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Hi, Mike.

Yes, Winchester Autocomp IS a new powder. I just finished reading an interesting article about it in the 2009 Hogden Annual Reloading Manual. It is available at Cabelas and, I suspect, several shooting related locations. The Hogden manual is only about $8 and has over 5000 loads for pistol and rifle.

As you may know, Hogden has taken over Winchester and IMR powders. Autocomp is so new I haven't seen it stocked locally, but then there is not much of ANYTHING stocked locally as of late. It does seem to be a versatile powder and thought about trying it myself the next time I need to buy powder. I load .45 ACP and have been recently using WST (Winchester Super Target). If you are looking for a good .45 powder which might be a bit more available you might try WST. It is a clean burning, low smoke, easy shooting powder.

I have lately been getting the dies and accumulating the brass , Win. 231, bullets and primers to get into reloading 9mm for my daughters. Auto comp would provide a lot of flexibility in loading these two cartridges as well as letting me get into .38 Special, all with one powder. I'd certainly be willing to try it.

Mike,

You might look at the Hogdon Reloading site here:

http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just agree to the terms and then make your selections as to rifle/pistol, caliber, manufacturer, bullet weight, etc. You can then print out the results.

Also Powder Valley has Auto Comp for $16.20 per pound + S/H + HAZMAT

http://www.powdervalleyinc.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hope this helps.

.45 or .38 special are good cartridges to learn to reload with - they are low pressure cartridges used (mostly) in strong guns that can give a margin of safety. In addition, I don't believe in general that they exhibit greatly increased pressures when bullets are seated a little to deep, which can be a problem in high pressure cartridges like 9mm and .40 S&W.