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bagman45 wrote:Thanks for the suggestions guys, keep 'em coming!! Also need to update my reloading manuals, as my old Hornady manual from the 80's is a bit out of date now ;). What are your current favorites?

Philbo, thanks, will likely try out some titegroup, can you share your plinking loads, and your magnum loads with H-110? Working up new loads it the biggest PITA, so would be great to have some starting points.

For 9mm my goto load has been:
115 FMJ/plated, 4.4 grains Titegroup, OAL 1.155
If you shorten the OAL length to 1.135 or a little less I have used 4.2 grains, but the above has been more accurate for me and is my effort to recreate WWB. Tens of thousands of this round have been tossed down range over the last decade.

For 45acp:
185 Berry HBRN or 200 RN (both plated bullets) 4.8 grains Titegroup, OAL 1.255
These are enough for accuracy and have performed well in my XD45, Kahr, and many different 1911's for thousands of rounds.

These two calibers constitute the majority of my reloads. Other calibers I reload for are 32 acp, 32 Long, 32 H&R, 327 mag, 380, 38 special, 357 mag, 40 & 10mm, 41 mag, 44 special/mag, 45 colt, 454 Casull. Be happy to share whatever I have on these loads.

Since I've been using a lot of Hogden/Winchester/IMR powders, my start for these is Hodgdon's manual which is an inexpensive magazine type manual available for purchase online; or, all of which can be downloaded online here for free one caliber at a time: https://www.hodgdon.com/basic-manual-inquiry.html

I print out a sheet for each caliber/powder I am working on and record the details for each load as I work them up with notes on how they perform. Then put the pages in a 3 ring binder to keep track of what works best. Lyman and Speer manuals both rest on the shelf as well for cross reference. The High Road forum is also an excellent source for reloading information.

Titegroup is a great all around pistol powder that meters well. I've worked up practice loads in 9/40/45 and almost every other pistol caliber.It really is my general purpose powder for handguns, cleaner than W231/HP38 was for me, especially with lower end loads. My only thing against it is that It burns hotter than I like and tends to produce more smoke than I want with lead bullets, so I have relegated Titegroup for FMJ and plated rounds for the most part.

Power Pistol is another I've enjoyed success with as well as Hodgdon's Autocomp. Longshot and H110/W296 have replaced Unique for me for magnum loads. I also got a pound of CFE Pistol for free recently that I've begun using in 9/40/45, and so far I've been very pleased with the results.