I would like to reload my ammo by what type of powder the Ammo Manufacturer uses. How would I find out?
I too was curious and pulled different factory rounds apart to see in this thread -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/factory-rounds-pulled.706260/
This is 9mm Federal 115 gr FMJ with hollow base bullet in .FC. case with two "."s. Powder charge measured 5.7 gr and from
Speer load data that came close to bullet weight and velocity was BE-86 with 6.3 gr max charge.
This is 45ACP Remington 230 "FMJ" on the box (But as you can see, base is covered meaning it's plated RN) and powder charge measured 4.0 gr that looked like fine sand No. 2 (But load data doesn't match so not sure what powder at 4.0 gr could produce full power load) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/factory-rounds-pulled.706260/#post-8782418
I have noticed that most ammo powder manufacturers use different powder at different amounts but have the same fps speed and ft pounds of energy. WHY so many Variables?
As some other members already posted, many OEM ammunition manufacturers buy available powders in large batches at lowest auction price and use sufficient powder charges to meet velocity requirements by application whether slower target/practice ammunition or faster full power/JHP premium ammunition. And since different lots of powder ammunition manufacturer buys could have differing burn rate, powder charges could vary to produce same velocities.
Since retail "canister" powders require more exact burn rate to powder charge requirements to match published load data, it is more costly to use "canister" powders for ammunition. There are some exceptions where "canister" powders match ammunition sold like some Winchester powders. One rumor is BE-86 has been used by OEM manufacturers to load premium JHP ammunition for decades and I can guess that could mean Speer Gold Dot/Federal HST could have been loaded with BE-86.
To me no.
For decades, I used WSF to load duplicate factory/JHP ammunition I used for SD/HD to load practice rounds using same Gold Dot/Golden Saber JHP projectiles. When I compared various factory JHP rounds with my USPSA match rounds meeting major/minor power factors, POI deviated from POA only by around an inch lower at 15 yards.
I also noticed, factory/JHP ammunition recoil was snappier indicating they were using powders faster burning than WSF, which produced milder "push" recoil. FYI, I used Red Dot/Promo for 9mm and 45ACP general range practice loads for decades and 9mm PCC carbine loads in recent years and Red Dot/Promo often came close to replicating most factory/JHP ammunition felt recoil.
In recent years, I replaced WSF with BE-86 due to higher velocities and greater accuracy it produced in 9mm/40S&W loads but now that Vista Outdoor split off ammunition companies including Alliant Powders driving the price of lowest cost Promo and my favored BE-86/Sport Pistol much higher than other Hodgdon/Accurate/Ramshot/Shooters World powders, I may replace Promo/Sport Pistol/BE-86 with No. 2/Clean Shot/Vectan Ba9.5/Competition/Titegroup/Zip/W244/WSF/Auto Pistol/Vectan Ba9/Silhouette/CFE Pistol/Auto Comp (And no, it looks like W231/HP-38 is not going anywhere, despite the past rumors ... my reference powder for 9mm and 45ACP) -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...ble-powders-during-component-shortage.890865/
So I do not believe it really matters as long as you can replicate the velocities of factory rounds.