cordercorral
Member
Looking for comments on using Power Pistol. I load 9,40,45. I use a Dillon 650. Thanks
CORDERCORRAL "GO VOLS"
CORDERCORRAL "GO VOLS"
Power Pistol is a very good choice for the 9mm and 40 S&W but IMO is a bit too slow for the 45 ACP which is a low pressure cartridge. It can be used but the results won't be as good as with the 9mm and 40 S&W.
With lead bullets it's not a great choice
I've used it in 380, 9, 40 and 45.
In all but the 45, it works very well at the lower charges for reduced recoil. It is clean burning and meters well. It has been my powder of choice for 380, 9 and 40.
My experience in 45 is that it does not burn clean at all at the lower charges. I have not tried going up to the max charge listed in the data, as I was interested in low recoil target loads. I've heard several people say it works well in 45 at the max loads.
Based on my experience and from what I have heard/read, I believe it is one of the powders that does not perform well below certain pressures. 45 being a low pressure round, it does not work well at reduced loads.
It has a bright muzzle flash, but I've never noticed it much as I shoot mainly outdoors.
Power Pistol is the canister grade of the powder developed for the US military 9mm when it was adopted so it works very well in the 9mm.
I agree with ArchAngelCD. I've tried it in the .45 acp and the .38 spl and found carbon deposits on the outside of the cases in both though the loads where at what the data recommended at the time. I've also found it to be a pretty "flashy" powder.
I keep power pistol on hand for the 9mm and if I had a .40 it should work well in it being the cartridges have similar operating pressure levels. In the .38 spl and .45 acp using Unique with a grain less of powder I can get better velocities than using Power Pistol so that's my go to powder for max velocities in those calibers.
I have used Power Pistol with plated bullets in .45 and found it to burn very cleanly.
My experience too. WSF is another one. If you want max loads it is a great powder but drop the charge and dirty as all get out. Seen it happen with other powders too and depending on the cartridge type, length, pressure.Power Pistol is a slower/lower pressure powder compared to the typical pistol powders like Red Dot, Unique, HP38. It like to burn near the higher end of the recommended loads for a clean burn,
True. The first load data I had for 45acp was from the Lyman manual, which listed a max charge 1gn lower than Alliant, Speer and Hornady. And I started lower than that. I have not gone back yet to try the higher charges.That's my experience too. I think a lot of it depends on the load data and I have found some real varying data when it comes to power pistol.
Alliant now lists the max charge for 200gn JHP as 8.3gn.
It has been a while since I tried my test loads, but I could swear the Alliant data I was working with was 1gn less than that, which matches the existing Lyman data. As I was interested in reduced recoil loads at the time, I did not bother going higher than the max data that I had (at that time).
I have since acquired the Speer and Hornady manuals, both of those list ~8.3gn as max. I will have to revist Power Pistol in 45acp.
I think part of my problems were the bullet profiles that I was using. I only had Xtreme bullets, which the RN profile can't be seated shorter than about 1.235. I have since acquired some RMR 230gn TP bullets that can be (and must be) seated shorter than 1.200. I believe the deeper seating will help improve pressure levels to a range where the Power Pistol will burn cleaner.
Anyway, this is the data that I collected. I was just getting started with a chrono at the time:
Xtreme, 200 RN, 1.255 OAL, Power Pistol, 7.0gn, Win WSP, 703fps