Alliant BE-86

[Zombie Steve]

Any of you guys tinkered with this one yet? Everything I'm seeing shows some pretty impressive (+P) speeds in standard pressure loads in .45 auto.

Is it an obnoxious boomer? Does it behave well with lead? Does it meter well? Inquiring minds want to know...

[sellersm]

There's a huge thread over on THR forums you may want to peruse. They say it works great with lead. Meters excellent.

I've just started using it with 9mm loads and it's working great so far. They say it's basically Power Pistol without the "flash & boom"!! My 9mm loads were pretty easy shooting, nothing to report (excuse the pun) other than good accuracy.

Haven't started using it in .45 yet, been working CFE Pistol for that, but will start up some loads with it in a while (after I load all these 9mm projectiles!).

Here's one target from this past Sunday (freezing cold!!!): 115gr X-treme RN, about 1.35 COL, 5.6gr BE-86, mixed cases, CCI primers, 2 different 9mm handguns, about 7 yds (was testing some newly installed sights). (The group at about 8 o'clock was my .45acp, 200gr RMR RN loads with CFE Pistol through a S&W 25-2 revo)
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[Zombie Steve]

Thanks. I read the thread. Sounds like fun for full power loads. I wonder if it's at all temp sensitive. That's the one thing that makes me crazy is WSF is reverse temp sensitive... some pretty big swings.

[sellersm]

If it is inverse temp sensitive, I couldn't tell by feel of shooting. I went up to 5.9gr (max is 6.1) and it didn't really feel any different than the lower loads, and it was a balmy 20 degrees when I was shooting late Sunday afternoon... So I'm hoping it's not too temp sensitive.

I probably won't work up any .45 loads until sometime January. But if I remember, I'll let you know my results.

I'll probably do some .357 mag loads soon, though.

[sellersm]

I found this on another forum, a reply from Alliant about their new BE-86 powder:


Alliant Reloading Member

Sir,
I am glad to see you have stumbled onto some of the BE-86 we began shipping into distribution recently. Sorry to take so long to get it to market, but we have been under siege demand wise for all of our existing products in both OEM and canister markets that marketing didn't want to prioritize this new product (for canister). We will continue to get some out as we can, so if you ask for it, those orders should pull through.
I am very confident you will really like this powder. It is the same magic formulation as Bullseye(R) and Power Pistol(R), and virtually the exact geometry of Power Pistol. It is a little faster burning that Power Pistol though, and very similar to Unique(R), burn speed wise. As you mentioned, we have added flash suppressant to this product to moderate the flash response, whereas we do not for Power Pistol. BE-86(TM) is a high energy propellant though, so do not expect it to be flashless. The FS added moderates what would be maybe a basketball or bushel basket size bloom for a stout load of Power Pistol down to more like a baseball or cueball. I find it very acceptable from the shooter's position, and we have several OEM's that use this material for duty applications.
So to summarize, the "so what" on BE-86 is that it has the outstanding ballistics and ignitability of the BE series powders, in Unique burnrate, with great metering characteristics, with FS to moderate the flash bloom.
We worked up a good amount of data for this powder, but if we have left any applications out that you think might be interesting, send a message in through our "ask the expert" on our website, www.alliantpowder.com (http://www.alliantpowder.com/)
Thank you for your interest in our new pistol powder BE-86.
Shoot well,
Paul

[RANGERRON72]

I just got some, and plan on doing some 9mm testing out of my G19.....will let you guys know.

[sellersm]

I'm definitely happy with this powder! I think you'll like it.


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[sellersm]

My latest target (these are 5" targets) showing my 9mm loads with BE-86 and 115gr Rocky Mountain Reloading Match plated RN bullets. This is 10 yds from a small 9mm semi-auto. The outliers are from something else, the center grouping is the BE-86 load:

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