124 gr rn Lead cast bullets and Alliant Pistol Powder

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BrassMonkey

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I love using Alliant Power Pistol and has always worked great for me. I am now casting my own bullets and using the Lee 6 cavity 124 gr rn. I need to find the right load for the Power Pistol. Thanks
 
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Hi BrassMonkey; and welcome to TFL.

Are we talking 9mm Luger?

What's their purpose? Are you shooting target or for some other use?
 
If you have worked up a cast 124 grain load, size and lube your bullets and load 'em. Should be the same load as whatever cast bullet you've loaded before. It's the bullet weight that matters not the shape or who made 'em.
"...Alliant Pistol Powder..." There's Sport Pistol and Power Pistol. The former is so new there's no data on Aliant's site. No cast bullet data for Power Pistol either. An e-mail should fix that. Assuming they've tested cast bullets with those powders.
 
it is a 9mm Luger and I am using it for target shooting.
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Good to know. Thanks.

Power Pistol is a bit spunky and runs kind of hot. I'm not so sure it's a good choice for lead. If it was me (it's not), I'd lean toward W231. W231 runs cool and it's a good burn rate for 124's in a target application.

T. O'Heir mentions Alliant's new Sport Pistol. The advertising verbiage states "precision and action shooters," and "optimized for polymer coated bullets."

That kind of gives us some indication of its characteristics. Precision and action shooting implies a fairly fast burn rate. The polymer bullets may imply that it runs cooler and is less energetic than Power Pistol (that's my inference, anyway; I could be wrong).

It would be nice if they would drop all the intelligence insulting advertising nonsense and just tell us its specific characteristics. Loading ammo is more technical than advertising buzzwords and vague implications; it'd be nice if they'd treat us handloaders more appropriately. Sorry. Just venting now. I digress.

Anyway, Sport Pistol sounds like it might be a good choice. I guess we'll know more once some load data trickles in.

9mm and lead is a bit persnickity to begin with. Pressures are kind of high (by lead standards) and bores are kind of big in many guns. Loading good, accurate, minimally fouling, lead bullets are kind of tricky in the 9. It can be done, but everything's gotta be right. I've had decent luck with 147's sized at .356" running a light load of cool-burning, intermediate burn rate propellant (HS-6). There was still some leading, so I got some sized to .357". Haven't loaded them yet. I bought them about two years ago - guess I should get around to it some day :p.
 
I shoot VV N340 in all my 9s with both cast and jacketed.

I tried HS-6 and did not fall for its performance.

The VV N340 is the cleanest powder that I have used in the 9 with virtually no residue and I have not detected any flash even when shot at night.

My 135 gr cast bullet will clock a 10 shot average of 1069 fps.

As always, I clean the barrel before switching between cast bullets and jacketed bullets.

I size the cast bullets to 0.357" and they shoot really good when I cast them to a BHN 9.
 
I shot 1000 124 cast 9MM, most in a Citadel 1911 gun. Very little leading, used Unique powder in most if not all. They were about as accurate as plated bullets, not a lot less expensive. I decided to use plated. The 9MM seemed to shoot cleaner than .45 with cast bullets. I don't know why unless it's because the pressure is higher in the 9. I was surprised at the lack of leading in the 9, I may try it again some day.
 
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