Your Favorite Powder for

benenglish · Jan 17, 2018

tallyman said:
I load lead bullets in my handgun loads and in my .30 caliber rifles.

For your rifles, ever try SR4759? Works well with lead bullets.

Charley · Jan 17, 2018

SR4759 was/is my favorite cast bullet rifle power I still have a can and a half of it, I use it sparingly. Being discontinued for the second time, I doubt we will be seeing it again.

benenglish · Jan 18, 2018

SR4759, as far as I can tell, is the favorite cast bullet rifle powder of everyone who's ever used it in conjunction with an old Lyman manual that still published the good data for it.

I didn't realize it had been discontinued; I'm glad I have a stash big enough to last me the rest of my life.

Charley · Jan 18, 2018

As far as I can remember, SR4759 was discontinued (for the second time) in 2014. First time was back in the 90s, I think. Customer complaints led Dupont to restart production. After Hogdon bought the line, they made the business decision to just let it go. Sales were never that great, production costs were high, and newer technologies were more profitable. If you want some, buy it if you can find it. Quite a bit of my powder comes from estate sales and such. As long as it is sealed, and smells right when opened, I don't have a problem using it. YMMV.

benenglish · Jan 18, 2018

Charley said:
Quite a bit of my powder comes from estate sales...

I think I have nearly 30 pounds of 4895 that's WWII surplus, so I kinda know what you're talking about.

Charley said:
If you want some, buy it...

I can't imagine using all I have before I die. I bought a case of 32 lbs out of the last production run. Didn't know it was the last run, but I bought it anyway. I guess I got lucky.

That's one in a row.

Charley · Jan 18, 2018

I've got about 8 pounds of WWII 4831, some of Bruce Hogdon's original surplus. till smells right, and still works fine.

schmellba99 · Jan 19, 2018

Charlie said:
Varget is my go-to powder for my .223 AR. Best accuracy for my AR that I've loaded.

I use it in my bolt action .223, but it doesn't meter all that well so for my volume reloading AR rounds I go with H335 for the most part. I have another powder I got a while back, can't remember which one it is now though. Bought it when 335 was near impossible to get - 4895 or something along those lines.

deemus · Jan 19, 2018

schmellba99 said:
I use it in my bolt action .223, but it doesn't meter all that well so for my volume reloading AR rounds I go with H335 for the most part. I have another powder I got a while back, can't remember which one it is now though. Bought it when 335 was near impossible to get - 4895 or something along those lines.

H335 is great in AR rounds. I recently shot a few from my bull barrel AR (usually from my A-4 clone) and they were less than 1" low at 300 yds.

That stuff meters well and is not temp sensitive. Got lucky one day during the lean powder days and got an 8 lb'er.

I have use W448 on AR rounds, but really like 335.

Skee · Jan 29, 2018

TheMailMan · Jan 31, 2018

Rusty Gun said:
I gotta vote for WST. Soft shooting, clean, no smoke, no flash, accurate as I can be. Friend suggested it I tried it and liked it so much I asked the Dillon to make another 200 rounds last Saturday morning.

I load it with both 230 grain and 200 grain.

I'm a WST fan too. I use it to load everything from 155 gr SWC to 238 gr SWC. I dabble a bit with Red Dot, Unique, Bullseye, IMR Target, IMR Red, and some other powders. I keep going back to WST.

When I run out of my stock of WST I might pick up a keg of Promo. I've read a lot of good things about it.

Kosh75287 · Feb 2, 2018

When I run out of my stock of WST I might pick up a keg of Promo. I've read a lot of good things about it.

I don't think you'll be disappointed in Promo. The only drawback I've found to it is that an 8 lb. keg lasts a VERY long time (for me). If you regularly shoot competition, this may not be much an issue for you. I bought an 8 lb. keg with exactly this intention, and then my life radically changed.

Promo is basically RedDot without the dots (and without a density spec, but since you charge be weight, it's fine), though I've heard it's a blend of other Alliant powders formulated to burn LIKE RedDot (whatever). It's very clean-burning in moderate to max loads (a LITTLE dirty in very light ones, but not bad), meters okay (doesn't "meter like water", a la the ball powders, not doesn't "meter like corn flakes", either), and has turned out some of the most accurate pistol reloads I'VE ever assembled. For rounds like .45 ACP, .38 Special, .40 S&W, and even 9x19mm, it's a VERY useful powder, and has never failed to deliver factory-equivalent ballistics when I've had the opportunity to chronograph my loads.

There may be a few exceptional pistols in which higher velocities can be obtained in .45 ACP using something BESIDES Promo, but I get velocities with Promo similar to what I obtain using max charges of Unique, and with better economy. In .45 ACP, it may be the best propellant available FOR THE MONEY. Doubtless, someone will tout another propellant as being better, but not less expensive.

As for "BEST POWDERS" for pistol & rifle, I'd likely go with Alliant Unique or HERCO (pistols), and either of the (currently COMMERCIALLY available) 4895s, or IMR-4064, or Varget. All of my rifles are chambered for medium capacity former military calibers, so these powders will work in all of them.

If I owned a rifle chambered for one of the "super-high-velocity meat homogenizer" calibers, I'd probably want one of the 4350s or some 4831 on the shelf. Maybe one day...

Gummi Bear · Feb 2, 2018

Titegroup for all my pistol rounds. It may not be the best, but it works for every caliber I reload for. 9, 38, 40, 45

Varget for most large rifle

H4895 for reduced recoil loads - I feel that this was key in introducing my daughter to centerfire rifle shooting. Now, she loves it, even full power loads

H335 for 223

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately...

Henry David Thoreau

benenglish · Feb 2, 2018

Gummi Bear said:
H4895 for reduced recoil loads - I feel that this was key in introducing my daughter to centerfire rifle shooting. Now, she loves it, even full power loads

This is incredibly important. Thanks for the reminder. For anyone who's never tried it, there is excellent reading here. For folks who are interested in using Trail Boss to do the same thing, the generalized instructions are here.

TheMailMan · Feb 2, 2018

Titegroup doesn't play well with powder coated bullets.

I pretty much gave up powder coating for Hi-Tek though.

Skee · Feb 18, 2018

.45ACP 230 gr. FMJ N310 or BE-86
.45ACP 200 gr. LSWC 231
9mm 147 gr. Titegroup
9mm 124 gr. FP CFEP

Charlie · Feb 18, 2018

Varget for my 223
H110 for the 300BLK (subsonic loads)

TxStetson · Feb 18, 2018

Varget for all my rifles rounds, and Unique for all my pistol rounds. I do have and use other powders, but thread title did say favorite.

Deavis · Feb 18, 2018

TheMailMan said:
Titegroup doesn't play well with powder coated bullets.

I pretty much gave up powder coating for Hi-Tek though.

What did you see? I loaded thousands for comp guys without an issue that I'm aware of.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

TheMailMan · Feb 18, 2018

Deavis said:
What did you see? I loaded thousands for comp guys without an issue that I'm aware of.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

Titegroup will melt the powder coating and stick to the bullet. You can test this by pouring some powder in a small container and putting a coated bullet or two in there.

It has no such effect with Hi-Tek.

Deavis · Feb 20, 2018

Interesting, next time someone brings me some I'll try that out. I personally don't get the coated lead bullet fad but the customer is king.

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