 40S&W, I was pleasantly surprised. At mid range loads, it gave firm recoil for reliable slide cycling and very good accuracy. When I loaded near max jacketed and plated rounds, I did not see signs of overpressure in the 40S&W cases (just normal slight bulging of case) shot out of M&P and Glock 22/27 factory barrels.

I've been burning through some blue dot in both 9mm and especially 155gr JHP 40S&W. Since I stopped using Blue Dot for my 357, these were the next best candidate cartridges to burn through 3 cans of BD. Seems to work well out of my Glock 23. I haven't tried Power pistol, but it probably meters better, but BD makes some stout loads.

The Unique powder you have will do nicely.

Bullseye? Not so much.
It's just too fast burning for best performance in either caliber.

rc

N340 is what I meant. Fat fingers not working this morning. Thanks.

Use what you can find from this list:
Longshot
HS-6
AA#5
Universal Clays

All will work well but I listed them in the order of my preference. My son's favorite 124/125gr 9mm ammo is made with Longshot and it works very well in the 40 S&W too.