What are some truly smokeless pistol powders?

Nick C S a member here shoots a lot of hand gun rounds and recommends against Titegroup for lead.
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Yes I do. And or the reason Metal God gave.

TiteGroup is indeed a clean burner. But it's a hot burner too. Probably a connection.

Bullseye is "residuey," no matter how its loaded. Back in 1985, when I too was looking for something cleaner, I was recommended Winchester 231 (now, also sold has Hodgdon HP-38). I bought my first #of it then to try - and haven't been without since. It definitely runs cleaner than BE (and not as hot as TiteGroup).

For lead, I'd recommend W231. (Among the propellants with which I have personal experience.)

From there, the issue becomes the source of the smoke. It has been my experience that most of the smoke from shooting lead ammunition is the lubricant; and the smoke from the propellant runs a distant second.
 
That's pretty much the bottom line. The polymer coatings like Hi-Tek from Missouri Bullets takes the place of standard lube and any smoke produced is hardly noticeable. Also Montana Bullet Works has what they call LBT Blue Lube and indicated as smokeless. And that does seem to be the bottom line on that. I have not noticed any smoking at all when using those bullets. I get to an indoor range early to shoot up previous loads with conventional lubricant before others arrive. Then I switch to the non smoking variety.
 
So if I shoot lead, there's no powder that's going to decrease the smoke? It's just going to be what it is?
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The bullet lube you are using will make more of a difference to the amount of smoke than the choice of powder. Not all cast bullets are the same. Some DO make more smoke than others.

If you want to check, simply get another brand of bullet, and get some jacketed slugs in the same weight as well. Shoot the same powder & charge, and see what difference there is in the smoke produced.

If you get (almost) no smoke with the jacketed bullets, and smoke with cast, its NOT the powder. ;)
 
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