powder choices?

[reservecop]

i have recently started reloading, being new to the craft i had no idea what powder to start with . i ended up with a pound of hodgdon universal and a pound of vihtavuori 3n37. What do you think of my choices, are these good to start out with? also, my lee pro disk does not seem to be completly accurate when i check it on my digital scale, so i went to a powder trickler with my digital scale. will this method although slower work for loading because i dropped my scale that came with my lee turret kit and broke it when i was unpacking it. i forgot to mention that i am going to be loading for my xd9 service.

[fredj338]

It's a good thing you dropped the Lee scale, it's a pretty poor piece of kit. Universal & other med. burn rate powders are exc. performers in all the service calibers IMO. Just keep the vel. up there though for best results. VV, I haven't used that powder but all the VV powders are exc. but expensive & sometimes hard to come by. It's abit slower than Universal, so would be great for full power to +p loads. If you are looking for powder puff loads, then drop to a faster powder like TG or WST, but for a newb, you can't go wrong w/ med. burers.

[reservecop]

would it be worth my time to return the scale for repair or should i just stick to the trickler with my digital scale? also i saw somewhere that the xd likes rounds that are loaded close to the maximum OAL, anything to this?

[jdavionic]

Originally Posted by fredj338

It's a good thing you dropped the Lee scale, it's a pretty poor piece of kit. Universal & other med.

You might be surprised to see this...granted it wasn't scientific, but I was surprised.
Odd experiment opportunity

[The Knight Of Light]

3n37 is a very slow powder as is Universal. These will most likely give you very slow recoil with a gentle push in 9mm.

VV powders like to perform best close to max load so please be careful! You may get some cornmeal looking stuff in the barrel from the 3n37 as fouling.

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by The Knight Of Light

3n37 is a very slow powder as is Universal. These will most likely give you very slow recoil with a gentle push in 9mm.

These are not "Slow" powders by any means. Universal is about like Unique & WSF, squarely in the med. burn range. #n37 is about like HS6, just abit slower than Unique or Universal. Yes, they need to run near the upper end to burn cleanly, but slow they are not. Slow powders start above Longshot & AA#7; BlueDot, AA#9, 2400, etc.

[The Knight Of Light]

Originally Posted by fredj338

These are not "Slow" powders by any means. Universal is about like Unique & WSF, squarely in the med. burn range. #n37 is about like HS6, just abit slower than Unique or Universal. Yes, they need to run near the upper end to burn cleanly, but slow they are not. Slow powders start above Longshot & AA#7; BlueDot, AA#9, 2400, etc.

Semantics.

They are much slower than my normal Tightgroup load.

[reservecop]

i guess i will use up what i have on hand since i am new to loading. also i am still tinkering with loads using these two powders but haven't really hit on anything i like or that my xd9 service likes. i was fairly pleased with 5.5 gr. of vith3n37 behind a hornady 115gr. fmj roundnose but i hope to find something better although my hornady book says max load is 6.0 gr. dont have the book in front of of me but it seems like thats right. i have not tried anything other than the min. load for the universal powder per my hornady book , gun would not cycle. does anyone know the weight on the stock spring for this xd. i have fired 300 rounds of factor winchester target load through it before starting trying my hand loads. would you recommend changing to a different spring while i am trying to establish a load to my likeing?

[The Knight Of Light]

Originally Posted by reservecop

i guess i will use up what i have on hand since i am new to loading. also i am still tinkering with loads using these two powders but haven't really hit on anything i like or that my xd9 service likes. i was fairly pleased with 5.5 gr. of vith3n37 behind a hornady 115gr. fmj roundnose but i hope to find something better although my hornady book says max load is 6.0 gr. dont have the book in front of of me but it seems like thats right. i have not tried anything other than the min. load for the universal powder per my hornady book , gun would not cycle. does anyone know the weight on the stock spring for this xd. i have fired 300 rounds of factor winchester target load through it before starting trying my hand loads. would you recommend changing to a different spring while i am trying to establish a load to my likeing?

The stock weight is 17lbs. I like a 16.5 variable from Wolff gun springs.

[fredj338]

Originally Posted by The Knight Of Light

Semantics.

They are much slower than my normal Tightgroup load.

It's not semantics, sorry. TG is one of the fastest powders available to the handloader. There are 5-6 faster powders but more than 40 Usefull "slower" powders. It's usefull info, not semantics. TG is not a "normal" burn speed powder but what I like to call uberfast. Telling someone Unique or an sim. is a "slow" powder is misleading at best. Have al look at a burn rate chart, alittle knowledge is helpfull. Powder Burn Rate Comparison Chart @ www.reloadersnest.com Slower, yes, very slow, nope.