What is be86 good at

[Charlie98]

I bought a pound of BE-86 as a do-all powder... to replicate factory 124grn 9mm ammo, and 200grn .45ACP ammo. In my case, it simply burns too slow for my 9mm application... that is 3.6" and 3.1" Kahr barrels. My 2 test loads in 9mm actually hit a velocity threshold... .3grn more produced no additional velocity, and dumped powder junk on my arm. As much as I don't care for Unique in 9mm, it's MHO that Be-86 is worse... at least in short 9mm barrels. I even loaded up some 147grn FMJ's, I could barely break 800fps. Someone mentioned the watered down Alliant data... that's also possible, I expected more with the 147grn load.

My plans to use it in the .45ACP also has been put on hold... someone here had done some position sensitivity tests with BE-86 and the .45ACP and the results were not good. Strike three... you're out.

EDIT: I stand corrected... Toprudder was the poster I was thinking of, he said he had position issues with Sport Pistol, not BE-86... for the record. My bad.

I even tried BE-86 in the .45 Colt. The loads I worked up for my Ruger Vaquero, likely top end standard loads, which is about all I shoot in the Ruger (vs Ruger-only loads, if you see what I mean...) They shot well enough, but had a very odd recoil impulse that had me checking the barrel for a stuck bullet. It was really strange. 7.8grn BE-86 under a cast 255grn SWC gave me 825fps over the screens, but it was just a weird shooter. I can't explain it. I still have about 150 of them left, I'm going to give it a try, again, and see if I was just having a bad day.

 

[Ruger 15151]

My most accurate 9mm 115 and 124 gr loads are with BE-86. Its a great powder.

 

[LeftyTSGC]

I use BE-86 exclusively in 9mm, also use it in 38sp, .357Magnum and .45LC normal loads. I have used Longshot, Power Pistol, W231 and others also before, and I see that BE basically reduces the flash and bang while still providing the same fps and accuracy, at least for me.

we also have BE-86 thread in this forum; https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/be-86.760289/

Provides for a lot of previous research and experimentation.

Leftytsgc.

 

[ben293]

Not sure my experience will be the most helpful- been loading 9mm and 38special for about a year now. Ended up getting a can of BE-86 on sale at the LGS a while back, had started playing around with it this year before everything shut down. I liked it in 9MM- have more test loads to narrow it down that need to be fired yet. For 38 special, I am really liking it around top load with a 158gr coated SWC. Other powders I've been playing with are SP, Unique, and 231.

 

[Demi-human]

I am running through some HP-38, but can’t wait to try it in 45 Auto. A thousand feet per second at normal pressures, without the BOOM! of Power Pistol?
Count me in!

What perplexes me is the slower velocities with Alliant data in the +P section.
Why would the load data and velocity be less for a JHP than a FMJ? Why would there be more pressure? The Speer plated I can see being less pressure, or the JHPs going the same speed at less charge weight, but how it is, I am at a loss.

But, hey, I’m not the one with the laboratory.

 

[tightgroup tiger]

I agree it is good at 9mm, and .357 magnum, in fact it's good enough in .357 mag that I don't use anything else for it in midrange loads. I just bought an 8lb jug of it right be the virus hit. I got lucky.
Myself and many others tested the snot out of the stuff when it first came out. I always liked Power Pistol (BE-84) but when BE-86 came out, and I started using it, I haven't bought Power Pistol since.

 

[Average Joe]

I use it in 9mm, 38spl, and light .357 loads.

 

[labnoti]

Simply incorrect. The vast majority of muzzle flash is from the combustion products hitting the atmosphere. The vast majority of powder burns long before it leaves the barrel. It's a common misconception.

The books show much more than 20 FPS difference in BE-86 and H-110, so I don't know what you are doing to only get 20, and yes, longer barrels take much more advantage of the pressure than short barrels when using slow powders.

Come on. You should know those are un-vented test barrels, and in the case of Hodgdon, they're 10" long.

It is not a misconception that powder combustion is not complete before the bullet base exits the muzzle in most handguns. What I wrote is accurate and true. With a book-max load of H110 in a 4" barrel, the combustion is only about half complete when the bullet exits the muzzle. With BE-86, it's about 90% complete. It takes a barrel longer than 6" for H110 to combust as completely before the bullet exits. The only way to get more energy in the burn without exceeding pressure limits is to slow it to a lower rate ("flatten the curve" so to speak). With a short barrel, that means the bullet is exiting before a large portion of the powder mass has completed combustion. With longer barrels, it means slower and slower powders are practical. I'm not saying there is powder that has yet to be ignited or that it won't be burnt at all, but that it hasn't finished combustion. If combustion finished before a bullet exited the handgun barrel, we could gain a lot of velocity using slower rifle powders in larger cases, but we cannot. If it had finished combustion, even if the "vast majority" of the powder had finished combustion, then the pressure would have begun to drop long before the bullet exited. If a slower powder like H110 is going to provide more velocity, it must burn slow enough to keep the pressure higher all the way until the bullet exits. It's this greater area under the pressure/time curve that gives more velocity, and it can only be accomplished if there is enough powder still burning to create more pressure as the bullet approaches the muzzle and then exits.

 

[Charlie98]

After this thread (thanks OP! I've been through the other BE-86 thread and came away confused....) I decided to look at my data, what I have of it.

Strangely enough... 4.2grn TiteGroup and a Berry's 124grn FMJ gives me 1050fps in my 3.6" Kahr... and now that I'm looking at the data side-by-side, so does 5.4grn BE-86. Likewise, it splits the difference between Federal and PMC factory ammos (1025 and 1070fps avg, respectively) so I guess if I was looking for a factory duplicate... I have one. It still does not perform well in the shorter 3.1" barrel of the Kahr CM9, and for me 5.4grn BE-86 is THE threshold, more powder does not yield more performance. I opine that it might be a little too slow for short barrel 9's, and I'll stick to that story.

I'll have to go back upstairs and reevaluate my .45ACP load data with BE-86, and come up with a test lot.