So now that i had some good and some okay results from my hand loads, I want to start tweaking.  Is the usual method to start low and work up the powder charge?  Is there any benefit in keeping the powder charge and changing the COAL?  Also, if my brass was dirty after firing, but there we no signs of over pressure, should increasing the charge fix that?  The problem carts were 9mm filled with 5.1 grains of Power Pistol using a 124gr bullet.

Work your charge weight first, then think about COAL if you must.  Never saw a need to adjust COAL in pistols except for feed problems in autoloaders,  

 

Start a load ladder at the lowest published charge weight and work up from there.  Most accurate loads in my ladders were no where near max charge weights.  I now stick to loads that meet or just exceed power factor of 125 for 9MM and 165 for 45ACP.  (PF is bullet weight times FPS divided by 1000).  Only time I go significantly over is when I am loading 230 hardball loads for 45ACP.  Lengthens number of times you can reload brass.

 

As far as dirty brass I believe that the powder used is the number one reason followed by barrel chamber.  I would not worry about it.  Not a fan of Alliant powders in pistols, always seemed to be dirty for me. 

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This.

 

I've found no real difference in fooling with OAL with handgun ammo with the exceptin mentioned by T Bill. OAL can effect accuracy on rifle ammo. However most of the time I've fooled with it the results have not made much difference. It would make a difference for a bench rest shooter trying to squeeze that group size down a few hundredths of an inch.

 

Dirty brass can be causearched by light loads and the brass not expanding to fill the chamber. It can also be causes by dirtier powder. Don't worry about it either way. As long as the loads do what you want them to do brass can be cleaned. My standard 45 ACP load using Unique gets the brass a bit dirtier than a faster powder. Not dirty enough to foul up the gun just gets the brass dirtier. Don't worry about it.

 

All my loads are well under max.

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This.

 

I've found no real difference in fooling with OAL with handgun ammo with the exceptin mentioned by T Bill.

That's generally been my experience, though I once had problems with a 9 mm Glock keyholing badly until I took OAL out to the max. Bullets had apparently been jumping too far before engaging the rifling ( though the loads were fine in other 9's).

Great - thanx for the info.  One less thing to worry about.

I tend to keep my OAL on the longer side most of the time -- as long as they are not over max recommended and I get enough seating depth to hold the bullet firm in the case -- they also must feed reliably

 

Then I play with powder charge until I hit the sweet spot -- for 20 years I didn't care about power factor only recently has that been an issue -- luckily my favorite 45 acp load makes major