Clean burning pistol powder

[calvon]

I shoot cast in 9mm Luger, .357 Sig, and .40 S&W. I'm looking for a powder that will burn efficiently in all three calibers leaving but little residue. I'm not needing max velocity in any of them but would like respectable velocities.

I'm presently using AA #7 and like everything about it except the gunk it leaves in the barrel. Any recommendations?

[Castaway]

I'm curious, why does that bother you?  I'd much rather go with a powder that shoves the bullet out of the barrel in an accurate manner.  What's dirty? After any shooting, you're going to have powder residue/carbon somewhere. I've fired hundreds of rounds between cleanings with Bulls Eye and I've yet had a failure to feed, chamber, extract or eject.  Also, I've not noticed a difference in accuracy that I could tell.  It takes about the same amount of time to clean one that's a little dirty as one that's a whole lot dirty.

[Dusty Miller]

To answer your question, try some H110.

[Castaway]

Dusty, unless I'm looking at the Hodgdon site cross-eyed, I don't see H110 data for 9x19, 40 S&W or 357 Sig.

[calvon]

In response primarily to Castaway, I'm looking for a powder that will give decent velocity and accuracy that won't gunk up the barrel to the point that malfunctions occur. Using AA #7 I can shoot sixty, maybe eighty rounds through my Sig P229 before it begins to fail to go fully into battery. Then I have to stop and clean the crud out of the chamber area. I don't like that.

When I first began reloading for pistols some five-six years ago I had a supply of Winchester AA 473 on hand which I had been using in my shotgun. There was no pistol data for it that I could find. By careful experimentation I got loads that worked very well in all three calibers that I load for, 9mm Luger, .357 Sig, and .40 S&W. I use a chronograph and have never been able to equal the uniformity I got with AA 473. Standard Deviations less than 10 and extreme spread over 20 shot groups of 30. That and very, very, clean burning with no malfunctions even after a couple of hundred rounds. Unfortunately for me, Winchester quit making AA 473.

I'm looking for something similar.

[Lloyd Smale]

if any powder is gunking up your gun in 60 rounds your doing something wrong. Either your using it at a pressure level to low for its design or you need to try a new primer. I can take a semi auto pistol with a notoriously dirty powder like unique or herco and even using cast bullets shoot a few hundred before it gets dirty enough to effect it. Another thing is how are you lubing your gun. I hear alot about the evils of overlubing a gun because it attracts dirt and grime but ive found over the years that shooting cast which is cause more grime in a gun then any powder that a guy cant over oil a gun. Im one that allways believed it using a powder that shoots well and if it creates dirt wipe it or spray it off. There are a few powders that are cleaner then the average if a guy really needs it. Universal clays, AA2, power pistol. wst, 231, hp38, hs6, aa9 and lil gun are some of them.

[shaner]

maybe its not the powder here its the cast lead bullets your using? are they a hard  cast lead? or a softer type of lead? hard lube or hand soft lube ? in all my auto i haveto watch usin soft lead bullets ,  i found in all my auto pistols , i use berry  bullets or a copper coated  bullet, and dont have as much trouble , even using the same powders , if you read most autos it tells you notto use cast in them? read on a glock , they say not at all, course i know alot of guys that have run 1000's of cast  thru their glocks and say hey  it works they just get dirty quiker?? just my thought?

[calvon]

I'm shooting water dropped cast made from straight wheel weights in LBT molds. I shoot a Ruger P89 in 9mm Luger and a P229 Sig for which I have a .40 S&W barrel and a .357 Sig barrel. The .40 barrel is a Sig and the .357 Sig barrel is a Bar-Sto.

[OLDHandgunner]

I've always used Bullseye, Unique & Herco in my 9mm. I shoot both homemade cast bullets & jacketed bullets with no more than normal fouling. These powders have always given me excellent accuracy in both my P-85 Ruger & S&W 639.

[Lloyd Smale]

calvon its no doubt the lube not the powder thats causing your problems. Im no fan at all of hard lubes but they have a place in semi autos like yours. You dont need much of a lube for the velocities your running with those hard bullets. Switch to someting like hard magma blue lube for your semi autos and it will clean things up quite a bit. Im to bullheaded to do it myself as i know how crappy they work. My buddy has a desert eagle 50ae, a gun they say cant be used with cast because the gas port gets all gummed up quickly. he uses a hard alloy and hard lube and can shoot over 500 bullets through it before it gets so filthy that it starts to fail.

[Questor]

Calvon:

Try Winchester 231. It will perform well in all three.

Not sure what you mean by "gunk up". There should be some powder fouling in the bore after a shooting session. It's only a problem if are getting excessive leading or large amounts of powder deposits in the action.

[calvon]

I use CCI Standard small pistol primers and LBT Blue lube which is applied with a Star Lube-Sizer. I full length resize the straight wall cases with RCBS carbide resizers and full length resize the .357 Sig brass with a RCBS standard (not carbide) resizing die.

By "gunk up" I mean the accumulation of enough residue in the chamber area to prevent the slide from going fully into battery.

Thanks to all who have responded here. I'm going to the store and will buy a pound of WSF and another of W231 and will begin some experimentation. I prefer the spherical powders because they flow through a powder measure so well.

[Graybeard]

Contact Hodgdon and ask which powder in their current line up is the same as the old Winchester 473. I'm pretty sure they still have that powder just under a Hodgdon name. Both it and Winchester 540 were in the Hodgdon line under an HS name. I just can't recall which HS powder corresponds to which Winchester powder.

[Questor]

I have a hard time believing it's the powder. I'm more suspicious of the bullets and the seating depth. Are you seeing this symptom with one particular barrel or is it with multiple guns? I have a gun with a tight chamber and I need to seat the bullets a bit shorter than maximum OAL to get reliable feeding.