Biggest reason I switched to Win231... It is just super mild, minimally smokey with a 147...Originally Posted by 45dotACP
Biggest reason I switched to Win231... It is just super mild, minimally smokey with a 147...
I am gonna hijack this thread to include powder. Seems like many use Titegroup, but it comes with baggage. During the dark times when the shelves were bare I backed into 8 pounds of Titegroup and ended up loading it all, mostly in 9mm, so that is a buttload of Titegroup. I also got stuck with some pretty lame lead bullets, and this combination pretty much dissuaded me on Titegroup. Now that you can buy what you want I am using Clays, in part because it is versatile, including using it for 12g.
Those that are using Titegroup, is it just that good that you tolerate the quirks? Is there some other overwhelming favorite for 9mm?
I've seen Titegroup cause tumbling. It was in two different guns (an M&P and G34) and EACH gun had an aftermarket Lone Wolf or Storm Lake barrel. The titegroup loads were tumbling out of all 4 barrels. I opened up my ammo can for them, shooting the exact same bullet loaded with WST and it didn't tumble. These were with commercial non-coated lead bullets. One of the guys having tumbling issues was the bullet supplier and we were prepping for an upcoming Area match. Out of my 9Pro they were still flying true at 50 yards. With Titegroup they were tumbling at 10.
I've long since quit the non-coated lead. And when my 6 or 7k Acme coated are gone I'll likely be shooting MG or PD JHPs from now on. Coated bullets are drastically better than non-coated as to smoke, but they still do. Titegroup seems to be the frontrunner on causing smoky loads. Even with coated, it's an issue when shooting into the sun. Hell, even normal FMJ are if they have an exposed base.
Save the Titegroup for jacketed. It's fantastic for those.
I used it all up, actually still shooting it but it is all behind jacketed bullets. Don't plan to try it again unless there is a reason I don't know about yet, but that is why I asked. Since I went away from it because of lead, but have now switched to jacketed, this group seems to have reloaded a metric buttload of 9mm so I asked.
Titegroup is very consistent lot to lot. It's very easy to ignite, can be very accurate and it's very economical. For me it has only two downfalls: Smoke with lead, coated lead, and exposed lead based FMJs and it heats up the gun terribly when shooting revo loads. Not really an issue except during practice as you will have to let the gun cool off because the cylinder is too hot to reload. But from a ballistic standpoint it's good stuff for bulk loading gamer or plinking type loads.
They used to. Bianchi was baller when Hewins ran that match. It's been a few years tho. He still runs the Midwest Tactical Shotgun Festival, which is a /hoot/.
Almost all of the pistol rounds I've reloaded have been with jacketed or plated bullets and titegroup. I know it isn't a perfect powder, but it works really consistently for me. I've tried a few other powders, and while I didn't hate them, I keep coming back to titegroup. (Beaten step-child syndrome? I dunno.) I realize that the coated bullets and titegroup may have been a less than stellar combo. I didn't see any tumbling or loss of accuracy with that combination though, I just saw a freight train's worth of smoke.
At this point I've probably loaded 10k/year on average since 2003 with titegroup and some copper clad projectile. (Not feeling the math at this point, but my 650 has been back to Dillon once for a refurb. It's seen some miles.) I've never seen any chrono or accuracy issues, lot to lot, with this powder. I don't want to spend tinkering time when I could be spending shooting time, and so for me this setup works well. Now I'm just trying to find the best bulk bullet in terms of accuracy vs. price. (That is still jacketed.) I realize I could go to lead or coated bullets and save even more cash, but see above for me being lazy now that I have my combo.
I will post back once I get those other bullets and try them out. I'll bench and use bullseyes for accuracy comparison out of my RMRed G19. While I don't have a ransom rest, I've had pretty good luck just resting the gun on a saddle type rest and working from that.
If all I shot was JHPs in autoloaders, I could happily settle on Titegroup forever. It's cheap, consistent and accurate. Alas, I also shoot revolvers and coated bullets and FMJs with exposed bases. I need something that burns cooler and plays better with coated bullets.
You know what might really work for you?
https://www.xtremebullets.com
They're a plated bullet - I really liked them, but a few of the people there were just unpleasant to deal with when coordinating a few bulks buys for the old club.
I LOVE tittygroup.
If I go back to shooting jacketed (Everglades Ammo is down here and Precision Delta still makes an excellent 124HP) I'd dig into my 16 #'s of titegroup stash...
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