Many. With experience, you'll find that some factors in powder choice become important to you because you have your own unique set of priorities. When that happens, you'll automatically winnow down the list of potential powders to use for any one application based on any number of things. Examples?
)Many. With experience, you'll find that some factors in powder choice become important to you because you have your own unique set of priorities. When that happens, you'll automatically winnow down the list of potential powders to use for any one application based on any number of things. Examples?
Some firearms are incredibly picky; you can try 10 powders and only find one that really works. Luckily, most aren't quite that picky. More commonly, most guns will produce ho-hum, bordering-on-acceptable accuracy with most every theoretically suitable combination you try. You'll run across a powder or two that is inexplicably inaccurate. Eventually, if the firearm is good enough for you to tell the difference, you'll find one powder that works measurably better (according to whatever you think is important to measure) and you'll settle on that one.
- One powder may be more efficient than another, producing the same velocity with less powder. If they're equal in price and you go through a lot of it, you can save some money. Normally this is no big deal but, in certain cases, it can be a factor to consider.
- Some people object to certain types of powders. For example, some people swear by ball powders, some at them. For reasons that they consider important, they won't use ball powder...or they'll try to use it everywhere. If you develop such feelings, you'll bypass some powders.
- Some people object to compressed loads and among those long lists of powders used in common cartridges, it's not terribly rare to see some loads that require compression.
- Some powders are physically inconvenient. If you meter your loads, you'll find some powders meter much more consistently than others. It's fairly common for shooters who reload a lot to abandon any powder that slows them down at the loading bench unless they get some other huge advantage from that powder to make it worth the trouble.
- Sometimes you'll catch a great deal and buy 80 pounds of one powder. When you do that, you find that it can be used in many cartridges where it's not necessarily the best but it works well enough so you justify doing no further experimentation with that cartridge. (Experience is a helluva teacher, btw.
- I'm sure I've missed something but the biggest reason, to my mind, is that your particular firearm will simply like some powders over others. Within the margins of error of what's being measured, it's possible to find two different powders that will push the same bullets at the same velocity while developing the same pressure BUT one will shoot nice tight groups and the other will produce significantly larger groups. I've never seen this phenomenon fully explained and I don't think anyone knows enough about interior ballistics to say, in advance, that a particular powder will work better than any other in a particular rifle or pistol.
There are some general guidelines. You can ask around about what powders are known to work in particular cartridges. There's a list, of varying lengths, for every cartridge. Folks who love and have reloaded for that cartridge for 50 years (or as long as the cartridge has existed) are out there and they can tell you "Oh, yeah, for that cartridge powder X or Y are usually what you wind up with." Listening to folks like that can save you lots and lots of time and money.
So -
- If you care about getting the best accuracy from all your guns, you will either get really lucky or you'll have no choice but to acquire multiple powders and experiment with them until you meet your goals. Start with one or two or three that are generally acknowledged to work.
- If you care about acceptable accuracy and your definition of "acceptable" is sufficiently wide, just pick one that's generally acknowledged to work and be satisfied with whatever you get.
- If you care about maximum loads, then I can't help much. I can give you the basic advice to pore over reloading manuals and run the numbers on every use case until it become clear that certain powders produce more velocity in your cartridge than others but that's about all I know. My reloading is focused on accuracy and I almost never approach max loads in anything but that's my choice. Max (and sometimes way above max, as the benchrest shooters know) loads can be very accurate but, for my own reasons, I tend not to play at the extremes.
I am a newbie myself,went to my local gun shop we’re they reload recommended 1 powder for 1 caliber to get comfortable to the reloading process. Started with ladder from min. To max. Out of Speer book with Speer bullets.also watched Johnny’s reloading online to watch the process since I can’t find a mentor. Has worked for me to get started in the wide world of reloading and tons of info,powders, bullet,primer,COAL = cartridge over all length & list goes on combos out there.
Some people believe ball powders are harder on barrels. Also, in some applications ball powders produce such a concussive muzzle blast that it's annoying to other people on the line and the user decides to stop annoying their fellow competitors. It's no fun when the guy next to you is shooting H110 loads out of his his 10" .30 Herrett.
I've slowed down with the passage of years. The most common powder I use is "whatever the factory selected" in .22LR, 9x19 and 7.62x39.
If you're going to check for case head expansion, then you should be doing before and after on your cases. Comparing to factory loads is only useful if your cases are loaded in the same brass; if that's the case, the method has some utility. However -
You make a good point. While we all know that even authoritative reloading manuals once used this method, we also know that since all the big players have gotten good pressure measuring equipment, their max loads have tended to retreat.
