Impressed with Accurate No 7

[Skernie]

Tested some rounds today, and 6.6 Grains of No 7 in 9MM using a 115 grain bullet was a very nice load, I am very impressed with this, and my gun (Kimber Stainless II) ate them all day with no problems. I will be looking for this powder again, and it might just become my go to powder for 9mm.

On a side note it also metered great with my Dillon 550B


Skernie

[ironhorse1]

Tested some rounds today, and 6.6 Grains of No 7 in 9MM using a 115 grain bullet was a very nice load, I am very impressed with this, and my gun (Kimber Stainless II) ate them all day with no problems. I will be looking for this powder again, and it might just become my go to powder for 9mm.

On a side note it also metered great with my Dillon 550B


Skernie

I'm actually surprised that load worked in your gun.

AA. 7 is more of a magnum powder and Speer # 14 lists the starting load with 115 grain jacketed bullets at 8.6 grains.

If you like AA.7 then you will be really happy with AA. 5

It is more versatile than AA.7, meters well, and you will get more loads per pound.

I see AA. 5 listed with loads from 6 grains to 6.7 grains.

BTW AA.7 works really well with full power .357 loads.

irh

[sghart]

I load 9mm and .357 . I like all of the Accurate pistol powders from #2 thru #9. I have never tried #7 in 9mm as #5 does everything that I want.

If you happen to load for .357 mag then 11.2 gr under a 158 gr jacketed or 10.1 gr under a 158 gr LSWC are great loads in all of my revolvers and rifles.

Thanks for the tip on #7 in 9mm, I will definitely try it.

[ptmn]

Good to hear that AA7 works well in 9mm. I have 6 one pound cans that have been sitting around for the last 2 years unused and unopened. I'll try the OP's load out with some Berrys 115 gr round nose. Right now I'm using Blue Dot for 9mm. Not the best powder for it, but so far I'm pretty happy with the loads I came up with. Now that I hear AA7 works well, I'm pretty happy, since I believe AA7 is a better powder for 9mm than Blue Dot.

Skernie, can you PM me with the rest of the data you used? As in overall length, type of bullet, specific primer? Planning to load about 10 or 15 rounds with your load data to test for cycling and accuracy after I cross reference the data with at least two of my manuals. I also want to run them over my chronograph. If you are interested, I'll PM you the results.

[cpatbay]

I just tried AA7 with 115 gr XTP this afternoon! 8.2 gr got me around 1230 fps. I think I would be happy with 7.8 gr of AA7 for 115 gr.

[Skernie]

I was shooting Xtreme plated 115 gr bullets, and on the accurate site it says that 6.7gr is the max, so I took it up to 6.6. I shared with my 3 friends, and they all said they liked the load also.

sghart & Ironhorse, thanks for the tip, I will try No5 when I can find some in stock. I hit some rough times in the mid 90's and had to sell my Python, so I no longer have a 357 Mag, but I just pick back up a S&W 629 44 Mag that I will be getting set up to reload soon.

Ironhorse, I just checked my lyman 49th, and it lists 6.8gr under a 115 JHP, with a max of 8.5, I am guessing that is why you are suprised this load worked in my gun. I can tell you this load seamed to have a nice little kick to it, I had also loaded some with 4.6gr of HP-38 and the ones loaded with No7 seemed like they had more kick to them.

Thanks for all of your responces, Shoot safe everyone, and enjoy,
Skernie

[J-cat]

6.7 is max only for the Ranier bullets. Xtreme bullets can use the 8.2gr max.

[Skernie]

6.7 is max only for the Ranier bullets. Xtreme bullets can use the 8.2gr max.

Hey J-cat,

Why can Xtreme go higher than Rainier? I was not using the heavy plate bullets.

[ironhorse1]

I just tried AA7 with 115 gr XTP this afternoon! 8.2 gr got me around 1230 fps. I think I would be happy with 7.8 gr of AA7 for 115 gr.

Did you actually chronograph the load or is this just a guesstimate?

I have checked several manuals and a Accurate powders 9mm printout for data.

AA lists loads from 7.8- 8.7 grains for 115 grain bullets giving velocities from 1,078-1225 fps.

Best to check the data online to confirm as I don't need to list it all.

As far as the Speer manuals data #11 115 TMJ or jhp 8.2-9.1 grains.

#12 lists 8.6-9.6 for the 115 GD-HP/ TMJ/ JHP.

#14 lists 8.6 to 9.6 115 GDHP TMJ RN

1200 fps is achieved at the 9.6 charge level in a four inch barrel according to Speer. In the Beretta's 4.9" barrel 8.2 grains is at 1189 fps.

Knowing that this is a magnum powder that fills the case I personally would probably not exceed 8 grains.

Again I'm surprised loads below seven grains function and would like to see chronograph data for loads in the 6 to 8 grain range.

I suspect velocities would be in the 1,000 fps range.

Great info here for all those involved. I'm going to load some AA #7 with 115 Rainier bullets and try them next week to get the feel for how this powder performs.

irh

[J-cat]

Hey J-cat,

Why can Xtreme go higher than Rainier? I was not using the heavy plate bullets.

Xtreme built it's rep on heavy plate.

[Skernie]

ironhorse, please check back in after your tests, and let us know what your results were. I would really like to know what you came up with.

I would like to thank everyone that has contributed to this thread, I am learning quite a bit from being a member here.

Thanks,
Skernie

[just in joy]

aa#2 is my go too powder for 9 - 45 then aa#5 for 45 also I love the AA2-7 havent used 9 yet but meters well

[ironhorse1]

ironhorse, please check back in after your tests, and let us know what your results were. I would really like to know what you came up with.

I would like to thank everyone that has contributed to this thread, I am learning quite a bit from being a member here.

Thanks,
Skernie

I just finished loading up the test rounds.

Loaded five each starting at 6 grains and working up in half grain increments to 9 grains. Thirty five rounds total.

I'm interested if the lightest loads will operate the slide and have no doubt the heavier loads will function extremely well.

I bought the AA.7 to replace Bluedot in my .357 heavy loads.
It works very well with plenty of velocity and almost no flash.
Pressure signs as far as flattened primers are far less than with Bluedot.

I used to run Bluedot in the 9mm with 115 grain Sierra jhp's.
Velocity hit 1300 fps with 8.8 grains and you sure can feel the difference over a factory load. The gun was a four inch barrel S&W 639 a very heavy all stainless model.

My point is that AA.7 should also be able to do this with less pressure and flash.

I have stayed away from the top Speer load of 9.6 grains until I see how this function test works out.

The problem with the Bluedot loads were they were hard on the gun and the shooter. They had very stiff recoil and produced some wear on the gun.

I don't want to go that far again with AA.7 but this thread made me wonder just how well it would work in the 9mm.

I'll report back later next week.

irh

[Skernie]

Thanks for the update. I hope you have some great results at the lower end like I did. I can tell you that I started out with 6.2, and 6.4gr and those were too light, but as I said the 6.6 was a very nice load. I am very interested with how your heavier loads do, even though I am very pleased with 6.6 gr I would like to push it a little more to see how they feel.

Skernie

[Jasonaspears]

I'm picking up some AA#7 tomorrow after hearing it was a great powder for 9mm. Looking forward to working up some test loads.