Have you shot any 9mm reloads using WST? What was your experience, and if so, do you still use WST and 9mm. I read the post and noticed that you increased your OAL. Did you try reducing the charge so as not to have to increase the OAL or compress the charge? If so what was the charge weight?
While some members posted that my testing with WST was perhaps too conservative, but my concerns were possible powder compression and the reality of bullet setback most reloaders experience. I believe after some discussion with moderator 9mmepiphany (Who BTW holds CA state IDPA championship title), we entertained the prospect of going up to 4.3 gr with 1.150" OAL to be practical max charge.
But without published load data and the fact that barrels' groove diameter varies with increasing trend for shorter leade length, I decided to fault on "High Road" notion for bulk of reloaders with my testing of smaller groove diameter (.355"-.356") barrels with larger .356" sized bullets of using 4.0 gr of WST that would provide some sense of pressure buffer from using shorter OAL/bullet setback.
But when the WST and 9mm issue resurfaced on Brian Enos forum after having read CocoBolo's post of his "practical" max charge of 4.6 gr with Zero 125 gr FMJ loaded to 1.145" (
BTW, Zero 115 gr FMJ I have are sized larger at .356"), I wanted to illustrate how this was arrived by using case fill calculation. And coincidentally, using RMR 124 gr FMJ at 1.135", the typical OAL that I load 124 gr FMJ/RN to, 4.6 gr of WST was the "realistic" max charge that would not compress the powder charge.
BUT BUT BUT ... there's a difference between "realistic" vs "practical" max charge as we all know that finished rounds can and often do experience bullet setback when fed/chambered from the magazine.
So I would consider 4.6 gr of WST for RMR 124 gr FMJ loaded to 1.135" ONLY IF your finished rounds absolutely do not experience any bullet setback. If you do experience bullet setback, I would recommend:
- Addressing the bullet setback issue to eliminate it
- Using reduced powder charge to compensate (Perhaps 4.3 gr?)
- Trying longer 1.150" OAL to see if post bullet setback OAL is longer than 1.135"
Personally, since I use mixed range brass with unknown reload history and condition of brass (Not like brand new brass Hornady used for their testing), I would consider 4.6 gr to be the "practical" max charge if my brass and bullet combo did not produce bullet setback at 1.135". If you want a degree of "comfort", you could load longer at 1.145" or 1.150" and see what the accuracy is like.
And for my USPSA match loads, since I did not need bullseye match level of accuracy, I continued my 9mm testing with Clays, Bullseye, Titegroup, W231/HP-38, Universal, WSF, HS-6 using available published load data and decided on W231/HP-38 and WSF.
In recent years, I tested Red Dot/Promo, IMR Red, IMR Target, Vectan Ba9.5, N320, Sport Pistol, Green Dot, Unique, Power Pistol, BE-86, AutoComp, CFE Pistol, Herco, etc. and found Target, Sport Pistol and BE-86 to be accuracy contenders with reblended Promo to produce very acceptable level of accuracy for general purpose range blasting ammo (particularly for carbine loads) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ectan-ba-9-5-ba-9.817796/page-2#post-10511758
But for me, WST remains one of more accurate powders for 9mm and now with Hornady #4 "published" 9mm load data for WST, we have a viable powder solution for utmost accuracy loads instead of wringing of hands and shuffling of feet.
