I brought a pound of BE86 a couple years ago, it was touted as the “new Unique”. Tried it in the 45 LC, it sucked, tried it in 38spl, it sucked. relegated it to the powder shelf where it has languished unused ever since.
trying some new 9mm target loads, I ran out of AutoComp, so out of desperation pulled out the BE86, only thing I had in a similar burning rate. Wow! Great accuracy, recoil impulse very similar to the AutoComp, clean burning, surprised me as I had very limited expectations. I will try it in the 380 as well where I normally load AutoComp..
could be it’s finally found a good use!
Cool find. Maybe it needs a bit higher pressure to shine?
I started with Universal, tried TiteGroup, ran some Unique, then hit on AutoComp, until no w that’s been the powder for target level 9s. This BE86 has to be wrung out more, but the initial results were surprisingly good. I will run some over the chronograph this summer.
Good stuff!! Have you tried any other powders for 9mm? Cleanshot and Titegroup are some other good powders.