9mm load for uspsa

[ben-wah]

Trying to come up with a load for uspsa comps. I have not competed yet but want to. I have a S&W sd9ve that I have been loading for. Have been using Titegroup at 3.9 grains with Hornady 115 FMJ-RN bullets. When i was working up my loads, 3.9 and 4.1 seemed to work good. I decided to load with 3.9 grains for target practice.

After doing alot of reading about power factor I think I need to up the powder a little. I need 1100 velocity for min. power factor. I do not have a chrono, using the stated velocity in the manuals as a guide.

Some of my manuals have differing max loads. One manuals max is anothers starting load

The hornady book says start at 3.7 max is 4.1
Hodgdon book starts at 3.9, max is 4.3
Sierra says 3.7 to 4.5
My Richard lee book says start at 4.3 and max is 4.8


Any ideas on max loads?
or what seems to work good for comps?
Should i try a different powder?

Thanks Ben...

[mjmagee67]

Ben if you are just starting just load up some middle of the road loads with 124gr bullets and call it good. At local matches no one is going to chrono you especially a newby. As you get into it more you will either need to buy a chrono or borrow one.

As far as loads most use a fast powder. I use VV N320 under 125gr coated bullets.

Just get out and shoot....

[Paseclipse]

Best to just get your own chrono and start running your loads through it. I've found the velocities listed in manuals are usually off by some amount.

[kcstott]

Trying to come up with a load for uspsa comps. I have not competed yet but want to. I have a S&W sd9ve that I have been loading for. Have been using Titegroup at 3.9 grains with Hornady 115 FMJ-RN bullets. When i was working up my loads, 3.9 and 4.1 seemed to work good. I decided to load with 3.9 grains for target practice.

After doing alot of reading about power factor I think I need to up the powder a little. I need 1100 velocity for min. power factor. I do not have a chrono, using the stated velocity in the manuals as a guide.

Some of my manuals have differing max loads. One manuals max is anothers starting load

The hornady book says start at 3.7 max is 4.1
Hodgdon book starts at 3.9, max is 4.3
Sierra says 3.7 to 4.5
My Richard lee book says start at 4.3 and max is 4.8


Any ideas on max loads?
or what seems to work good for comps?
Should i try a different powder?

Thanks Ben...

Reloading manuals are nothing but a test report from the company that printed to book. Good data to go by but as you can see differences in results on what was considered max. for 9mm .5gr off max is a good place to start.

[TexasJackKin]

Ben, what MJMagee67 said is true, at the local matches no one is going to question your ammo, unless maybe your are claiming 9MM major. Then you might be asked to prove you are actually abusing you gun that much

Be sure to tell the range master, that it's your first time, and you would like coaching. At the local level, it's all about having fun! and being safe!

[sargenv]

If you are looking for USPSA data those Hornady bullets are going to get expensive over time.. Most USPSA or action shooters in general purchase in bulk from various other non-premium but just as good bullet makers.. Precision Delta (Jacketed), Montana Gold (Jacketed), Blue Bullets (Coated), x-treme (Plated), Berry's (Plated), Bayou (coated), Bear Creek (Moly Coated lead), BBI (Coated).. you get the idea.

115's are fine for plinking but most competition shooters are going for the heavier bullets since they are less snappy and tend to get you back on target faster. If your pistol can shoot them accurately, I'd suggest you look into weights (in 9mm) varying from 124, 135, or 147. Some people even have luck with bullets as heavy as 160 gr.

The other thing to do when you go to the shoots in your area is to ask other competitors what they are running. You will get many suggestions. Vitt N320 is very popular with Sport Pistol becoming popular for those who load the coated bullets. Titegroup is used by many people but some find it too smoky and a bit dirty. I've had good luck with 231, Titegroup, Sport Pistol, and Universal.

My current go to load is mixed brass, 135 gr Bear creek, Winchester Small Pistol primers, and 3.4 gr of Titegroup, my overall length is 1.135", SAAMI Max OAL. I usually get about a 132 PF in either a Glock 34 or a Para D18-9 (Both 5" barrels). Overall length will sometimes make the difference pressure wise.

I tend to approach loading ammo for competition by checking the powder manufacturer's suggestion and then doing a workup from Min to Max and finding what I need based on the platform at hand. If you are shooting Production, you'll want to get something in the 128-132 power factor range. If min is 3.8 and max is 4.8 (this is an arbitrary number, not related to any one powder), I'll do my workup generally as 3.8, 4.0, 4.2, .. -> 4.8.

Some people like to skirt the bottom of power and at local matches it won't matter much, but if you plan to travel, it is better to be sure that your load will chrono more than skirting the edge of power and going sub minor on a different chrono. Also this is a guideline. You really need to see what your gun likes. It might hate the above load and want something completely different.

[Sailormilan2]

1100 fps is easy to to do using a 115 JHP with almost any powder. The Lyman 49th Manual listed 1200+ fps with 4 powders, and almost 1200 with 3 powders. The old standby Unique (5.8 gr for 1233 fps), Power Pistol (6.5 gr 1212 fps), and 231(4.9 gr 1253 fps). True Blue(6.7 gr for 1221 fps).
With your powder, Tightgroup, Lyman lists a max load 4.5 gr for 1119 fps.

FWIW,a recommended load for Bullseye 50 yd match shooting is 6.0-6.2 gr Power Pistol, 115 gr Hornady FMJ-Rn bullet, Rem #5 1/2 SP primers. Lyman manual puts that at close to 1150 fps.

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/reloads.html

[ben-wah]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Gets me thinking, I'm going to try out some 124 grain bullets.

[rdtompki]

It wouldn't hurt either to take a look at the Brian Enos forum (forums.brianenos.com). Nothing but competition fanatics over there. If PF is not at issue, then fast powder/light bullet is the way to go, but for minor PF, as suggested above, 124, 135, 147 and heavier are used. Seems to be a lot of personal preference, the "feel" of the recoil which may be gun specific.

The other dimension is bullet shape - what OAL you can achieve and what feeds in your gun. The new Acme 145gr bullet works very well in our 9mm 1911s; some of their bullets are very stubby and must be loaded short; not a problem with sub-minor loads, but needs to be watched with a low density powder.

Part of the fun of reloading is dealing with all these variables; not sure my wife would agree however.

[scotty99]

Thanks for all the info everyone. Gets me thinking, I'm going to try out some 124 grain bullets.

[checkenbach]

4.0 grns TiteGroup with 125 grn BBI coated lead round nose. Makes power factor, and accurate too. I also use 5.2 grns of Power Pistol with Extreme 124 plated round nose, makes power factor, accurate, but loud and flashy...

[tanks]

If you’re going to switch bullets anyway, go to 147s. It’s the preferred weight for a vast majority of 9mm minor shooters. With Titegroup, 3.2grs will generally get you to PF....

That is my load 147grain bullet and 3.2 grains of Titegroup.

[SIKwitIT]

With my 5" m&p
My loads to meet minor PF
powder is tightgroup

147gr 3.2
124gr. 3.6
115gr. 4.1

Coal 1.135-1.140

[sargenv]

I've run into issues where some guns won't shoot the 147's in any profile and they had to back down to 124's (wouldn't shoot 135's either) to make the gun happy.

[Lead Waster]

Ben, what MJMagee67 said is true, at the local matches no one is going to question your ammo, unless maybe your are claiming 9MM major. Then you might be asked to prove you are actually abusing you gun that much

Be sure to tell the range master, that it's your first time, and you would like coaching. At the local level, it's all about having fun! and being safe!

True, and it may not matter when you start out, but if your loads are too light, they won't knock over steel plates. They are calibrated to fall down on pf 125 rounds. But again, if you are starting out it won't really matter.

I use the MagnetoSpeed chrony. However it only mounts to revolvers and guns with rails. It allows you to chrony your rounds at indoor ranges where you are not allowed to move past the shooting line. The Labradar sounds cool and it would be awesome if a range bought one and had a chrono lane or rented it out. In any case the magnetospeed lets me test loads without any extra hassles. Load up 50 rounds of each powder amount for a given bullet, chrony maybe 20 rounds of each load, then remove the device and see how each load feels and pick from there.

But as other said ... don't sweat it too much, nobody chronos your rounds at a local match, and it's only important if your steel won't tip over when you hit it ... then you might just have to leave it as a "miss", but so what.