I have never tried VV 320- , Ramshot silhouette or tight group but my local shop has a few containers of each. I normally use AA5-7-9

I heard tightgroup is dirty but decent reviews on the others. the prices are average.

XLT - I, like you, decided to do a little review of my limited powder inventory and a long time local gun store manager says reloading powder could be the next reloading shortage item like primers are currently if the Nov election does not go as we hope it goes. This guy buys about 50-75 lbs. a week for their two stores....He said about two months ago that a lot of the popular powders were showing sold out at all of his distributors and because many powders are imported the lead time on some can be long...

Because of this I reviewed what he had in stock at their two stores and matched up that list to my most popular rounds I load (9mm, 223/5.56, 308, and 300 B/O) and decided to buy up a few extra pounds just in case....This guy knows a lot more about the powder market than I ever will so I took his advice and bought what I could afford...This was about 6-8 weeks ago...Now his shelves are all but empty of all powders....I bought Varget, Titegroup, Reloader 10X, Bullseye, IMR-4320, and CFE-223.....not a lot of each because he had a 2 unit limit per store per day so it took me several trips to get one or two 1 lb. cans of each.....At that time his prices ranged from $22 to $28 per 1 lb. can.

Glad I did now and wished I had bought more - but that hind sight is always 20/20.....Just my personal experience related to this topic.....Mark

I'm going to opine that there are times we can't be too selective about the powder we find. If its a powder that seems to be good for the cartridges we load, its maybe a smart thing to purchase if the price isn't too outlandish. Going on 11 years ago now, I had heart surgery. You know the one, where you get a valve job and new feed lines. So I retired and went home to recover. I guess the butcher did an adequate job because I'm still around, and meaner than ever. And true to form, I've lost my inventory sheet of my powder. I never even bothered with powder, being mostly a pistol and revolver shooter my go to powder was Bullseye. My 8#er should have still been full. So my wife wanted a new house and I didn't care, figuring I was a goner for sure. We packed up and moved. I had not just too much reloading stuff, but way too much.

Went looking for my Bullseye and all I could find was the jug that held 1#, no trace of the big, party jug of it. I knew it was around here someplace, but it didn't have a place in this new house. Don't let your wife put stuff you might need "away". So at the next gun show, the powder guy was there and wanted to sell out some old stuff. And he had another 8#er of Bullseye, and even though it was pricey at $110, I ponied up.

True to form I got home and wandered where the hell am I going to store it. So I guessed under one of the reloading tables would be a good place. So I stuck it there, right next to the partially used old one. Go figure. Maybe 12# total, and at 3 grains per cartridge, that'll be mroe than I can ever load or shoot up. Not counting the 8,000-10,000 I've already got stuffed full. Lets do some simple rough math, 12# @ 7000 grains per # = 72,000 rounds, give or take, plus the 1# I'm working out of. roughly 80,000 rounds, give or take. Way more than I have primers to set it off.

So do I trade or just sell the lmr lying around? If anyone were to guess, the above poster should just buy up all the powder he can. Then he can be just like me! Too much odd stuff not taking up too much space. The only ammo I've reloaded in the 1ast 10 years has been .32-20, mild loads. I can't even remember if I've still got a .32-20 rifle, but maybe. But they take SR primers. Another thing to take to a gun show. Where maybe I can catch COVID.

So here's the deal. Its time to sell stuff off, the stuff I'll never load or shoot. Pretty sure there's some fool out there that will want my old stuff. If they're dumb enough to pay high prices, I'm dumb enough to sell to them!

I would buy all he has. All usable powders.

I use Silhouette for 9 and 40. It's best loaded in the upper range. When loaded mid level it can leave a residue. That doesn't bother me. I like that it is a very low flash powder and has extremely consistent drops from my Dillon powder measure. Its a fine spherical powder. Think tiny spheres that have been smashed in the middle. Flows very well. I make sure I keep that well stocked.

-TVz

Titegroup is cleaner than W231. It's probably my favorite cheap pistol powder.

I found someone locally selling some ETR7 for $17/lb. I've never used it, and don't really have to have it, but looking into it, it uses the same load data as Tightgroup, and is supposedly super clean. I bought 12# because it was a decent price and I can learn to use it if need be.

About 6 weeks ago, I bought a 4 pound jug of 231. I also have a 4 pounder of Unique and several assorted cans, including one of Herco that someone gave me. I am ok for powder way into the future.

I would buy what you can...this is a time when reloading supplies are at a premium...just Remember that Titegroup is a low VMD powder that is easy to miss a double charge (much like AA#2 which has pretty much the same VMD)...I keep 4# of Titegroup in reserve in case I run out of Hodgdon Clays or Claydot (l like a “bulkier” powder that fills up a .45 Colt case...but I’ve used Tightgroup for .40 S&W with good success...

https://leeprecision.com/files/instruct/VMD.pdf

If it's anything somewhat popular, I'd buy it for trading. I'd do my best to trade it soon to get what I want.

Just a side bar... Silhouette is the same as the discontinued Winchester WAP powder... great stuff...

Chuck

quote:

Originally posted by TVzombie:
I use Silhouette for 9 and 40. It's best loaded in the upper range. When loaded mid level it can leave a residue. That doesn't bother me. I like that it is a very low flash powder and has extremely consistent drops from my Dillon powder measure. Its a fine spherical powder. Think tiny spheres that have been smashed in the middle. Flows very well. I make sure I keep that well stocked.

-TVz