CFE pistol powder?

[abbafandr]

Wondering if any of my fellow reloaders have tried this?  Opinions?

[SemperFiGuy]

In-depth Evaluation Here:

http://www.shootingtimes.com/ballistics/fast-look-hodgdon-cfe-pistol-powder/

sfg

[SS_N_NE]

My experience:
A co-worker had picked up some CFE and wanted me to try it out. I loaded 50 rounds of 230 grain FMJ .45 ACP with a light load (don't remember the grains at this time...seems 780-800fps with crony).  Usually use W231 and some Power Pistol (makes a neat flame outta a .45    ) the PP is mostly a 9mm powder I was playing with and available against shortage at the time.
The 50 rounds with CFE were very accurate...enough that I would like to load more. Haven't seen any around. Co-worker had the powder tip over in car going home and he tossed out the remains.
The powder metered consistently. As to the "CFE" part, was not able to tell any difference in cleaning the gun (Springfield RO with stainless barrel). 

[OnTheFly]

I started loading 9mm with 4.8gr of WSF under a 124gr bullet. During the great shortage of 2014, I was desperately searching for a replacement powder since my supply of WSF was dwindling and there was none in the stores. Found 12# of CFE Pistol at DE Guns in Lincoln, read some positive reviews about it, and snatched it up. I would say the pistol powder is VERY similar to WSF as I worked up some test loads in 0.2gr increments. Ended up settling on exactly the same load as I had been loading with the WSF.

No more, or less, dirty than WSF. Accuracy seems to be good for a hack like myself.

Fly

[tstuart34]

My experience:
A co-worker had picked up some CFE and wanted me to try it out. I loaded 50 rounds of 230 grain FMJ .45 ACP with a light load (don't remember the grains at this time...seems 780-800fps with crony).  Usually use W231 and some Power Pistol (makes a neat flame outta a .45    ) the PP is mostly a 9mm powder I was playing with and available against shortage at the time.
The 50 rounds with CFE were very accurate...enough that I would like to load more. Haven't seen any around. Co-worker had the powder tip over in car going home and he tossed out the remains.
The powder metered consistently. As to the "CFE" part, was not able to tell any difference in cleaning the gun (Springfield RO with stainless barrel).

I'm pretty sure deguns in Lincoln has some right now... Check out deguns.net

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

[JTH]

I started loading 9mm with 4.8gr of WSF under a 124gr bullet. During the great shortage of 2014, I was desperately searching for a replacement powder since my supply of WSF was dwindling and there was none in the stores. Found 12# of CFE Pistol at DE Guns in Lincoln, read some positive reviews about it, and snatched it up. I would say the pistol powder is VERY similar to WSF as I worked up some test loads in 0.2gr increments. Ended up settling on exactly the same load as I had been loading with the WSF.

No more, or less, dirty than WSF. Accuracy seems to be good for a hack like myself.

That is precisely the conclusion that I reached, too.  And for exactly the same reason---when I couldn't get WSF, I could find CFE Pistol and used it instead.  Pretty much exactly the same results, and the same level of accuracy, precision, and cleanliness.

Perfectly good stuff. 

[OnTheFly]

That is precisely the conclusion that I reached, too.  And for exactly the same reason---when I couldn't get WSF, I could find CFE Pistol and used it instead.  Pretty much exactly the same results, and the same level of accuracy, precision, and cleanliness.

Perfectly good stuff. 

All the more odd that we don't have similar results in accuracy with X-Treme 124gr RN bullets per your review. When I started reloading, I blatantly copied your recipe. I figured that if you shoot 20K+ of that recipe, then it should be a good starting point for me.

Fly

[abbafandr]

Thanks.  When I ran out of WSF I went with winchester 231.  I picked up a few pounds of CFE pistol powder as a backup.

[JTH]

All the more odd that we don't have similar results in accuracy with X-Treme 124gr RN bullets per your review. When I started reloading, I blatantly copied your recipe. I figured that if you shoot 20K+ of that recipe, then it should be a good starting point for me.

I have NO IDEA what is going on with those.  I had no problems in the past with Xtreme 147s, and no problems currently (with exactly the same OAL and crimp amount!) with 115s.  I know plenty of people who use the 124s with no issues at all.

I don't get it.  Hopefully at the upcoming SC match I'll have a couple of other people shoot them, and find out what happens for them.

...I will say that I'm HIGHLY impressed with the Blue Bullets I've been testing.  (And used last week in competition.  My shooting sucked, but the rounds did exactly what I told them to do.)