Favorite pistol powder

[milkmanjoe]

What are your favorite pistol powders and why are they your favorites? Can you find them easily at this time?

[DrHenley]

HP-38 - very economical - Can't find it
Unique - very versitile - Can't find it
Trail Boss - fills up the case and is very consistent as a result - Can find it.

I started off using Trail Boss with just cast because that's what it was designed for, but turns out it works fine with jacketed too.

[Riverpigusmc]

W231. has better luck getting his testicles back than I do of finding this powder. What I WANT is VV N310 or N320 for self defense rounds

[Caleb]

Originally Posted by Riverpigusmc

W231. has better luck getting his testicles back than I do of finding this powder. What I WANT is VV N310 or N320 for self defense rounds

I guess the answer is whatever is on the shelf.

[milkmanjoe]

I see three of us are in the same boat.....so far......I had a possible on some W231...hasn't shown up yet, and doesn't look good. The source is reliable, they are getting screwed around too. Word is hoarders are buying and storing. I have some, hardly hoarder volume. Gun shows might be the high priced way to go, unless friends in outer states ship it in and we pay the high price of shipping powder as a Hazmat. This really sucks, I could always get powder from two sources, both only have black powder now. And not much of that for muzzleloaders.

[sdmc530]

231 is my 45 load fav...I have about 11lbs on hand but still hard to find. Autocomp is a newer powder, works well for 45 and the 10MM....easy to find right now but $30 is getting to spendy IMO.....

[milkmanjoe]

Originally Posted by sdmc530

231 is my 45 load fav...I have about 11lbs on hand but still hard to find. Autocomp is a newer powder, works well for 45 and the 10MM....easy to find right now but $30 is getting to spendy IMO.....

$30 is about right for 231, over here. Just got an email that Midway has IMR4227 on hand. I think that is mostly for magnum or rifle loads but can be used for pistol if ya got the knowhow.

[Rick McC.]

1. VV N320; my top pick for loading 9mm. It shoots very clean, pretty hard to find.

2. 700-X; my top pick for loading .45acp. Shoots pretty dirty (shotgun powder), is very accurate and cheap. Right now it's pretty hard to find.

3. Bullseye. My pick for loading .38spl because it's cheap, accurate, and I like having it around. It's also hard to find right now.

Both Bullseye and 700-X are "old school" powders. I like them because you can load pretty much any handgun load with either one.

[mrerick]

It's been very hard to find any pistol powder here in NC, but it's finally starting to show up at some dealers at normal prices.

I finally started seeing TiteGroup at shows (overpriced) also.

Just bought some Hodgdon CFE Pistol. This may be the new HP-38 / Win 238 powder. Adds a component to reduce copper fouling. 8 pounds at $170.

Also found a new Alliant powder BE-86 which is pretty good. Probably a new formulaton of BullsEye. Burns well, and takes a bit more than the more compact powders (6.5 gn in a .45acp FMJ 230gn).

Marc