Hello , anyone used Clays powder for 125gr 9mm ? Powder being hard to find right now I bought a pound of this and it lists .38,.44 spl. as hand gun cal. that can be reloaded with what I assume is primarily a shot gun powder. Any input will be welcomed , thanks Greg

Hodgdon has a reloading website. See if they have any safe data. Ivan

You will like it, then be sad you can't find more.
Clays has a very narrow window, stay with their website, the pressure curve spikes fast. It also works well with 147 gn. 9mm, and 230 gn 45acp.
Just watch the pressure.
Be safe
tb

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If you can find Clay Dot, it is the same as Clays, and you use the same data as for Clays. I've heard that production of Clays is not going to start back up until late this year.

Not a Big fan in high pressure rds, especially 9mm & 40. With Clays, there is no such thing as a little over pressure, max is max.

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Thank you , your advice is well received , and I will stick to the load data on the clays site. They have data for my bullet 125gr. LCN , just what I needed . Thanks for taking the time to answer me . Greg

I ended up buying a case of Clays from a guy (paid too much, didn't research before hand, shame on me).

Pressure? How do I check or "watch" for pressure? I don't have a chronograph which I believe measures velocity. How does one check for high pressures?

"Check or watch for signs of high pressure", is repeated
endlessly to beginning handloaders as "safe practice" but the
reality is that pressure differences in handgun loads are
virtually impossible for handloaders to accurately read. Unless
pressures are way beyond normal and something like case
failure or gun damage has occured the handloader most
likely will be unaware. A good explanation of why this so is
in the Speer manual. Some folks obsess over starting very
low and carefully working up loads that are very low pressure
at the top charge weights. The best clue the average
handloader gets about pressure comes from the chronograph.
This isn't just my idea, to those who love to pick at other's
posts instead of making any contribution to the topic of
question. As some experienced authors have pointed out,
if you see higher than expected velocity from a load using
a proper powder and bullet combination then it's a good
bet the pressure is higher than expected as well. If you
stick to published pressure tested loads there is little to
fear regarding some mysterious high pressure the chicken
littles like to worry about. Having a good idea of what
velocity you can actually expect in your gun from any
handload is a big help. The harsh reality is that some
loading manuals use long test barrels rather than real guns
and their published velocities are meaningless. The bottom
line is that every handloader needs a chronograph and the
most useful handload data often can be found in well written magazine articles. Something that comes with lots of
experience is that the handloader will have a very close idea
of the velocity he can expect from a load before he even
tries it.

Clays is a very fast powder which puts out high pressure without driving the bullet very fast. This is good for light shotshell loads (12 gauge, 3/4 ounce loads) and low recoil 38 special, 45 ACP and 40 S&W. Unfortunately, it has a hard time driving a light bullet very fast without going over pressure. This make it tough to drive a 9mm bullet fast enough to cycle the action.

I used Clays in 12ga for many years.
It's fine for anything from 3/4oz to 1 1/8oz loads. Some of them are low pressure lows in 12ga (6 to 7K) for older guns or you can run around the max for the gauge to give 100% reliability in auto-loaders. Following loading manual info of which there is plenty instead of trying foolish seat of the pants wild-cat experimenting is the common sense way to go.

It's a versitile powder and very clean burning which is one reason it got so popular with the clay target shooters.
Nothing magic or sinister about it.
Stay with in the prescribed data and you are fine. That's a basic rule of reloading anyway,,or at least it should be.

I also use it in 38Spcl and 9mm Luger. Data right from the web site. On the 8 Lb jugs of Clays,,pistol reloading data used to be printed right on the lable. I honestly don't know if it's still there or not on the ones I have.
Again,,I've never had any problems with it.
The 9mm lead bullet reloads get used in everything from Lugers to Star semiautos and work fine when you find the right load.

Is it the 'best' powder for 9mm or 38Spcl,,? Probably not and you'd never come to the end of the argument anyway if you started the conversation. But it works OK. I use Red Dot & Green Dot too in them, and people tell me that doesn't work.
News to me.

The Australian factory where the stuff is made (an Australian Defense Supplier)had a fire or other disruption in production last year and Clays has been in short or non-existant supply of late.
Many shotgun shooters, die-hard fans of the Clays powder, have been (temporarily) switching to another powder till it comes back in stock.
Word was May of '14,,,now it's June or July I'm hearing.
Like everything else,,who knows what's going on w/ reloading supplys.

I use Clays in my .38 Special and 44 magnum target loads with lead bullets and did try it successfully in my 1911s in .38 Super (a longer 9mm cartridge) and .45ACP. While it worked well in both 1911s, I found those guns to be more accurate with AutoComp powder, which is almost as clean burning as Clays.

Ed

Thanks again to all, I am about to run out of Alliant power pistol so its Clays for now with data off the web site for my bullet type 125gr. LCN . It really helps to know someone else has used this . Greg

If you're switching over from Power Pistol to Clays be very careful. The difference in powder speed is wide between those 2. Do not overcharge Clays because it's unforgiving and will spike pressures, it's a very fast powder.

The last powder in the Clays line is Universal and that powder will be a better fit as a Power Pistol substitute than Clays along with HS-6, Unique, SR-7625 and AA#5. (and probably a few others in that burn rate range)

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ArchAngel is right but I learned the hard way that Clays Universal has to be loaded on the hot side or it won't burn completely. I tried it in .38 Special target loads and had little tan powder discs all over the bench, gun and my hands. One even got under my extractor star and prevented my cylinder from closing. Every fired casing had perhaps a dozen of those unburned discs of powder in it when they came out of the gun.

Hodgdon's advised me that Universal is not a good choice for target-level ammo for the reason I found, that it needs a lot of pressure and heat to burn. I guess for heavy loads in a handgun, it would be okay but most people don't want to shoot very much of that kind of load at paper targets.

Ed

I have used Clays and Universal in my 12 Ga. trap loads.......
bother were clean at standard or maximum loads but did not burn clean at the stating loads.

Universal is like Unique but has MORE energy and should not be used with the same data as for Unique!! It is ok in the 38 and 357 but use the correct data for Universal.

Clays is like Red Dot but as mentioned........it has a "Small window" for use in pistol and revolver loads, which I did not like. Just a little too touchy for me .

Stay safe.

Have loaded many hundreds of pounds of Clays. Big fan for shotgun. Not so much for handgun. Does not meter well thru the powder measure compared to some other powders.