I bought 8 lbs of the new (not pulldown) surplus WC 820 from Pat McDonald, and have used it in 30 carbine with good results. Pat states that it is 13% faster than H110, and the max for H110 in the carbine with the 110 FMJ GI bullet is 15 gr. I eased up to 14 gr with no sign of pressure, but now I'm wondering if I'm on shaky ground. Anyone have loads for it and/or the 44 & 357 mag? (I don't want to rekindle the AA#9/296/H110 controversy of a few months back - I still don't know what happened on that one )
Thanks
Maj George Jacoby
Shaw AFB SC

The lot # on my WC 820 is 47320. I worked up to a satisfactory 23 gr with 200 gr. JHP in .44 Mag., but another forum member told me I was definitely over the safe limit. The cases had a frosted appearance that I associate with a near (or at) maximum load, but the ejector would push all six together out of the cylinder. I reduced the load to 21.5 gr. I think that made 1450 fps out of a six inch barreled revolver, but I can't find the chrono data right now.

As you will have noticed, the WC 820 is small round balls that meter well, and 21.5 gr. is more than half the volume of the case, which means that a double charge should be detected.

Major,

I am shooting WC-820, Lot # 47320, and I started reloading the 44 Magnum and 357 Magnum using AA#9 data. I am getting velocities darn close to what Accurate Arms indicates that I should be getting from both calibers. I actually don’t think that I could load it using H-110 data. Maybe, maybe not. I just never tried it because the loads I am shooting are accurate and show no signs of pressure. If, indeed, your lot is 13% faster than H-110, that would put it into the AA#9 ballpark. I feel the #9 data will at least give you some starting loads and then you can use your own discretion after that. Good-luck…BCB

i have been interested in this powder for 45 colt loaads with 270 keith bullets. is the powder " dirty" i been shooting 296, not much flame or smoke from cylinder, tryed unigue lots of smoke and flame tried 2400 pretty good, looking for something cheaper

I just checked & my lot # is ~47277 or the like, just slightly different, and the printed data with it states it is 10% faster that H110. Anyway, it works well enough, so I will just keep using it with the same caveats we always use with any powder, really: work up slowly, watching for pressure signs. $56 was hard to beat...

I forgot to mention for 300stw that my experience is that it burns very cleanly - 2400 is the original bag of dirt, but this stuff is like 296 in that there is little or nothing in the bore even after several 30 rd mags worth. This is strictly from the 30 carbine loads, but should be a good gauge.

I have a fair bit of data for Lot # 47321 in .44 mag using LBT style 265 grain WFN, 280 grain OWC and 310 grain WFN. This powder is clean burning and cheap. However you can not expect it's pressure rise curve to mirror anybody's canister lots. My lot # 47321 follows H110 very closely with the light weight .44s,
(215 grain SWCs), but it reaches high pressures progressively earlier as you go up in bullet weight acting more like #9 under the 310 grainers.

My standard proceedure for evaluating surplus powder is to load progressively heavier identical loads of the surplus and the manufacturer' recomended reference powder. Then I shoot them over the chrony, alternating powders, watching how the velocities progress. I keep a vary eye open for anomolies and get quite careful if I see the surplus powder beginning to behave differently from the reference powder. BD