CBI pistol powder in 9 mm and .357 mag

I started load developing for accuracy. I have some RMR 115gr multipurpose HPs.
I was loading for them with the max charge for use in the closed bolt sten gun.
First time I loaded them up 4.6gr barely cycled the gun dropped brass at my feet from a Beretta 92 and I didn't have a chronograph. I tested them in a not mine cz75 with 3.6 inch barrel. I go the same results, the cz dropped the brass at my feet.
Felt good to shoot in the little nothing weight cz. The Beretta it feels like shooting 380s and the slide runs so slowly, I fire and it feels like someone and racking the slide for me. If I remember correctly 4.6gr didn't lock the slide back on the last shot most of the time and accuracy was poor, brass landed in a tighter group than the bullets could hit the paper at 15 yards.
I'm getting about 985fps from the cz and 92 with a longer silencerCo barrel, I think 5.5 inches did right about 1,050fps.
 
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It looks like 4.6gr and 5.4gr shot the best groups with the cz75. Pretty obvious which one I'm going with since all the failures to feed and failures to fully cycle and lock the slide back were with 5gr and less.
I didn't do any hard testing like this with the Beretta 92 but my observations were that the accuracy with less than 5gr stunk.
 
Did a full power 230gr FMJ loaded to 1.25'' long, unique vs cbi 45acp shoot off. Unique appeared to be a little more accurate cbi.
Is unique worth at least 3x the price of cbi, to me it's not.
The way I load developed cbi for 230gr 45acp. I loaded up 5gr, that very weakly cycled the gun only loaded 4 shots because I didn't expect it to run, saw an 200fps spread with just 4 shots.
Jumped to 5.5gr that also slowly cycled the gun as I expected but it locked the slide back this time. Spread with 5 shots was 130fps.
Jumped to 6gr, loaded a full mag, spread was less than 100fps. Shots were between 700 and 800fps.
Worked up to 6.5gr, velocity was about 100fps wide, captured velocity on 10 shots. Velocity was 800 to 880fps with one duplicate velocity right in the middle, eight forty something.
If you load them to sammi length of 1.21'' you probably want to back off up to a half grain. I figured full 45acp velocity with the least SD is probably going to be my most accurate load. I may retest with a bit less powder and shorter COAL.
 
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I did a lot of the original testing on the cast boolits website, the following is one of my posts:

Not a good powder for 9mm. Way too fluffy. Love it in the .45ACP.

.45 ACP Loads for CBI Powder.

Just got back from the local indoor range with some good results for the CBI powder in .45ACP. These results were from using my Glock 21 with stock recoil springs and a Lone Wolf .45ACP barrel.

The gun cycled properly with all of these loads.

Bullet was a Better Bullets 200grn LRN. S&B LPP. I would expect similar results using a coated 200grn bullet.

CBI Powder charge Average Velocity (fps)

5.6 grns 806

5.8 grns 824

6.0 grns 851

6.2 grns 873

6.4 grns 890



In a couple of sets I noticed some rather large deviation from low to high. In the 5.6 grn results I discarded the high and recalculated the average for the above result. It is pretty obvious this powder does not meter very consistently in my Dillon powder system. Perhaps some type of vibrating device attached to the powder dump might help. A .2 grain increase showed to result in an approximately 20fps increase in velocity.

My long standing “go to” load for this bullet in .45 has been 4.0grn of TiteWad. That load showed an average of 856fps.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with this powder for .45. I didn’t think it was a bit smokey and was a pleasure to shoot even at 6.4 grns.

CBI pistol powder - Page 2

I picked up 16 pounds of CBI pistol powder and I'm finding that the supplied data isn't enough to cycle but is just shy of being a compressed load. We obviously stopped using it till we can better understand what this powder actually is. Has anyone used it before? It came from CDVS
castboolits.gunloads.com
 
CBI seems to work well in lower-pressure handgun cartridges. I think it's because the powder is so fluffy that it doesn't fit well in small, high-pressure cartridges (looking at you, 9mm).

I've used it with good success in 38 Spl, 357 Mag, and 44 Mag; all huge case low(er) pressure rounds.
One won't get true Mag velocities - CBI is too fast-burning for that. However, it's a very clean-burning, faster pistol powder.

I haven't tried it (yet) in reduced rifle loads.
 
I use 6.5gr to 6.6gr under a 230gr berry's HP seated to 1.24''. That 1.24'' coal may be too long for some guns. I was running 1.25 and 1 out of 100 wouldn't go into battery.
6.5 to 6.6gr under a 230gr may be +p, rather unpleasant in small plastic pistols, seems fine in steel on steel 1911.
 
Hooda Thunkit said:
CBI seems to work well in lower-pressure handgun cartridges. I think it's because the powder is so fluffy that it doesn't fit well in small, high-pressure cartridges (looking at you, 9mm).

I've used it with good success in 38 Spl, 357 Mag, and 44 Mag; all huge case low(er) pressure rounds.
One won't get true Mag velocities - CBI is too fast-burning for that. However, it's a very clean-burning, faster pistol powder.

I haven't tried it (yet) in reduced rifle loads.
Click to expand...
It's my go to 115gr 9mm, just fill the case.
 
BushMaster-15 said:
Bullseye near max load , Win 231 4.0 gr- 4.4 gr. 700X 3.7gr. -4.2 will most certainly cycle ANY 9mm . PRESSURE is the KEY to proper cycling . NOT volume of powder .
Click to expand...
Obviously. I use 3.3gr of nitro100nf and it makes full pressure with a 124gr bullet because it burns viciously fast.
5gr of cbi, at least the lots I have won't cycle a 9mm with a 115gr bullet.
 
I wrote in response to : ( Anything less than 5gr doesn't cycle most guns. ) . There are several guns as well as calibers less than 5.0 gr. powder will cycle .
Little brother 9mm Kurz , aka .380 .32 Cal .25 Cal. IF You were referring too CBI powder then MY bad ,as I know what the powder is but DON'T use it

I DON'T have a clue with CBI ,as it's low pressure Igniter Military single base nitrocellulose and generally used in 155 howitzer for ignition .
Pressure is doo doo as are most single base propellants. Want pressure then use Dbl base with nitroglycerine ,as it jumps up gas volume quickly .
 
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