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2.8 grains of Titegroup is what I use with Berry's 100 grain FBRN plated bullets to make a soft-recoiling load for my wife to shoot in her Bersa Thunders. She has shot hundreds of those reloads with no issue. 2.9 grains produces a felt recoil similar to Federal American Eagle in the Bersas. 3.0...

I unwisely bought a nano tumbler and it is shockingly cheesy. Rough cut threads. Rough edges on the plastic. Junky springs. I use it for dedicated polishing of finished rounds. I have no expectation of ever getting my money's worth before it dies a richly deserved death. It already sounds like...

One good reason to polish after loading.

Joneb, thanks for the additional advice. Have powders on the way and will post the loads I get for the next guy who asks my question, and any cycling issues I experience with an AK.

3GunEric, thanks for that link. My books are getting a bit long in the tooth at 3-5 years old. Good to know you've been having success with it for so long.

Joneb, ah yes, thanks, I see that now in the books for .223 and 7.62X39, but not for .308. Do you know if it works for that? Re the bullet weight, I want to go with the more-or-less standards: 123 for 7.62X39, 55 for .223, 150 for .308. Basically I find I do well for my simple paper-killing...

Kaldor, ain't the sheer genius of the smart folks here amazing? Makes me want to ask them "What do women want?" Thanks again to all who responded. I am off to seek Holy Grail powder at the LGS's.

Toprudder, you are too kind. Let me tell you a story about stupid. When I decided to start reloading, I went to CowBellahs to see what they had. Most prominent pistol powder and most deeply stocked was Titegroup. Must be the one! Hodgdon had loads for all seven pistol calibres I have, so I never...

Dr, Zubrato, you did answer the question, and most gently, I thought. But simple minds seek simple solutions. So though you didn't quite say it, I will remember "Diversity is pow(d)er(s)." And when you said "don't settle on a powder that works in all three calibers but isn't very good in any of...

Joneb, excellent advice, thanks. I really want to avoid having two rifle powders, like I would avoid having two wives. Or even three, heaven forfend. It is bad enough thinking about remetering and retesting to change to only one new powder, I think doing that for two or more would take all the...

Chris in Va, interesting about the Varget, thanks. More searching to do and maybe designing a sixth grade science fair project to test it. But as you say, the hardest part may be finding it. Typically, I didn't realize how stupid my question was until I read all the learned responses here. I did...

Carbine85, thanks for the recommendation, good to know, especially since both powders are available now. May have to kiss CFE223 goodbye.

Robert101, thanks, I wondered why Varget didn't turn up in my searches. Will look again. Yet another mythical Hodgdon powder.

SlamFire1, that is good to know about those powders. I'll dig a little deeper online, but my books don't list them for the 7.62X39. I spit coffee on the screen while reading your post as I flashed on how my crappy shooting would become "outstanding" with if I reloaded with those powders, though.

Jmorris, thanks for that burn rate link. Hodgdon took their link down and I was just about to go looking for another one. Very informative. CFE223 is not on the list, so I gotta go find a newer one. From what I have read online, what you said works because the ratios of case mouth area to case...

Kansas Sasquatch, thanks again, I excluded 4198 because my books don't show it for .308. Benchmark I will research. I will be shooting the reloads in a Century C39, which will probably be in hand about the time I locate powder, by which time at my age I may have forgotten all about the project...

Alsaqr, thanks for replying, and especially for your experience with IMR3031. It doesn't show up in IMR's load data for 7.62X39, or in any of the four manuals I have. But Natchez does have it in stock so I will try me some. I want to use a 123 grain spitzer in the 7.62X39. If you have a recipe...

KansasSasquatch, thanks for sharing your insight into my question. I didn't look closely at the published performance numbers, but I kinda figured there was no best solution for all three calibres. I'll look for the powders you recommend, but so far all I have found in stock is what you don't...

I'm preparing to reload 7.62X39 and found that my .223/.308 common powder, CFE223, is a no-go for 7.62X39. Comparing the Lee, Speer, Hornady and Lyman manuals I come up with five candidates: Accurate 2230, Hodgdon 322, Hodgdon 335, Hodgdon BL-C(2) and IMR 4895. If anyone here has experience with...

Hadn't reloaded for a while. Cranked up the 40 S&W setup and charged the first case. Thought I'd been shot. The spring broke and thumped me hard in the chest. About two years old and not much more than 1K rounds made with it. Like other Lee parts that break, I'm ordering multiple spares. Still...