9mm Recipes Using Pistol Power

[RugerSteve]

I have checked Alliants website and have checked some forums, but was wondering if anyone has some personal experience and recipes with Pistol Power.
I will be using this for target shooting at the range, and want something with good accuracy.
The guns I will be using is a Glock 26, Bersa Thunder Ultra Compact, and a Ruger SR9c.
The bullets that I will be using are 115gr Plated RN, 124gr Plated FP, Precission 115gr Coated FP, and Blue Bullet 147gr Coated FP.
Don't want super hot loads, just some excellent low to mid range, really accurate loads.

 

[Rule3]

Do you mean Power Pistol? If so yes, PP is excellent in the 9mm.

Lots of published loads out there.

That is a a lot of guns, bullet types and weights to have data for.
Us the start loads and work up

I use it mainly in 124 grain Jacketed RN bullets.

 

[CZ9shooter]

Power Pistol has worked excellent for me with plated and jacketed bullets. Particularly at the higher end load data. It pushes bullets just fine on the low end, but accuracy seems go up with increases in charge weight. Loads tend to feel and sound louder than they really are with this powder. Just use an OAL that works in your guns and work up. Unless you are dealing with an ubsurdly short OAL, PowerPistol works up nicley and safely. It works for cast bullets too, but I found that faster powders worked better for me.

 

[RugerSteve]

Yes, I meant Power Pistol. I have Lyman's Manual (hardly anything in it), and Lee's, and I don't see a whole lot there on this powder.

 

[Hondo 60]

Weird!
They advertize PP as being "Designed for High Performance Semi-Autos", but only have very limited 9mm data.

Their 2014 load data only lists Speer GDHPs in 115 & 147.

Good Luck finding data.

 

[Toprudder]

Power Pistol is one of my preferred powders in 9mm. I load mainly Xtreme 115 RN bullets, 1.150" COL, using 5.3 to 5.5gn of Power Pistol. At 5.5gn I get about 1090 fps from a 4.5" barrel. Low recoil and decent accuracy. But, as always, start low and work up, YMMV.

 

[Rule3]

Yes, I meant Power Pistol. I have Lyman's Manual (hardly anything in it), and Lee's, and I don't see a whole lot there on this powder.

Hornady manual has data. But of course it is what they tested and their bullets.

Alliant online has 115 124 and 147 grain bullets, Not exactly what you have but gets you in the ball park. Not every brand or kind of bullet is going to be listed, you have to adapt you loads which is all part of the "magic"

 

[tcj]

It's my preferred powder for 9's - both FMJ & coated lead.

Meters very well on my press which is another big +

 

[Jim Watson]

I would not pick Power Pistol for low to medium target loads.
It is great for full power, it gives high velocity with a loud report and bright flash to let you know it is doing the job. A manly gunpowder.

 

[1KPerDay]

I mostly load range/plinking ammo using low-to-mid data so PP hasn't been the preferred powder for me. Very flashy/loud. But decent accuracy from my minimal experimentation.

 

[enine]

I tried it with berrys plated but didn't get accurate results, my guess is it was going too fast.

 

[Average Joe]

Its my go to powder for my 9mm.

 

[Steve C]

Power Pistol is the canister grade powder that was developed for the US government's 9mm ammo that was known as Bullseye2 in it original bulk production.

I find it to be a little flashy but it delivers good velocities using bulk 115gr Remington JHP's. The only annoying thing I found is the small flakes stick to the insides of the powder measure both plastic and metal and have to be brushed out when changing powder.

 

[Toprudder]

I read somewhere that Power Pistol was originally called BE-84 for a short time (BE was supposed to stand for Bullseye). BE-86 is supposed to be similar to Power Pistol with a flash suppressant added.

 

[Jim Watson]

Power Pistol's factory designation is BE84. The advertising department renamed it for retail sale. They just didn't consult the ad writers when they came out with BE86. Probably been making it OEM for years.

Original Bullseye No 1 was the screenings ("floor sweepings") from manufacture of Infallable shotgun powder. When that was not enough to meet the growing demand, powder of the same burn rate was specifically manufactured and was known at the time (1904) as Bullseye No 2. Still in production.

 

[Handloader109]

My Lyman's 49 Ed has loads for PP in 9 of 9 9mm listings. Lyman's cast also has listings for all. I've just got in 4# due to this. But haven't tried yet.....

 

[Toprudder]

They just didn't consult the ad writers when they came out with BE86. Probably been making it OEM for years.

30 years, as a matter of fact.

 

[enine]

What do you suggest for inexpensiv bullets, berrysbdidn't work with pp when I tried.

 

[1KPerDay]

Xtreme 124s worked great for me... but IME Xtreme and Berry's are pretty much interchangeable. I use them that way. I buy whichever's cheaper.

My experience with PP and Xtreme 124s:

124 xtreme plated rn. 1.145-1.15 COAL. 5.6 power pistol. Flashy and noisy. Very accurate. No missed plates in 50+ rounds. Maybe a bit cleaner than lower charges of Autocomp, but still somewhat scorched cases and some debris.

from: http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=768184&page=2

 

[vaalpens]

It seems a lot of handloaders like PP in 9mm, but there is a question about accuracy. Not everybody has the same accuracy expectancy, but it would be nice to see some of the accuracy statements clarified using facts like: I see a flyer every so many rounds. This is the best grouping I see at x amount of yards. Grouping is great (x") at x amount of yards, but at x amount of yards it goes to x".

Here are a few quotes:

Low recoil and decent accuracy.

But decent accuracy from my minimal experimentation.

I tried it with berrys plated but didn't get accurate results, my guess is it was going too fast.

 

[JamieC]

I've had good luck with both Bayou Bullets 124gr LRN and Precision Delta 124gr JHP. Using 5.1gr of Power Pistol, the BB get loaded to 1.130", the PDs, 1.100". Those are my range loads.

 

[enine]

It seems a lot of handloaders like PP in 9mm, but there is a question about accuracy. Not everybody has the same accuracy expectancy, but it would be nice to see some of the accuracy statements clarified using facts like: I see a flyer every so many rounds. This is the best grouping I see at x amount of yards. Grouping is great (x") at x amount of yards, but at x amount of yards it goes to x".

Lets see,

I tested 5.5-6.2 grains of PP behind a Berrys 124grain plated round nose. Groupings were measured in feet rather than inches

 

[vaalpens]

Lets see,

I tested 5.5-6.2 grains of PP behind a Berrys 124grain plated round nose. Groupings were measured in feet rather than inches

Thanks for clarifying your statement. I would say you probably understated the bad grouping. If I see a grouping where all shots are spread out and the grouping is 4" to 5" at 15 yards, then I think it is bad. I expect 1.5" grouping at 15 yards, with a good groupings to be below 1.5".

 

[CZ9shooter]

Just the other week I was out testing the abilities of my CZ. This is from a very heavy dose (dont ask how much) of PowerPistol behind 124gr XTPs. Ten rounds. 50ft. Rested on sand bags. I am happy.



Like I mentioned earlier, PowerPistol's accuracy seems to increase with charge numbers, but you need a bullet that can take it. This is the reason I dont much like cast bullets with this powder.

 

[vaalpens]

I have not really started load development with PP and 9mm yet, but I did some exploratory loads that I tested only at 10 yards. To me it was encouraging with the best group a .82" at 10yards. For this load I used 5.2gr of PP with RMR's 124gr Hardcore Match Plated Flat Nose bullets. Testing was done with my SP2022 using a rest.

Based on my test I would probably need to up the pressure by upping the charge or lowering my COL since my POI is high even though the grouping is not bad.