Looking for a CFE Pistol load for 124gr 9mm

[Miata Mike]

Looking for a CFE Pistol load for 124gr 9mm Precision Delta 124 grain jacketed hollow points. Conflicting data on Hodgdon's web pages.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol gives a range of 4.9 to 5.5 grains for a 124 grain. (Not sure what profile a 124 GR. BERB HBRN TP is).

http://www.hodgdon.com/new_prod.html gives a 5.1 grains max for a 125 grain SIE FMJ.

I am looking to work up an accurate load, but would like some real life experience to figure out a high/low range to work from.

 

[Miata Mike]

I see this powder must be pretty dense. Using my Lee dispenser I was only able to get two loads in this range. .40 disk got me 5.2 grains and .37? disk got me 4.8 grains.

If one of these doesn't pan out, mass production is going to be much harder.

 

[cdshepherd87]

BERB HBRN is a Berry's Hollow Base Round Nose, fun bullets to shoot in my experience(.45acp). Unfortunately thats all i can tell you as i dont reload for the 9mm. Good luck!

EDIT: I do know that Conservidave has some CFE pistol powder and reloads for the 9mm but not sure exactly what he has worked up TBH.

 

[berettaprofessor]

5.0 grains of CFE Pistol behind a plated RN berrys 124 grain bullet gives an average 1052 fps velocity. Just did it yesterday.

 

[Miata Mike]

5.0 grains of CFE Pistol behind a plated RN berrys 124 grain bullet gives an average 1052 fps velocity. Just did it yesterday.

Good info. How was the accuracy?

 

[berettaprofessor]

Average in terms of being equivalent to most commercial loads. A 5 shot, 2 inch group at 10 yards offhand, no rest. I need to zero it in a little bit with my specific bullet and gun.

(and I only made up 10 to try and shot 5 for the chrony and shot 5 of them concentrating on feel and recoil). Need to do a "production run"...which for me is 50 or over...and really evaluate it now.

 

[berettaprofessor]

And Miata Mike, like you, I'll eventually work this out on a Pro Auto-disk Lee dispenser...so I may have to vary the load slightly from 5.0 in that regard anyway. But the 5.0 load was safe; no signs of overpressure, if anything, it's slightly underloaded. The powder, you're right, is dense.

 

[Miata Mike]

Thanks for the info. I saved you a little time on figuring out which disk to use if nothing else, the smallest one. Let me know how things go whenever you fine tune your load. Someday I might go back to Berry's again if the price is right. Just can't beat Precision Deltas when on sale!

I put together 10 @ 4.8gr and 10 @ 5.2gr. Would be nice to have a crono, but I have never even seen one used at the range.

I can do more of a work up and adjust a disk cavity to work for me if I decide to ever load this powder on a larger scale. Right now I do these bullets in bulk using Bullseye since I had quite a bit of it with the same lot number and it meters very consistently.

 

[berettaprofessor]

Actually bought an alpha chrono master a month or two back and found it easy to run and pretty flawless. Less than $100 at Midway I think. The data is nice to have

 

[DR915]

Got a hold of some CFE Pistol Powder and did some testing. CFE measured very consistent with the Dillon 650. I did a number of test loads starting at 4.4 to 5.1 shooting out of a Ruger SR9 4.1 barrel. Using a 124 gr. MG JHP with Win. SPP and Federal Case. OAL of 1.10 for this 9mm. At 4.4 the case barely ejected, light recoil and not to accurate. As I moved up in powder charge the accuracy improved and so did the SD. I think a little more testing will be needed but I think this powder is a winner. Even at 5.1 the recoil was not bad at all. 5.1 was the best overall, lowest SD and most accurate. I was shooting at 7 yards, two hands, standing with no support of any kind. Shot 15 rounds of 5.1 gr 1.1 OAL and all shots were in the bulls eye, smaller than a quarter size. Made me looked like I knew what I was doing! Draw

*** Remember these are my tests and should only be used as a reference.***

4.4 gr. 976 avg. fps 90.05 SD 271 spread

4.6 gr. 972 avg. fps 21.77 SD 63 spread

4.8 gr. 1038 avg. fps 19.2 SD 70 spread

5.1 gr. 1060 avg. fps 14.28 SD 53 spread

 

[Miata Mike]

Good info DR915. I seated mine a bit longer at 1.13 I think. Not sure when I will be able to get out and test these loads. Our range is only open on weekends in the Winter and I have to work this next one.

 

[Lethal rx7]

Any updates? I shot 5.1cfe behind berrys [email protected]. No crono. But just based off of feel compared to some bullseye and 231 loads the cfe felt a little hot to me.

 

[RPegram]

I shoot 5.0 gr CFE under 124gr lrn. I seat to 1.155". My SR9 prefers em longer. Recoil to me is light, but then again I'm seating shallower than most. Accuracy is awesome. I don't have a chrono, so can't advise on velocity. I absolutely love the way CFE Pistol meters, I don't believe any are better.

 

[Conservidave]

sorry no help here, i have some cfe and will get around to testing it soon with 115g RN

 

[Artofgolf]

MiataMike, here's a test I did awhile ago. Hope it helps

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=762593

 

[mlrs_27m]

I got good results(accuracy) with 4.6gr with plated 124gr bullets @ 1.10 oal. I got better results with 4.8gr, same bullet and oal.
Everything ran fine with the 4.6, but I feel it was a bit on the light side. I feel that 4.8 - 5.0 would be near perfect for plated 124gr loads.

 

[ericuda]

Loading 5.2 behind 124 xtreme plated rn and hp's. oal if i remember right is 1.135 and 1.090.

 

[wooldl]

You need to grab the new 2015 Hogdgon Reloading manual (magazine) from your local book store. There is an entire article dedicated to reloading 9mm and he has a lot of loads using CFE Pistol. I found the data I needed for Hornady 124g XTP over CFE in his article. Very useful.

 

[DR915]

Did some more testing with CFE Pistol Powder: 9mm

Wanted to see if I could get better numbers. Went back to most of my 9mm loads with Titegroup and noticed that Titegroup likes a shorter OAL to perform better. So I decided to shorten the OAL from 1.1 to 1.065 using CFE Pistol Powder. I know by doing this I would get higher pressures and higher speed (FPS), so I started low and worked my way up. What I found out is that the best SD and tightest groups came at the same charge weight even at different OAL. Wasn't expecting that. I also confirmed that I get better results with CFE at the higher and closer to max charge.

***Again, these are my test and should be used as a reference***

I used the Ruger SR9, 4.1" barrel

4.8 GR 1.065 OAL 1047.27 FPS 16.91 SD 67 SPREAD

5.1 GR 1.065 OAL 1121.2 FPS 11.54 SD 42 SPREAD
5.1 GR 1.1 OAL 1060.08 FPS 14.28 SD 53 SPREAD

5.2 GR 1.065 OAL 1131.4 FPS 19.17 SD 71 SPREAD

I saw one test in the Hodgdon Reloading Magazine, he went down to 1.050 OAL and got a little better SD than I did. I don't think I will go there. Shooting out of a 4.1" barrel, hitting the FPS that I did, I think I am close to the Max pressure of a standard load. I saw no sign of high pressures. I never like to shoot +P or higher loads. This load seem to produce very tight groups. I really like this powder if one is looking for the upper end of FPS for a 9mm.

 

[DR915]

2015 Hogdgon Reloading manual (magazine).....Yep great reading!!