favorite 9mm load for your P08 and P38's

[mrerick]

To Bob, asking about power availability.

About the first of this year, pistol powders began showing up again at the reloading store and gunshows in the area.

The store had BE-86 priced at about $19 (it's the new formulation of BullsEye) as well as RedDot. The BE-86 is less dense, and meters more per load than other powders. I got 8 pounds of the new Hodgdon CFE Pistol powder for $178 at our local gunshow. This is in the Triad and Triangle regions of North Carolina.

The shows were selling out of what pistol powder that they had before the end of the weekends.

As to the loadings, I had been using a moderate load of Hodgden HP-38 (also Winchester W231) behind a 115gn jacketed round nose bullet, and never had problems with cycling or feed on a matched 1937 Mauser shooter Luger I have. I've also shot truncated cone cast lead in the same configuration without any problem.

Now that the old powder is gone, I'll give the new powders a try.

Marc