Matching factory self defense loads?

[owenbright]

Has anyone tried matching the ballistics of some of the popular factory loads?

For example Speer gold dots, remington golden sabers, federal HST, etc?

I am looking for information on 9mm, 380ACP, .44sp/mag, .38/.357

Do you know which powder they use?

(This would be for range loads ... not for carry)

 

[ScratchnDent]

I have matched Golden Sabers in .45 acp and .357 Mag easily with Unique and AA #7. The factory GS's tend to not be the fastest defense loads out there, so it was not a problem matching their velocities while staying under published max loads. I haven't tried any others as the GS is my favorite bullet.

 

[owenbright]

What type of powder(s) do you think they use?

 

[Jim Watson]

The sad fact is that they use what is cheap and available.
There is a lot of Internet Wisdom on the business of "bulk powders" and "special blends" which is sometimes the case, but the main driver is economics. This month they might use high velocity blend powder A, next month it might be bulk powder B, the month after they might get a deal on cannister powder C because the factory had more on hand than they had orders for by the pound.

There was an article in American Handgunner about a PD getting a new shipment of ammunition with a lot of muzzle flash not seen in the previous lot of the same brand and specification. Pulling bullets found very different powders and since there was no flash supressant spec in the contract, they were pretty well stuck.

A chronograph and library of load data will let you match the ballistics of your favorite load. There was a thread once about trying many different reloads to get the same "feel" as a given factory load, not just numbers. That calls for a lot more sensitivity than I have.

 

[LiveLife]

In general, faster burning powders are better suited for shorter length barrels as powder burn is more complete. Also, faster powder produces more "snappy" recoil than slower burning pistol powder that produces recoil that "pushes".

Since most factory JHP ammunitions are designed to function with maximum performance out of all common barrel lengths, especially for short barreled subcompacts that are often conceal carried for SD purposes, it's been my suspicion that most factory ammunitions are loaded with faster burning powder.

I have yet to find a factory JHP load that recoils linearly (push compared to snap) like slower burning WSF/HS6 (most factory JHP rounds recoil with very firm snap). So if we use the burn rate of WSF/HS6 as the cutoff in the burn rate chart, powders that burn faster would be likely candidates.

I have pulled bullets off of several factory JHP rounds in the past to examine the powders. Most semi-auto and 38 Spl calibers had powders that resembled Bullseye (small round flakes with dull surface) or W231/HP38 (small flattened round disc of same or varying size with shiny surface). One 357 Magnum powder was very fine shiny round balls that looked like tiny black ball bearings.

I just pulled the bullet off of a 40S&W Winchester Ranger T (copper version of Black Talon) and the powder looks like W231 but the sizes of flattened discs of varying size were smaller.

Some of the factory ammunition I have shot in the past had burn mark on the side of the case that was similar to the well known "Titegroup burn" mark.

I believe some of the ammunition manufacturers use their own proprietary powder formulated for their applications, but not all. There are probably some factory FMJ/JHP ammunition manufactured with the same powders available to reloaders.

FWIW, when I recently did range tests for 9mm/40S&W/45ACP Promo test loads, the felt recoil of the mid to near max loads were surprisingly close to many factory FMJ/JHP rounds I have fired. Since the range tests, I now use Promo to duplicate factory loads for practice. FYI, Promo is a large round flake powder that does not meter too well and I have not seen large flake powder in any of the factory FMJ/JHP rounds I pulled the bullets off of.

I hope this helped.

 

[owenbright]

It does look like HP38/W231 are good places to start, but from looking just at the numbers,
if they are using similar powders to these, they must be pushing over the listed max...