CFE Pistol

[shil]

I've been playing with CFE Pistol for jacketed-bullet loads in .38 Special and .357 Magnum. Results: generally good except with all guns tried there appears to be an unusually large flash from the barrel/cylinder gap. Muzzle flash is low. Has anyone else observed this? I don't recall this occurring so noticeably with other powders I've used.

 

[Nevada Ed]

I shoot in the afternoons and never noticed in my 2-6" revolvers.........or 9mm pistols.

It did real well in the 357 mag...........ok in the 38 special and
does standard loads in my 9mm's.

Did not do well with light target loadings.........
Medium to full loads worked the best in my firearms..........
and I did not have to worry about "Red Lining" the Tach, if you get my drift........ on the loading data.

Good shooting

 

[ChiefStealth]

(snip)Did not do well with light target loadings.........
Medium to full loads worked the best in my firearms..........

Could you expound on this a bit? For 9mm "target loadings", what was it that you didn't like with the powder? Was accuracy a problem?

 

[Nevada Ed]

115gr plated with 5.3~ was not the best accuracy ........
Bullseye, Red Dot, Green Dot and w231 shot tighter groups.

124gr plated with 4.9~ gr of HS6 was my minimum and the cases were very dirty and 5.0 shot better and the cases did clean up a little, at 931 fps in a 3" Kahr.

Seems like 1010 fps plus is needed in my 3 and 3.5 pistols to attain groups that are acceptable to me, with the HS6 powder with standard pistol primers.

Subsonic loads just do not work, for me with this powder. It might be that being a "Ball" type powder and low case volume that the primer/volume might come into the accuracy thing. A 72% case volume did do better than the lower amounts.
CFE was almost the same with the lower target loads in the accuracy department, while w231 even at a minimum charge did shot groups in UNDER 1" in my pistols.
HS6 is best at 95% or higher pressures in my pistols.
For light target loads I did best with 231 or Red Dot.

 

[m657]

I mistakenly loaded a bunch of 9mm 115 FMJ with low & mid range CFE last fall.
Miserable failure for reliable slide function/feeding issues in two separate 9mm pistols, all known for their ability to digest 'anything'.

Despite the mfg published velocities, and I used the 1040-1080-1130 & up charges, it was unsatisfactory.

Those I loaded in the higher end (1200 fps IIRC) range, really had poor accuracy for close range targets.

This was very odd, as my previous 38/357 revolver loads were quite accurate for my needs...

Suggestion: only load a few dozen at a time and confirm they produce the results you want, as well as cycling your pistol.

And please do report back to the forum here on your findings.

 

[Nevada Ed]

please explain 9mm loads.............

I tried CFE in a 3" and 3.5" 9mm with both the 115 and the 124gr RN plated bullets, from light target loads to the manuals maximum loads for the Luger standard pressure loadings.

Middle of the road loadings gave me the best accuracy and only the 124gr with a maximum load had acceptable groups in the 3" Kahr pistol but the fps was only 1107 fps.

In the 3.5" a maximum load with the light 115gr plated got to 1139 fps, that was 96% of the factory loading. Unique with the same set up, pushed this bullet to 1263 fps with Alliant data.

Here is a picture of a CFE in the 3" Kahr.........
note the low fps for a "Full Load" .........the light target loads were also all over the paper, from 4.9 to 5.2 grs.

 

[Bkreutz]

CFE pistol is a relatively slow powder and needs barrel length to build velocity. You're probably spreading partially burnt powder halfway to the target.

 

[Nevada Ed]

+1;

my snub nose 38 does not like CFE......

my 38 and 357 magnum loads out of a 6" barrel are very accurate.

I have yet to load the 4" 9mm. I am sure it will be like night and
day with the results on paper.

 

[ChiefStealth]

Thanks for all the good info, folks. I was kinda looking to try out this CFE stuff. However, I'm a low-power, auto-pistol, range fodder kind of re-loader. It doesn't really sound like the CFE is suitable for my kind of reloading. I'll stick with the BE & 231, for now.