So I've seen mention of TiteGroup as a good powder to use for both of these cartridges. What else is recommended for general purpose/plinking use?c

Should also feed well from a powder measure.

I use Unique.... I have no problems with it metering. Many say it is dirty but I don't mind it.

I used to be a big Bullseye and Unique user and I still use it a fair bit.  But I've recently discovered AA#2 & #5 for similar loads and I like the way it meters over the BE and Unique.

Any thoughts on CFE Pistol?

Titegroup.  You already know.

True Blue is an ARF favorite.

Titegroup is great. I’ve burned up a whole bunch of it.

Bullseye is a classic.

WST for 45
WSF for 9mm
N310 for 45
N330/N340 for 9mm

My favorite powder for 9mm & .45acp is Hodgdon HS-6.
It's a ball powder, meters great.
It's only drawback is that it's not the most economical powder, but s**t, for 9mm you're still getting over 1,100 rounds out of each pound.

AA #5, AA #7, WST, HS-6 Can't really go wrong with any of these for 9mm or 45ACP.

add to the list...

win231 / HP38

win 231, meters well and works in lots of different pistol calibers.

Currently using CFE pistol for both.

I have had a lot of satisfaction out of Titegroup, Unique and CFE in that order. Titegroup is a double edged sword. A little goes a long way but for those that aren’t careful, a double charge is possible! For those that are careful, it is a very economical powder! Good luck!

I use W231.

I've tried several others such as Unique, Super Field, others.

I always come back to W231.  Other than full power 357 magnum, I use W231 for all my pistol loads.

I went through tons (figurativly speaking) of this in 9mm and 45acp back when I reloaded.

I'm using Winchester 231 for 9 and 45.

Thanks all.

Surprised to see such a broad variety able to fulfill both loads. Should definitely help with limited availability.

700X. Makes nice soft shooting loads.  

Doesn't meter worth as shit, though.

Years ago during the last powder shortage I could find Hodgdon Universal but not much of anything else. While it isn't the best powder and is dirty, it does work with a wide range of pistol calibers and meters very well. I currently use Universal for 380, 9mm, 9mm Largo, 40S&W, and 45 ACP. I'm considering Universal for 38 Special.

HP 38 and W231 are the same powder.  With 231 you pay more for the powder.  Burned a lot of that powder up over the years, before going to TG.

Clean burning VV powders are the top of the ladder.

Power Pistol is pretty clean!

TG is a good powder, but it burns hot and scorches the cases.  No big deal except to the anal reloader are fussy.

Unique works well, too.  Some claim it does not measure in Dillon PM's and I have not had that experience!

Find what works for you!  And, stock up!

This is why I ended up using CFE Pistol for the past few years. Always in stock at my go-to places. For whatever reason, Unique and W231 were never in stock when I wanted some.

I have noticed that either.  I use a 124 FMJ over 5.0 gr of unique.  For OP sake, I’ve shot thousands of 45ACP and 147 gr using Titegroup.  I use a 147 gr bullet with 3.5 gr and can usually get 2k rounds per pound.  For plinking and steel it’s very economical.  I actually think TG is dirtier than Unique.

Must be a New Hampshire thing.

I have been playing around with several powders in 9/45 but I will always keep 10+lbs in stock of 231/hp38.  I know i might find a slightly better powder for each application, but it makes a good 45 powder up to near full power loads and makes for a nice minor/subsonic 9mm 124gr load.

-Mike

I like Accurate #5

Yeah, probably...us frugal New England Yankees (not to confused with the NY Yankees )

It is no longer listed for them but green dot will work. The reviews I've read say it is softer recoiling and groups well.

Yes good stuff

It's okay.  I used to be a W231 fan but then discovered AutoComp, meters great, clean burning and pushes 10mm like no other.

Win 231 covers most of my pistols.  Use to use unique but have seen win231 is easier to find in stock, I keep 8 pounds in inventory.

SNOWMAN357

Winchester 231 is what I use for 45 and 9 mm.

Already mentioned, but True Blue is what I load for both calibers, range and SD ammo. Tons of reloading data for it including +P loads from Ramshot. Burns clean, meters great and typically easy to find.

Ignore the CFE in the picture, picked it up 6 years ago I think and haven't tried it yet. Gotta make some time to drop it off to ARF brother up the road. Attached File

I noticed if you are working up loads properly, and are using the projectiles in the recipes, W231 loads cover some of the same ground...according to Hodgdons load data, 9mm 115gr and .45 230gr lead round nose loads have a min/max of 4.3-4.8grs and 4.3-5.3grs, respectively.

So assuming you worked up loads that were safe in your pistols, and functioned properly, you *potentially* wouldn't even have to adjust the powder measure when switching. A minor convenience I suppose, but I feel it could simplify life, a bit. For plinking, I dont see the need to push loads to the max.

i like cfe pistol for 9mm. in 45 acp it was blowing a ton of unburnt powder into my face. Either I just was loading too mild or its not a great powder for a 230gn 45 ACP.

I was using power pistol for 45 acp but haven't seen it in stock locally lately.

Well I decided to quit 45 so I don't need a "best for both" powder.

I've loaded 3.7gr of CFE Pistol with 147 FN bullets (9mm). It test fired perfectly in my 1911 & Walther Q5 with 5 rounds in the mag.

Had a follow up range session with the 1911 and it wouldn't feed from a full mag. Need RN or longer OAL.

I also have TiteGroup & Vihtavuori 3N37 stashed.

get it right....

its god dam Yankees...

ask me how i know

yea i used unique too but have been a true blue convert now...

That's the same load I use - 3.7gr of CFE Pistol with a 147gr from BBI.  Probably shot six or eight thousand of them, mostly through Glocks and M&Ps.  Works out to about a 136 power factor (USPSA).

Only problem I ever had was when my seating die somehow loosened up and the bullets ended up LONG.  Like WAY long.  

Yeah, I'm using the BBI FN. With a full mag, they hit the front of the mag body without coming up. I loaded to the Same OAL as the Syntech 150gr but doesn't like it.

I suspect a full mag in my Walther won't be a problem.

Once I get my Blue Bullets 147gr RN (if ever) I'll load those to 3.5gr and see if that's a puff load.

I used Unique for a really long time. Worked really well. A bit dirty, but cleans up fairly easy. For some reason Unique has been bought out quick around here. I went to Win231 for both 9mm and 45ACP. Can usually find it pretty easily. I have 2 8lb kegs and that should last a pretty long time.

CFE Pistol.

I've worked up a nice. 45acp load using 230gr and 6 6gr.

I've worked up a 9mm load using 124gr fmj and 5.2gr.

I've also loaded .38 special with cfe and it worked out fine.

Great powder, no issues with it in my 9mm loads.

I'm a fan of Win231/HP38.   Use it in 9, 45, and 44.

Same. Been using it for years with 9 and 45, but i just discovered it for 44 this past week. Makes for some crazy soft shooters.

I am sitting on 18 1/2# of Unique so I should be okay for awhile as well. I still do not find Unique to be any more dirty than factory loads I have shot...

This.  I've had great results with it.

My regular powder for 9mm and 45ACP is CFE Pistol.
But I finally took Dryflash's advice and picked up a pound of True Blue.
Results in 38 Special and 45ACP were impressive enough that I got a 4# jug of True Blue.
Going to use it for a couple K of 45ACP,
And work up a load for 9mm.
So the your answer is:
True Blue, CFE Pistol, Longshot, WSF, AA #5, and Silhouette.
All have worked very well in 9mm and 45ACP.

WST . used a lot of it in the past for 9/40/45 .  burns clean and meters well.  and its a fluffy powder so it fills the case well

Winchester Autocomp covers the widest range of things for me.  I would switch over to it completely, but was just gifted another 8 pounds of W231.

I thought I was stuck with about 3 pounds of WST shotgun powder, but someone on the forum mentioned it was good for pistols.  I have already tested and am currently loading up all my .45ACP components with it.  

Used up almost 50 lbs of HP-38 a friend of mine and I bought from an estate sale.  Came in cardboard containers like below.  Also ended up with about 30 lbs of 4831 surplus.  Came in paper lunch bags with "H4831" written on the outside.  Smelled good, and we were very careful about working up a load in 6.5 Swedish and 300 Win Mag.  All was $2/lb.

Loaded thousands of rounds of 45 acp target loads with cast bullets, as well as 38 spl and 357 magnum mid-range loads.

In my experience, a powder good for one is pretty much always good for the other.  I hear good things about True Blue, but haven't run it.  My go-to right now is CFE-pistol, for the cleaner CFE technology.  Is it actually cleaner?  eh, maybe - might just be good marketing, but regardless, it seems to run well.  In my experience and usage, I try to spec a powder with enough bulk that a double charge either won't happen, or at least will be obvious; and CFE-Pistol does that.  The flip side is such powders tend to have a higher mass-charge, so economically I guess the cost/charge is a little higher. Though when it comes to pistol powder; that is some seriously trivial difference in round-cost, since it uses so little anyway.

Here's what I've found:
-HP38/Win231 - go-to kings of basic 9mm/.45 pistol powder.  Meters well, cheap, common.  No gee-whiz technology; but really - tough to go wrong here.  The flake powder is large enough it won't leak through an unprimed primer hole.  As mentioned, HP38 is the same thing and usually a couple bucks cheaper.
-AA #5.  This ball spherical powder meters like water, and I really like it.  Again though, no gee-whiz technology in it.  Also, beware - that since it meters like water, it flows like water.  If you miss a primer in a progressive for whatever reason, the powder will flow right out of the hole (i.e. it's hard to just recover a wups and just prime-with-care after the fact, since all the powder isn't still in there).  Runs a little larger charge, so you'll run out a little faster than with HP38
-CFE-Pistol.  Shaped much like HP31/Win231.  It's a bit slower, so charges tend to be a touch higher, and unburned powder residue spraying can be a thing in milder loaders and shorter barrels, but not bad.

-Unique.  I actually like Unique, it's a... well, unique powder with forgiving properties that let it be used across a big spectrum of rounds, and tends to be forgiving to overcharges.  But, it's an old-tech powder, that tends to call for pretty large charges, and has a reputation for being really dirty.  That said, if you have a line on getting a bunch of Unique for cheap, it's actually a pretty good general-purpose powder.

One's I don't like.
-Blue Dot.  Way too slow, and will spew unburned powder all over the place.  Takes huge charges too.  The nice thing about it though is it's probably hard to blow yourself up with an unnoticed Blue-Dot overcharge.  Be sure to use magnum primers if you're running BlueDot - it's the only powder I've found were such makes a difference.
-Bullseye/Titegroup/RedDot.  All of these powders are the most economical you can go and give great clean performance. They are also very fast, and so a double charge going by unnoticed is a notably bigger risk with these tiny charges.  Also, a 0.2 gr standard deviation variable charge with one of these 3.0 gr loads is a lot more of a big deal, than a 0.2 gr error with a 5.0gr charge of one of the above.
-Hi-SKOR700 (& 800).  RUN AWAY!   These don't meter in a progressive - and give massively variable charges, and can even bind up your equipment.  I guess shotshell reloading equipment charges different or something, but this is the most hated powder I've encountered with pistol shooters.  Otherwise, I guess they shoot fine.