Anyone tried these powders from Midsouth Shooters Supply? They get good reviews on their site, looking at pistol powder there. Got an email saying free Hazmat with 4 lb purchase, 1/2 Hazmat with 2lb purchase. Good prices if the powder is up to par. Don't need powder right now but that has never stopped me before, any comments welcome.

I bought some Clean Shot a month or 2 ago with another free hazmat offer from them. I shot some in 9 MM and compared it to Accurate #2 and really didn't notice any difference between the 2 powders. I have a lb of Ultimate Pistol and a lb of Auto Pistol coming today (I hope) to try them out too. The Auto Pistol is supposed to be very similar to Accurate #5. The Ultimate Pistol is supposed to be similar to CFE-P. I will probably be trying all 3 out in 45 ACP, as I just bought an ATI 1911 and don't have any loaded ammo for it. I might try loading the comparable powders and see if the SW powders perform similarly. I'll probably try 100 each A#2/Clean Shot, A#5/Auto Pistol and CFE-P/Ultimate Pistol batches and give them a go.

I have never used AA#5 in .45 ACP, but it is probably the best propellant available for full power .38 Super loads.

Accurate 2 often gives the best ransom rest results in 9mm and 45acp.

joeintexas, a FYI for you. I got my primers and the Ultimate Pistol and Auto Pistol powder in this evening and I just finished loading up a couple hundred rounds. The first hundred was with Accurate #2 and the second hundred was with the Clean Shot. Both of those powders meter extremely well out of my old Lyman 55 measure and I didn't notice any difference in accuracy of the weights between the 2. The Clean Shot also looks quite a bit like A #2 too in color and consistency. I'll let you know what I think of the Auto Pistol and Ultimate Pistol when I load them up tomorrow.

IIRC they're Lovex powders made by Explosia in Czech Republic . In past years they made some of Accurate's powders I believe . Saw the special & looked to see if anything would be suitable for my needs ( rifle , I got more handgun powder than should be allowed ) but nothing jumped out .

I use the Auto and Ultimate and love them. They're the easiest meetering powders I've tried. So far I've only loaded 38 and 9mm. On my next order, I'm gonna try some Clean Shot.

I’ve heard of these powders, but never used them. What do they bring to the table that Bullseye, 231, Unique, Red Dot, and 2400 don’t? Arethey cheaper, cleaner burning, or what?

Looks to be somewhat cheaper, burn rate on the one I was looking at is the same as 231 and gets excellent reviews and had free hazmat. Reports from forum members using it are good also. Nothing negative that I can see.

I've just finished loading all 3 Shooters World powders I have now and I can tell you one thing all 3 have over Bullseye and 231; metering in my powder measure. All 3 meter extremely well in my Lyman 55 measure. The Clean Shot and Auto Pistol have a consistency much the same as Accurate #2 and meter very accurately. The Ultimate Pistol is slightly coarser, much like CFE-P, Accurate #5 or Longshot, and it also meters well.

The bulk density of the Clean Shot is much like A #2 also. The Ultimate Pistol and Auto Pistol are more dense powders than the Clean Shot. The UP weighs almost 2 grains higher weight at the setting I was using to throw 4.7 grains of Clean Shot on my Lyman 55.

Shooters World (Lovex) powders and Vectan powders.

In 2013-2015 most smokeless powders, in particular shotgun/pistol canister powders were in very short supply. By the end of 2015 most powders were becoming available however sometimes still a problem finding them. Probably the most elusive and certainly the last canister powder to re-appear was AA#2.

Anyway, in an effort to satisfy the demand for those powders several distributers of smokeless powders searched the world and were able to import Lovex and Vectan. As mentioned Lovex is made by Explosia in the Czech Republic. This factory at one time supplied Western with their ball powders. I have several pounds of AA#2 from the time it was made there.

With canister powders the suppliers generally fill orders to their commercial customers and then what is left over gets put out for us to buy.

Western made the decision to ignore handloaders, there was a time of almost 3 years when AA#2 and #5 were simply not available. Lovex filled the need. Personally I would rather pay a little more for Shooters World than to buy anything from Western, I think they treated their customer base very poorly during the shortage.

There was a fire in the plant that made Hodgdon Clays. For that powder there was at least a good excuse for the absence of the material. It took so long for the plant to get running that Alliant sourced a substitute (Clay Dot) to try to take away Hodgdons Clays. Alliant did this I think in part to hide the fact that they couldn't source American Select so they might have picked up some of Hodgdons customers but lost their American Select buyers.

Vectan is another European powder. Many years ago it was imported but then it was stopped, now it's back thanks to the above mentioned shortage. If you look in the Lee annual there are loads using Vectan powders.

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NRA Pistol & Reloading Instr.

Here's a ittle hard data in 45 Auto for you to look at, Joe.

Powders used, Auto Pistol and Ultimate Pistol.

Cases, assorted range pickups.
Primers - CCI 300
Bullets - Zero 230 grain FMJ
Pistol - ATI FX45 1911 military, 5" barrel
Chronograph - Pro Chrono Digital with bluetooth module.

With 6.8 grains Ultimate Pistol I had the following data:
Avg velocity - 897 ft/sec
Max vel. - 927 ft/sec
Min vel. - 876 ft/sec
ES - 51 ft/sec
SD - 12
Power factor Avg - 206

With 8.5 grains Auto Pistol I had the following:
Avg velocity - 907 ft/sec
Max vel. - 927 ft/sec
Min vel. - 882 ft/sec
ES - 45 ft/sec
SD - 13
Power factor Avg - 208

Next range trip I will bring some Clean Shot loads along with some Accurate #5 or CFE-P loads to try out over the chrono.

Neither of those loads were max loads for the powders. The Ultimate Pistol was .4 grains below the max shown by the SW load data. The Auto pistol was .5 grains below max load shown in the SW data. Subjectively, the Ultimate Pistol "felt" like it shot a little softer to me, even though the velocities were essentially the same. I really didn't try shooting for extreme accuracy as I forgot to bring a rest to brace on, but both shot to POA. And after running 200 rounds of these through the pistol it isn't extremely dirty or anything like that.