Good powder for 45acp, 40s&w and 9mm

[Andrew Quigley]

Howdy ya'll. Been using Titegroup in my 45 acp and the 9mm but just tried some in 40 s&w. Not real pleased with it in any of them. Like it well enuff in 38 special and 45 colt.
What is a good powder for all 3 of these auto rounds? I like to use just one or two powders so I can buy in bulk. I use 230gr. lead rdn, 180gr lead rdn and 125gr lead rdn. Thanks for your suggestions.

[Iron Mike Golf]

The two I'd try are Power Pistol and HP-38

[Alan]

My go-to powder in .45 and 9mm is Red Dot, w/ 231 a close 2nd

[dragon813gt]

W231/HP-38
But this is my answer to all non magnum pistol loads.


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[bryonbush]

I've been running 231 in my 40&45. In fact, the charge is the same for the two.

[RobS]

Win 231/HP-38 is a good one for all three but not the best for all three. Win WSF would be a good one too since you are running 230 grain boolits in the 45 auto and WSF is a good powder for the 9mm and is a nice powder in the 40 S&W. These two powders have excellent flow characteristics through powder measures especially for the smaller charges.

[Lefty SRH]

Yep, HP-38 for all 3. If you drop 9mm then I'd say Clays for .40 and .45

[Catshooter]

I use Universal Clays for almost all of my pistol (and some rifle) needs. Its burn & pressure charcteristics are very similar to Unique. But it meters much smoother and burns much cleaner.


Cat

[Andrew Quigley]

Thanks for the input!

[subsonic]

There are a lot of choices. I think I'd pick AA7 for what you want to do.

700x and all the others mentioned above would be good choices too.

[9.3X62AL]

WW-231 gets the call here for general-purpose cast booliting in the three calibers you mention. Others do about as well, but for high-velocity loadings I would choose slower powders for all 3 calibers.

[blackbike]

Promo is $80 for 8#at powder valley, use red dot data by weight( not volume). good hand gun target small game powder.
Works for me.
BB

[MBTcustom]

The old standbys are unique and bullseye. I have had good luck with both of those in 38 and 45.
More recently (past 4 years) I have been using Hodgdon Clays like its going out of style. You just get sooooo many shots out of a pound, and its cleaner than unique.
I very recently tried 700X in my 45 and I love it! Solid push. I can really feel the gun in my hand. Its hard to describe, but it just has a better feel than the super fast powders I am used to. The one problem with 700X is that it smokes like a freight train. Definitely an outdoors powder.

[Lloyd Smale]

I use a ton of pr200 (aa2) in the semi autos. Its clean burning and accurate and i bought a slug of it when it was cheap.

[MtGun44]

Clays is cheap and clean, but watch out for pressure spiking - you cannot drive a 230 boolit
in .45 ACP to factory velocity within the pressure limits. It is good for middle or lower
loads, and I really like it for that in .38 Spl., but it has real limitations.

I don't load for .40, so can't help there - but for .38 and .45 ACP, Unique and Titegroup
work well.

Bill

[W.R.Buchanan]

I'd like to add W231/HP-38 to the list,,,, Oh,,,, someone already said that, 15 times.

I have always loaded my .40 S&W's with W231, I just changed my .45 ACP's to W231 also.

Works good, burns clean, meters very well.

I have also used Bullseye for my .45's but it makes the gun dirty fast. That's why I changed.

I have had the same can of Bullseye since 1978 and it is the old style stuff that doesn't burn as clean as the new Bullseye powder does. However when it is gone I will probably buy another can of it as Bullseye is just a staple in reloading.

One pound of any of these powders will yeild about 1400 rounds of loaded .45's with @ 5.0 gr each. That's why I still have a bunch of Bullseye left.

Lots of bang for your buck here.

Randy

[Lonegun1894]

My two most used pistol caliber powders are Unique and 2400, but I burn a lot of Unique in the calibers you mentioned, and it works great. It may not be the cleanest, but tends to be the most accurate for me in semi-auto pistols, and I have to clean en when I'm done anyway so dont mind it being a little dirty. Besides, it's not near as bad a cleanup as when I ran Black Powder in my 1911 just to see if it would work.

[garym1a2]

WST, does everything Bullseye does only cleaner.

[GT27]

5 grains of TG with a 200 grain SWC-45 ACP,if it wont shoot this you got gun problems!My best groups from 25acp,32acp,9 mak, 38 special,9mm,and 45acp have come from this powder,most versatile, and economical powder next to Unique IMHO,a little goes a long way...GT27

[Andrew Quigley]

Oh I like Titegroup but in my 38 special and 45 long colt. Was surprised to see the loading data on Hodgon website for hp38 and w231 as being the same for the bullets I load. Same start and and high load, same velocity and pressure.
I've used Unique for a couple of years but have gotten away from it because my 38's and 45 lc shot better groups with titegroup.
Thanks again for the info. Thing I'll try hp38 and see how it goes.