Load Testing: Nobel Sport Vectan Ba9 powder

[double-d]

Anyone have recommendations on the Nobel Sport powder?  The current sale going on at Graf's looks enticing.

I'm going to get back into reloading soon; 9mm, 45acp, 44mag, .30-06, .223/5.56, .308win.

Browsing Vectan's site has me interested in the BA9, BA9-1/2 for the pistol calibers and TU5000 on the rifles.

What experience do you reloaders have on this powder line?

I realize I'm leaving out a bunch of particulars (primer type, bullet type/weights, etc), simply looking for a good place to start powder wise.

Will be metering through Hornady LNL & Redding measures.


[Mods changed title]

[Wobbly]

I ordered 2 cans of BA9 to try out. At less than $20 who can resist ? 


Use their powder burn rate chart to compare speeds to powders you know and love. The BA series looks to be single-base, which is always a favorite trait of mine. I was afraid to order more not knowing how long they'll sell it, and too it wasn't available in 4lb cans.

[mjzman]

I tried several Vectan powders a couple of years ago when almost no powders were available.
Now use BA9 regularly for standard 9mm loads for practice. I find it to be a pretty good powder.
Tried BA 7 1/2 and do not like it. Does not give anywhere near the velocities for me that the Nobel load data would suggest. I did get a 9mm carbine last year and 7 1/2 works okay in it, but AA#7 is much better.
Also AS- I use it more in .38 Special but it works in 9mm. I have a suspicion that AS means it is intended to be similar to American Select, a fast, low bulk flake powder.
And A1- have only used in .38 Special where probably because of its large flakes it shows little position sensitivity.
BA10- I bought a pound but have never used any. I concluded that if the specs are right it is just too fast for my purposes.

Tubal 5000 I bought and tried in .223. I found it to be a very ordinary powder which fills a .223 case but still does not give the velocities to me that the specs show using 65-69 gr bullets. I shoot for accuraccy and there are a lot of .223 powders out there which give much better accuracy.

[dave33]

I have some 9 1/2 coming from Grafs now, did some research on it, suppose to be similar to VV N320.  It did get pretty good all around reviews.  I do have a pound of A0.  There is no current 9mm load data on it but I did get some data off an older Lee die insert.  Extremely accurate and clean burning, but only at the top of the load range.

[double-d]

I appreciate the replies!
Just ordered 4 pounds of BA9-1/2 to try, thought the price was right @ $20/1.1#.
Also ordered Winchester small & Federal large pistol primers to go along with the half price hazmat fee.

Plan to re-wet my loading feet with 9mm & .45acp to start.

Now to find some bullets.......

[gianmarko]

i used to use Ba9 for minor loads. good powder but not as clean as the N320 for very light loads. need to push the PF a little to keep the burning clean.

a friend tried the Ba9 1/2 but we cant see much difference with the Ba9

i use Tu5000 for 308, very accurate but speeds are not that high, might also be caused by the short barrel of the R700 AAC-SD. i see 750-760 mt/sec with 168 grs A-Max match.

SP2 for major loads in 9x19, behind 124 RNFMJ. best powder ever, very low pressures at PF 170

most vectan reloading tables are very conservative. so be ready to go well beyond the doses advertised as maximum. for the 308 im using 46 grains, where the tables say max 42.6; the chrono is your friend.

[Wobbly]

I used to use Ba9 for minor loads. Good powder but not as clean as the N320 for very light loads. Need to push the PF a little to keep the burning clean.

A friend tried the Ba9 1/2 but we cant see much difference with the Ba9.

I use Tu5000 for 308, very accurate but speeds are not that high, might also be caused by the short barrel of the R700 AAC-SD. I see 750-760 mt/sec with 168gr [Hornady] A-Max match [bullet].

SP2 for major loads in 9x19, behind 124 RNFMJ. Best powder ever, very low pressures at PF 170.

Most Vectan reloading tables are very conservative. So be ready to go well beyond the doses advertised as maximum. For the 308 I'm using 46 grains, where the tables say max 42.6; the chrono is your friend.

And all this coming from a guy who lives in Vectan land.

Thanks. Great input and much appreciated. 

[Grizzlie]

i used to use Ba9 for minor loads. good powder but not as clean as the N320 for very light loads. need to push the PF a little to keep the burning clean.

a friend tried the Ba9 1/2 but we cant see much difference with the Ba9

i use Tu5000 for 308, very accurate but speeds are not that high, might also be caused by the short barrel of the R700 AAC-SD. i see 750-760 mt/sec with 168 grs A-Max match.

SP2 for major loads in 9x19, behind 124 RNFMJ. best powder ever, very low pressures at PF 170

most vectan reloading tables are very conservative. so be ready to go well beyond the doses advertised as maximum. for the 308 im using 46 grains, where the tables say max 42.6; the chrono is your friend.

I agree with the conservative values in their guide. With a max powder charge I get waaaay slower speeds in 9x19,. 45ACP, and 38spc when using the Ba9 (of course using a chrono)

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[Wobbly]

Vectan Ba9 Testing

I recently picked up a half-kilo (1.1 lbs) of Nobel Sport Vectan Ba9 powder from Grafs & Son. This is great powder and 1.1 lbs for $20 makes it a great buy. Unfortunately, Grafs only sells it in the smaller containers. This is a single-base powder which means it runs cools and clean. There are a number of similarities to VihtaVuori N320/N330. One of the similarities is that this powder is also a mini-stick. It meters very well and 'drops' are highly repeatable. Case fill is excellent, without being overly full even at 5.2gr, which was the stated max load.

https://www.grafs.com/


Data
Caliber:  9x19 Luger
Bullets:  Precision Delta 124gr JHP
Brass:  RWS
Powder:  Vectan Ba9 (4.2gr to 5.2gr)
Max Velocity:  1178fps  (* never achieved)
Primer:  Federal #100
OAL: 1 .110"
Pistol:  CZ P-10c
Qty:  10 rounds each, slow fired
Weather:  60F and overcast, 10AM light
Chrono:  ProChrono


Load      Avg Vel           SD
4.2             825              22*
4.4             866              11
4.6             910              13
4.8             948              13
5.0             954              12
5.2             994                6


NOTES
- This powder burned remarkably clean, even at 4.2gr, with zero trash
- I attribute the SD of 22 to corn cob litter inside one of he cases, causing a wide ES
- All of these loads locked the slide open on a stock P10c
- Shooting at ~15 ft I was able to maintain a sub-1" shot group
- There was a huge disparity between tested data (5.2gr @ 994fps) and the published data (5.2gr @ 1178fps), which matches other reports
- A good time was had by all
- Data taken from Here: Nobel Sport Reloading Guide #20


Hope this helps !   

Grain shape and case fill at 5.2gr....


Test loads....

[1SOW]

Hmm,  a lot of powder for very little speed.
At max. load it wouldn't make minor for the PD 124  unless the pressure curve jumped like crazy.

[Wobbly]

It's REALLY hard to know where to go with this powder.

• IF the reported speeds are correct, then 9mm could probably be loaded up to 6.0gr or higher. At 5.2gr the Federal primers are flattened, but not that flat. However, the shell casings are being flung about 4 ft and the loads are operating the P-10 slide without problem, which Sport Pistol wouldn't.

• IF the reported loads are correct, then this powder won't even come close to making Minor PF with any kind of margin. 


And 1SOW is correct, it's not a very efficient powder either way. Not when compared to N320 making PF at 4.2gr, W231 at 4.3gr, and Sport Pistol at 4.1gr. I'd like to try their next slower powder becasue all the other powder features look so promising. The whole thing leaves me scratching my head. Nobel is a huge chemical company in Europe; comparable to DuPont or DOW. How could their data be so far off ?

 

[painter]

Vectan doesn't list OAL, that I can find at least.

No way of knowing how deep they're seating.

Try some at 1.06 and see.

If you compare prices to VV, is it really less economical? I doubt it.

[Grizzlie]

Online through their powder/bullet search engine they give 19.15mm for length for the 9x19

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

[painter]

Online through their powder/bullet search engine they give 19.15mm for length for the 9x19

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

That's the empty case length. 19.15mm = slightly over 3/4"

[Wobbly]

19.15mm = 0.754 inches, the max brass length.