1SOW said:
I believe, and can appreciate, the reason some shooters are satisfied with dirty loads is not wanting to buy and have to set up for several different powders.
You often see the thread: "What one powder will do it all, 380 to 44mag?" In my opinion, none. Target/light loads need a faster burning higher pressure powder--single base powders burn the cleanest and coolest--no nitro-- and can be very accurate for it's purpose. This same powder won't work well or at all for fast or SD loads. Lead, jacketed, heavy or light bullets may all need a different powder to give top performance.
1SOW, good points. I too was on that band wagon two years ago as I tried to minimize my powders on hand while my salary got reduced. I tried for one slower burning WSF for full power loads and one faster burning W231/HP-38 for target loads in 9mm, 40S&W and 45ACP, but it didn't work (I could almost hear Walkalong saying, "I told you so!").
For me, accuracy is everything. So, I abandoned my quest for powder reduction and decided to reexamine other popular powders in the hopes of perhaps ending up with a few more.
For years, since I shot USPSA and not Bullseye, utmost accuracy was not necessary and I never did do any powder comparison accuracy tests when I started match shooting 16 years ago (my double taps all landed in "A" zone with W231, so why change?). Initially I tried Bullseye, Clays, W231, Universal, WSF, HS-6 (Titegroup had too narrow of load range for this newbie reloader so initially I avoided it). Although I got accurate target loads with Bullseye, since I also got accurate loads with W231 (softer recoil than Bullseye) and was fairly clean burning (no unburnt powder flakes), I stuck with it. As many match shooters transitioned to Titegroup, I considered doing the same, but after talking to several shooters as to the pros/cons and doing some range test, I stayed with W231.
Since last year, I have done powder comparison range tests with Bullseye, Promo, Clays, N320, Titegroup, WST, Green Dot, W231/HP-38, Unique, Universal, Power Pistol and WSF. As I did my work up with each powder, I had occasions when I started to get accurate shot groups but powder burn was incomplete or got my face sprayed with powder particles/residue. For me, this is not acceptable. Try explaining this to my wife - "Honey, it's OK that your face is being pelted with powder flakes because you got your eye protection on and still hitting your target ..." Not!
I found several things from various powder comparison tests and just because the powders are in similar burn rate ranking on the burn rate chart, they do not have the same burn characteristics. Even for faster than W231/HP-38 burn rate powders, some powders did not produce accurate target loads until they reached high range load data. Even the powders that sprayed flakes/particles on my face at start/mid range load data, higher charges reduced or eliminated the problem.
So for those that feel they can tolerate the incomplete burn/powder residue flakes/particles on their face because their target accuracy is good enough, I would say keep working up your loads or try another powder.