Best Bang for the Buck for Available Pistol Powders

[Elkins45]

Graf's is now selling the Nobel Vectan powders. They ship in 500 gram bottles so you're getting 1.1 pounds. I bought six bottles of GM3 for $18.99 each and free hazmat back before Christmas. There's not much data available in English and it's primarily a shotgun powder. My experience is that the burn rate is similar to AA#2 although they say it's like #5. It's a granular powder that flows very well. It looks like tiny aquarium gravel.

 

[ChairborneRanger]

I've had excellent results using Hodgdon Clays Universal powder----that is Universal, not Clays or Clays International. Similar to Unique, it is a bit more cost effective and flows MUCH better.

 

[LiveLife]

Graf's is now selling the Nobel Vectan powders

$17.99/lb and free load data pamphlet - https://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/vendor/vendorId/246

Below are relative equivalent powders according to Vectan load data - https://www.grafs.com/uploads/technical-resource-pdf-file/20.pdf

BA10 - Bullseye
Prima SV - Clays/WST
Ba9 1/2 - Red Dot
Prima V/AS - No. 2/Titegroup
206V - W231/HP-38
D-20 - No. 5
A1 - N330
Ba9 - Unique/Universal
A0 - Herco/Long Shot
Ba7 1/2 - No. 7/SR4756
Ba6 1/2 - No. 9/Enforcer/W296/H110

 

[ColoradoShooter77]

Longshot is awesome in the 40 S&W, most of the charge weights are over 7 grains, so not the most economical. The performance is awesome though, so its worth it.

I've found that CFE-Pistol shoot's just as good as Longshot, but doesn't deliver the velocity that Longshot does.

 

[alexcue]

thomas15 is right on the money. A great argument for using Vihtavuori N310, it costs a little more, but it's fast, clean consistent and easy to meter.

example... lets see I use 2.5gr of it in .380... in a 4lb jug, that's 11,200 loads! That N310 goes a long long way! Love the stuff in lighter bullets.

 

[anothernewb]

Count me in on the VV powders. love them. they're not the cheapest, but they're around when others aren't and at $110 for 4$ - they're the exact same price as the the powders I can get locally.

on a side note, and not intending to get off topic. the 38/9/45 comes up a lot. There are about a bazzilion and a half powders the work darn well across all three for target and even moderately warm loads.
gets me thinking:
- is it a function of proportions of case volume/pressure/capacity/velocity that work out flexible enough in standard powder burn ranges

- or the popularity of the cartridges that has every single manufacturer making powders targeted for use in them.

 

[GLOOB]

Promo/Red Dot is very economical. Relatively low charge weights. And it's still very bulky. Lower charge weights vs Unique, but slightly larger volumetric charge. And I thought Unique was bulky. I would like the powder just fine, even at $110.

 

[hdwhit]

Bullseye, Red Dot, Green Dot, Hi Skor 700-X, Hi Skor 800-X and HP-38 will work in the cartridges listed in the original post.

I only bought my first jug of HP-38 a couple of months ago, so I'm not all that familiar with it, but Bullseye, Red Dot and Green Dot have served me well in all the pistol cartridges I have reloaded.

 

[GaryL]

Bullseye is one of the most economical powders. It's relatively cheap and charge weights are low. Two caveats, in .45acp it would be easy to double charge...

I went away from BE in 45acp for that very reason. Those few grains just look so lonely down at the bottom of the case. I never had an issue with it, and my current setup would make a DC much more obvious (I have a double mirror setup on the press with a laser pointer setting the expected fill point down into the case), so I may reconsider using it again someday. It does work very well in 45acp.