I have used Bullseye, Unique, and (W231 & HP-38) which are the same. My preference is HP-38 usually $2.00 cheaper per pound than W231
recommend a powder for 125gr lead RN 9mm?
- Thread starter SpeedyR
- Start date
Win 231.
I've posted this hundreds of times before, but I choose my powders differently than many. Of course accuracy is at the top of the list, but load density is very important to me.
I like a powder that half fills or better the case. This makes for very consistent ignition, and a double charge will literally jump out at you. The Universal is very much like a clean burning, great metering, case filling Unique.
The HP38/W231 does a great job for me too. But once I tried Universal, it quickly became my powder of choice.
I like a powder that half fills or better the case. This makes for very consistent ignition, and a double charge will literally jump out at you. The Universal is very much like a clean burning, great metering, case filling Unique.
The HP38/W231 does a great job for me too. But once I tried Universal, it quickly became my powder of choice.
I use unique in for my 9mm 125 lead loads.. these are coming out of my 995 Carbine though. May want a faster burning powder for that shorter barrel as others have recommended
just so i'm clear on this, some of your recommend "universal" and I'm assuming you mean "Universal Clays" from Hodgden, correct? Iv'e got a bottle of "Clays but no Universal. Might have to pick one up and give it a "shot". 
RRD- the AA #7 that I have is maybe older but i have a load that I've tried (can't remember exactly but seems like it was about 6.0gr of AA #7 (5.7min, 6.5max)) and it won't work the slide on the Glock 22 w/ the conversion barrel in it. I"m going to try them this week with a friends 17 and see if it's my Glock or if it just doesn't have the juice to run in there. I'd prefer not to go higher in powder, but the other thing I noticed is my OAL is a bit longer than some of the loads i"ve read (mine were like 1.10 vs. 1.050 per the Accurace website) so I'll try a few with the shorter OAL.
could be that the AA #7 is just older and doesn't have the "kick" that a new bottle has. I have worked up some 44mag and 30 carbine loads with the #7 so I'll just burn it up in those and use something different for the 9mm. I have about 5lbs of it though and was hoping to have a cheap "plinking" round with the #7 and lead bullet for hitting steel plates.
RRD- the AA #7 that I have is maybe older but i have a load that I've tried (can't remember exactly but seems like it was about 6.0gr of AA #7 (5.7min, 6.5max)) and it won't work the slide on the Glock 22 w/ the conversion barrel in it. I"m going to try them this week with a friends 17 and see if it's my Glock or if it just doesn't have the juice to run in there. I'd prefer not to go higher in powder, but the other thing I noticed is my OAL is a bit longer than some of the loads i"ve read (mine were like 1.10 vs. 1.050 per the Accurace website) so I'll try a few with the shorter OAL.
could be that the AA #7 is just older and doesn't have the "kick" that a new bottle has. I have worked up some 44mag and 30 carbine loads with the #7 so I'll just burn it up in those and use something different for the 9mm. I have about 5lbs of it though and was hoping to have a cheap "plinking" round with the #7 and lead bullet for hitting steel plates.
Yea, it's the Universal Clays. I leave the clays off as to try and prevent confusion. I wish companies wouldn't name their powders with similar names. All it does is cause confusion.
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Yeah, be VERY careful and not use the faster burning CLAYS with UNIVERSAL loading data .... CLAYS is a near BULLSEYE in burn-speed and performance: HOT, HOT, HOT!
UNIVERSAL is really good to work with ... "A cleaner alternative to UNIQUE" but be careful and NOT casually substitute them 1:1
I just wish that Hogdon would publish more "equivalent" loads to the o'le-time favored UNIQUE loadings.
Maybe it's just me, but my observations are that (contrary to popular belief) UNIQUE and UNIVERSAL are not 1:1 interchangable.
While the two powders are very, very close in burn-speed, there are differences that seem to widen at near MAX loadings, where
UNIVERSAL can appear to easily "slip into over-pressure territory" ... Also, UNIVERSAL seems to "under-perform" with
near MIN loadings ...
Update- went to the range today with some shorter OAL 9mm AA #7 load (1.050 instead of 1.10) and they all cycled/functioned fine in the glock 22 w/ the 9mm conversion barrel. 125gr lead RN bullets from Georgia Arms. Had maybe one or two FTE but overall function was fine for what I was looking for (cheap range ammo) and accurate enough.
also enjoyed throwing some lead downrange with my new (to me) S&W M&P15-22. I put my 512 EOTECH on it and it was close enough that i didn't want to adjust it but worked like a champ with the 4 or 5 brands of 22lr ammo I had on hand. Wasn't sure if it would be picky about ammo, but put about 250 rounds downrange and worked well. now to find a speedloader or something, loading those 25 round magazines isn't fun.
also enjoyed throwing some lead downrange with my new (to me) S&W M&P15-22. I put my 512 EOTECH on it and it was close enough that i didn't want to adjust it but worked like a champ with the 4 or 5 brands of 22lr ammo I had on hand. Wasn't sure if it would be picky about ammo, but put about 250 rounds downrange and worked well. now to find a speedloader or something, loading those 25 round magazines isn't fun.
