I've been playing with Sport Pistol a little bit in .40 and have been impressed, so it dawned on me that I should try it in place of N320 in my favorite 9MM plinker load. It is clean, soft, drops brass right at my feet and runs 1050ish from my 5" Colt 1911.
That load is 3.9 Grs of N320 under an X-Treme 124 Gr HP loaded to 1.060 OAL (You can substitute the Powerbond 124 Gr HP) using a WSP or Fed 100 primer. CCI 500s also did well. After Cabelas put the S&B primers on sale for $20 per 1K I tried them too, but they are a bit milder than the other primers, the brass did not come out as clean, and occasionally a case would get caught by the slide when ejecting. This did not happen with the other primers. You need 4.0 Grs of N320 with the S&B primers.
So I grabbed 20 mixed 9MM cases, primed them with S&B small pistol primers, and loaded 10 with 3.9 Grs of N320 and 10 with 3.9 Grs of Sport Pistol. The N320 is a bit bulkier and threw 3.9 Grs at 18.2 on my 10X measure vs 14.9 for 3.9 Grs of Sport Pistol.
Sport Pistol settled down and started throwing consistent charges faster than N320. It also metered a hair better. Both meter very well. (See Sport Pistol and .40 thread)
Both are stick powders, and the diameters are very similar, but the "sticks" of Sport Pistol are much shorter, more like small discs, and could easily be mistaken for flake if one did not check closely. At least that is what it appears to be.
I did not shoot great with either one, but managed the fuzzy red dot (Astigmatism) better on the second group (Sport Pistol) and had six in one ragged hole, with one pulled and one out when the bad blew up. The two group group, with one yanked out, might be from the fuzzy dot until I got used to it. More blinking to lesson the blurr.
Either way, I would need to shoot them at 25 yards several times apiece to see a difference I could claim. Again the Sport Pistol looked real good though. I will definitely load some of these in bulk and give them a good trial.
3.9 Grs N320, S&B primer, X-Treme 124 Gr HP @ 1.060 OAL, 8 shots
3.9 Grs Sport Pistol, S&B primer, X-Treme 124 Gr HP @ 1.060 OAL, 8 shots (Bag came apart halfway through this group.)
The Sport Pistol ran a little faster and left the brass cleaner (More like N320 does with a hotter primer) SP left the brass very clean though. Good stuff. I wonder if the milder S&B primer set the Sport Pistol off better than N320 because SP has more surface area for the weight than N320? Maybe it is simply .1 gr hotter than N320 in this one application. ? Either way, it ran a bit faster and left the brass cleaner. The recoil impulse for both was very similar.
Two days of shooting, six loads at eight shots each for 48 rounds through the backer.
That load is 3.9 Grs of N320 under an X-Treme 124 Gr HP loaded to 1.060 OAL (You can substitute the Powerbond 124 Gr HP) using a WSP or Fed 100 primer. CCI 500s also did well. After Cabelas put the S&B primers on sale for $20 per 1K I tried them too, but they are a bit milder than the other primers, the brass did not come out as clean, and occasionally a case would get caught by the slide when ejecting. This did not happen with the other primers. You need 4.0 Grs of N320 with the S&B primers.
So I grabbed 20 mixed 9MM cases, primed them with S&B small pistol primers, and loaded 10 with 3.9 Grs of N320 and 10 with 3.9 Grs of Sport Pistol. The N320 is a bit bulkier and threw 3.9 Grs at 18.2 on my 10X measure vs 14.9 for 3.9 Grs of Sport Pistol.
Sport Pistol settled down and started throwing consistent charges faster than N320. It also metered a hair better. Both meter very well. (See Sport Pistol and .40 thread)
Both are stick powders, and the diameters are very similar, but the "sticks" of Sport Pistol are much shorter, more like small discs, and could easily be mistaken for flake if one did not check closely. At least that is what it appears to be.
I did not shoot great with either one, but managed the fuzzy red dot (Astigmatism) better on the second group (Sport Pistol) and had six in one ragged hole, with one pulled and one out when the bad blew up. The two group group, with one yanked out, might be from the fuzzy dot until I got used to it. More blinking to lesson the blurr.
Either way, I would need to shoot them at 25 yards several times apiece to see a difference I could claim. Again the Sport Pistol looked real good though. I will definitely load some of these in bulk and give them a good trial.
3.9 Grs N320, S&B primer, X-Treme 124 Gr HP @ 1.060 OAL, 8 shots
3.9 Grs Sport Pistol, S&B primer, X-Treme 124 Gr HP @ 1.060 OAL, 8 shots (Bag came apart halfway through this group.)
The Sport Pistol ran a little faster and left the brass cleaner (More like N320 does with a hotter primer) SP left the brass very clean though. Good stuff. I wonder if the milder S&B primer set the Sport Pistol off better than N320 because SP has more surface area for the weight than N320? Maybe it is simply .1 gr hotter than N320 in this one application. ? Either way, it ran a bit faster and left the brass cleaner. The recoil impulse for both was very similar.
Two days of shooting, six loads at eight shots each for 48 rounds through the backer.
Both shoot really well might as well add to the madness since I picked up a pound of sport pistol to try.
