A friend gave me an old but unopened and still sealed bottle of H450 and I don't know what to do with it. A light search turned up that it is a flattened spherical powder for medium to large cases, close to IMR/Hodgdon 4831 on the burn rate chart, but no load data.
He loaded a lot of .308 Win and 30-06 so I am guessing it is for that range of cartridges but again, no data.
Anyone have some info on what I can do with it? I'll drop it in the same two cartridges and run it through my M1 or M1A if I can get some data. A single pound won't go to far so it would just be for plinking.
Thanks

Click this link to stevespages. He lists H450 data.

http://stevespages.com/308_13.html

H-450 is a discontinued powder once made by Hodgdon. It is great for 270, 7mm Mag, etc. Probably a little too slow for a 308. When Hodgdon came out with their extreme powders, H-450 was dropped. Check some of the on line powder burn rate charts for its characteristics. I shot it in my 270 for years with great results. Still have a little.

According to one gun writer, H-450 and Winchester's WMR are just different lots of the same powder. What I did find strange is both powders were dropped from the market at the same time. I use WMR in several cartridges and it's been a good powder for me.
it's too slow for the .308 and didn't work worth a damn in the 30-06 for me, but in my .257 Bob, .270 Win., .280 Rem., and .300 Win. Mag., it's been a good powder with decent velocity and excellent accuracy.
Paul B.

H-450, as others have noted is a spherical slow burning powder that has applications similar to H-4831. It was great in the .243 Winchester with 100 gr bullets, and also worked well in the .270 Winchester. I believe it was identical to the old Winchester 785 powder that was the predecessor to WMR. Your best bet would be to try to swap it to someone for some Varget, 4895 or 748.

Be very careful when developing loads. I have some on hand, brand new that I bought years ago, never opened. Loaded the starting load from the Hornady manual, and first load expanded the primer pocket so bad the primer fell out. Double checked the other loads when I got home and all read properly as intended so I'm quite sure I didn't make a mistake. This was in a 243 with 100 gr. Hornady's. Might just keep that in mind when you start load workups. Glad I didn't pick a middle load.

H-450 and H-870 are still out there and H-450
is an excellent powder for the 270 case. I found some data for all powders that was for the 270 from Hodgdon.

Older threads are like older bullets, powder, or cases. Valuable. And, lots of members voiced their experience. Imagine if you ran into -0- looking up
450 powder.

If it is exactly the same as Win 785, it may be tricky. I used 785 for years in my 338WM but recall Winchester printed no base and maximum loads. Like shotshell loads it was just a single weight, as though something bad might happen if you used any less. Despite that, I did use a little less and had no problems.

You will check the smell and look of it to make sure it's not over the hill, of course.

Speer #9 has data for it. I know Ive seen it in some other manuals as well but don't recall which ones off hand. Burn rate is supposed to be between IMR and H 4831. I wouldn't have a problem putting it to use.

I have an old Sierra manual copywrite 1971. It list H450 starting with the 243, the off and on up to the .300 Weatherby magnum. Seems to better in the bigger cases.

I have a few pounds of 450 and win 785 both.
The only difference is between lots. I just worked up a load for my 256 Newton using 120 grn bullets. The same charge of H450, 785 and H4831 were within 60 fps on all three.
Case shape and powder lots would say to be prudent and work up carefully from a few grain below H4831 data.

quote:

Originally posted by 284Win:
Be very careful when developing loads. I have some on hand, brand new that I bought years ago, never opened. Loaded the starting load from the Hornady manual, and first load expanded the primer pocket so bad the primer fell out.

Old powders (even in sealed containers) can dry out and loose moisture. That means that the powder may be hotter than expected for a given weight. (more powder, less water) Its a good idea to start below published loading data weight, and work your way up slowly.

Old powders can also lose puff, buckstix.

I finally used a packet of factory 200-grain ammo for the 375 Win, at least 30 years old, supposedly giving 2200fps (from a 24" barrel at least). The crimped ammo looked great, shiny as new, but it was lucky to make 1800fps.

I used H-450 in my 6mm Remington until it was discontinued. It was my favlrite for 85 grain Barnes blue bulletss. Sadly, both are unavilable now.

Hodgdon marketed H-450 which, like most Hodgdon powders in the "good old days" was a military surplus powder. It was believed to be WC852 -- but there were apparently two different versions of that powder. The faster version was marketed as H-380, while the slower version was marketed as H-450. It is quite possible that some of the faster version was mislabeled as H450, which is why some people experienced unexpected high pressures.

Start low (despite the SEE warnings) and work up.