Powder In Stock--Herco or Silhouette?

Locally, we're looking at months between a pound or three each of maybe 3-6 different powders showing up on the shelves, and I just refuse to play the backorder game for handgun powders.

So today one retailer has Herco and Ramshot Silhouette in stock. NO ONE has seen 231 or Bullseye for nearly a year.

SO, if I decide to get *something* that's available now instead of waiting perhaps until after my last pound is gone, which do you think I should get??? Most loading is likely to be .45 and .38s for BE shooting, plus *maybe* some more 9mm full-power loads. Really might not need anything in .357 Mag, but I seem to remember Herco doing a bit better with mid-to-normal weight bullets, Unique better with 125-gr. I know that Unique is NOT on the shelves now, but I played with it a few years ago trying to get a non-magnum primer load for .357, alongside Herco...

Red Dot and Green Dot seem to be on the shelves and make good .45 and .38 loads.

For target shooting with .45s and .38s, I am using Winchester Super Target (WST) as my first choice. With my guns, it consistently does better than Bullseye and as a bonus, it burns cleaner. It has my stock .45 under 2" @ 50 yards.

As an aside, I saw a pound of Zip on closeout for like $10 some time ago. I never used it but I could not pass it up due to the price. It is slower than WST but anyway I looked up some data on line and loaded 5-.45s. I shot the rounds and they grouped OK but look at the inside of these cases. I could not get over how clean this stuff burns. I will play with it more in the future.

If there is a shotgun range, with a store, near you, I'd go there to shop for powder. As has already been said, you may find WST, American Select, Red Dot or e3, etc. They are all suitable bullseye pistol powders.

BE Mike wrote:If there is a shotgun range, with a store, near you, I'd go there to shop for powder. As has already been said, you may find WST, American Select, Red Dot or e3, etc. They are all suitable bullseye pistol powders.

+1 .... CLAYS too.

....or the internet.  A quick search yielded many pistol powders, including Bullseye, are in stock.
 
Jim

I see bullseye on gunbroker all the time, some of it is not that far above regular prices.

I wonder if powder availability is a regional thing lately. I bought Bullseye last month and saw Unique on the shelf yesterday. My LGS has done a pretty good job of maintaining stock and keeping prices where they were before this mess. Unfortunately, in order to do that they have had to enact restrictions on how much you can buy at any one time, otherwise they would be sold out of everything and it would be up for resale on the net. Just a fact of life for the present. I can buy a container of powder, 500 primers and either 2 boxes or 1 bulk pack of rimfire ammo per visit. The only one of those that really restricts me is the .22 but I am still paying only $3.95/box for the CCI standard (when they can get it.) Sure there have been better deals but compared to the $60/brick I have been seeing I am only unhappy that I spend more on fuel than I can spend on the ammo.
What I have not seen is any Accurate powder, it used to be my 'go to' based solely on how well it meters in a (3BR) measure. Now that I have a 10X, I can meter most anything but it took 3 months to get the new measure.
Bruce

I'm seeking LGS stock.

Despite my copious internet tracks on a lot of stuff, I have no desire to let NSA or any other government minion know whether I bought 1, 3, or 8 lbs of anything like this without it taking some extra effort.

That's the other side of my reluctance to play the backorder game. PLUS, I still hear stories of internet store "in stock" really being backorder after the "shopping cart" is checked out.

Thinking of just not getting anything this time, holding out for what I usually use...

Buying small quantities of powder or primers online is not economic.  The hazmat shipping charges blow everything out of proportion.

Dr.Don wrote:Buying small quantities of powder or primers online is not economic.  The hazmat shipping charges blow everything out of proportion.

+1

The answer is to "group order".  You and your buds share the fees and the shipping costs.  And for GrumpyOldMan....if the order is not in your name; you have a patsy for the NSA. 

Silhouette (and True Blue) seem to perform very well from low to high pressure. Not the powder I would choose for light target loads, but it does OK.
Herco is very good in 9x19 and .38, but not so good for .45. Again, not near my first choice, but when in need...
Zip is very close to 231/HP38 and N320. For whatever reason, it has been a dud, for me, in .45.

Shooters,

The local stores has no powder to sell to walk in customers, but fortunately I bought some powders at an LA gunshow over 20 years ago.  I bought 2 15# kegs of BE for $20 and a case of DuPont 5066 for another $20.  I preferred the 5066.

Current local gunshows are impossible for powder or .22 target ammo.

Jerry

Well, my Dad had two 5066 loads he used all the time. If you want to drive to LV and unload a pound or two of either BE or 5066 to get your $20 back (per pound, not for two lbs!), I'll meet you there.

Multiple local outlets, all I see is Longshot, .50 BMG or something like that, and a single pound of some Vihtavouri stuff for $40. There was some Steel and Ball-C (2) and Varget, one pound at a time, lately but it's all gone now.

Still seeing nothing for pistol.

GOM,

There are few things on earth that would make me want to drive to Las Vegas.  Getting rid of some powder is not one of them!  

Jerry

Jerry:

I saw "LA gunshow" and thought you were that much closer.

Maybe if I can get in my don'thappennearlyoftenenough boogie boarding road trip this summer then maybe I'll try to talk you into a little visit. So where do people go since Carlos Murphy's closed down? Loved their nachos, my wife's favorite. We shut them down in LV, Escondido, and now La Jolla, just by eating there...

GOM,

Wow! That is a name from the dim dark past.  There is a Carlos Murphy's on Convoy street in the Kearny Mesa area, but I know nothing about it.  I don't remember one being in La Jolla.  I have been going to the same few Mexican places since 1958.  BTW, 1958 is the last time I was in Las
Vegas.  The Lake Tahoe area is the only Nevada place I used go regularly, but only for skiing.

I shot a lot of Ramshot silhouette in an accurized 1911 9mm.  When Winchester stopped making Winchester Action Pistol powder (WAP)  Ramshot "replaced" it with Silhouette.
The guy at Ramshot told me while it's not the same powder it was very close.

Looked the same to me and loaded and shot the same.

Very clean and produced a very accurate light 9mm load with no leading using the Laser Cast 147g over 4.2g of Silhouette.

I only used it in the 9MM.

Well, it's been so long now since I've seen anything other than Longshot and single pounds of various rifle powders (never more than 3 at once), I'm now ready to buy on sight any of these:

231
Power Pistol
Silhouette
Bullseye
Unique/Herco (can't remember yet which one was better for 125-gr .357 Boomers)
Red Dot
Green Dot
and maybe even Zip.

Wishing I had picked up that pound of Power Pistol I saw a few months ago...