I'd like to decide on one or two types of powder for most of my rifle reloading. I load 223, 6mmRem, 6.5x54MS, 270, 7x57, 308, 30-06, 8x57, 9.3x62, 375H&H, 404Jeff, 416Rigby, 458Win & Lott, 500 A-2. Jeffe suggests H335 for most needs. Other recommendations? Or is this too broad a spectrum to work well?

Accurate 2520 and one of the 4350s shoul nicely take care of what you have. roger

quote:

I load 223, 6mmRem, 6.5x54MS, 270, 7x57, 308, 30-06, 8x57, 9.3x62, 375H&H, 404Jeff, 416Rigby, 458Win & Lott, 500 A-2.

the 6mm Rem, 6.5 X 54, .30-06, .308, 8 X 57, and .375 H&H can all be handled nicely with H-414

9.3 X 62, .223 Rem, .458 Mags, can be handled by H-335 or BL-C(2)

I have no experience with the .500 A-2 but suspect the BL-C(2) or H-335 will work there as well.

4895.

Larry Gibson

I'm with Larry Gibson

4895

Joe

fla3006

Based on that lineup of cartridges, I'd bet you are not a casual, 20 rounds-a-year handloader. Just what makes you think you'd be happy with one or two powders. Or bullets. Or primers. Or rifles.

If I have to have a two car garage to store all my stuff, so should you.

Ray

4895 is what I was thinking too. Cheechako, I know, just trying to consolidate as much as I can with all the shortages, etc.

Not so much load data but the new IMR 4007ssc looks to be good in most of those calibres.

IMR 4895, or any powder within that burn rate zone.. IMR 4064, RL 15, W 748, BLC2, AA 2520, Varget...

I have no use for Hodgdon's 4895 tho...

h335 works in all of these, and out performs 4895 in the big cases, in my limited experience (lol) .. doing load dev for the ARs and the 550 express.. i started with 414 and kept going faster ... then again, the military uses something-close-to-h335 is lots of rounds

I am going to try TAC as well

h414 IS win760, and way too slow for lots of applications

quote:

Originally posted by fla3006:
I'd like to decide on one or two types of powder for most of my rifle reloading. I load 223, 6mmRem, 6.5x54MS, 270, 7x57, 308, 30-06, 8x57, 9.3x62, 375H&H, 404Jeff, 416Rigby, 458Win & Lott, 500 A-2. Jeffe suggests H335 for most needs. Other recommendations? Or is this too broad a spectrum to work well?

You can make it work, but you would be short changing yourself in the end. Several of your chamberings will work very well with the same powder. I can see about five of them that would do OK with IMR 4350 for instance, but of those five, two of them would probably end up performing well below their potential.

If you were to shoot for maybe four types of powder you would be able to work much closer to your rifles potential. Only two with that variety wil leave a few of them very limited.

quote:

Originally posted by seafire2:
IMR 4895, or any powder within that burn rate zone.. IMR 4064, RL 15, W 748, BLC2, AA 2520, Varget...

I have no use for Hodgdon's 4895 tho...

Seafire2

Now you've got my attention with your comment about H4895. Fill us in on your whys.

wow, your cartridge mix is much different than mine. Generally, I like Varget and H4831 for my rifle cartridges. But have no experience with metrics or anything under 30 cal.

I agree with Jeffe that H335 is wonderful in large bore cases.

Has worked for me in .376/.416 Steyr when nothing else would. Is gang busters in .458 AR.

I like RL-15 in .308, 9,3x62 and .375 H&H. My DRs seem to have been regulated for IMR 4831.

It's a strange thing - IMR 4350 vs. H4350. There's no question, based on my chrono readings, that the Hodgdon powders are less temperature sensitive than the IMR's. Having said that, the IMR's do appear to be more accurate in my guns.

Because I tend to go from 115 degree testing to 35 degree hunting I do prefer to use the Hodgdon extreme powders. If all I did was benchresting I think I'd use the IMR's more.

quote:

Originally posted by Cheechako:
Based on that lineup of cartridges, I'd bet you are not a casual, 20 rounds-a-year handloader. Just what makes you think you'd be happy with one or two powders. Or bullets. Or primers. Or rifles. ...Ray

Hey fla3006, Ray nailed it with his questions - it won't work well enough to make you happy in the long run. There is no such thing as a single Universal Powder that provides optimum performance in all cartridges.

You could reduce the list by using Factory Ammo in the ones you shoot the least.

Or scour the Reloading Books, see which Powders provide the Optimum Results for each Cartridge with each Bullet weight you want to use, create a Log to see which Powders are the most prevelant and then buy "only" 15-20 Powders.

Best of luck with your quest.

I've done that, many times, and there's little commonality. I don't expect to get optimal performance from any one powder for more than maybe 3 or 4 on my list. Just looking for something that works reasonably well for most. I'm sure I'll continue to use various powders for different applications but if components remain critically short, I want something I can stockpile and use in most if not all. Looks like H335 or IMR4895.

quote:

Looks like H335 or IMR4895.

yup.....as good as any it seems

I have over 40 powders in my cupboard.....eight for shotshells alone.....guess how many I actually use?

BL(C)-2
IMR-4064
H-414
H-4350
H-4831

It makes perfect sense to decide not to "optimize" everything......

I don't think you can load all those different cartidges with just one or two powders. However, if you like a sperical powder, you could with just four. Ramshot TAC, Big Game, Hunter, and Magnum. I've got 15 or twenty powders sitting on my reloading bench and I am seriously considering just buying eight pounds of these four Ramshot powders to replace them all. TAC is about the same burn rate as H335. Big Game is in the 4064/Reloder 15 range. Hunter is similar to Reloder 19 and Magnum is a very slow magnum powder similar to H1000 or Reloder 25. In addition, the guys at Ramshot/Western powder are really great about helping you work up a load if you can't find something that's already in their load data.

Dave

P.S. If you need Big Game data for you 9.3x62, pm me and I will send you what Ramshot sent me.

I cringe to think of trying to get ".270 velocities" with a .270 using H335. The same is true of .30-06.

I think that attempting to use a single, or even two, powders in all of your calibers is a way to complicate, not simplify, your life.

Among the cartridges you list, you need at least three powders, depending in part on what bullet weights you intend to use. For example, the 6mm Remington requires a very slow powder for optimum velocities with 100 grain bullets, but can use a fairly fast powder if you are shooting 55 grain varminting bullets. The same thing applies to light/heavy bullets in .270 and .30-06.

THere are several combinations of two or three powders that would "get you by". But Jeff's experience with H-335 is exactly counter to mine: It was designed specifically for the .223 in which it does well, but its buring characteristics in large capacity cases change rapidly and it has never given me satisfactory performance in any case larger than the smaller .22 centerfire case (where it is excellent).

4895 should do it.

quote:

Originally posted by SR4759:
4895 should do it.

I sure would like to know more about that. I have been doing 6.5 Carcano long before JFK stopped a couple and I never ran into US made Carcano cartriges prior to "63". I'm always willing to learn ,however. roger

Why does somebody always want to put a 22 rimfire in a 416 and expect results ?.

Translation ; What is it with ONE Powder or ONE Cartridge !.

How about ONE Hand , ONE Leg or ONE eye !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

If you've got 15 different calibers , your going to tell me you can only afford ONE POWDER !!!!!!!!!.


One bullet one powder one primer don't cut it !.

Doc,
why? because finding ONE powder is tough enough, finding 7 is hard these days ...

h335 works VERY well in
550 magnum
550 express
500 Accrel
505 Empire
495 A2
470AccRel
470capstick
458AccRel
458 Lott/ackley/watts
45/120
458 Winmag
45/70
416 AccRel
416 Rem /Hoffman
416 taylor
375HH
376 steyr
358Win
8x57
300win
30-06
308
25-06
257bob
223
222

So well, in fact, its close enough to the highest performer in these rounds, if not THE highest performer, that I was truely annoyed that I had wasted the powder.. with the exception of the 376 steyr and 708 .. which love benchmark and varget, but do just fine with h335.

at one time, one could buy 8# jugs of surplus h335 for 7bucks a pound .. and it out performed the blc2/4805/4350 surplus powders .. unless you couldn't get 85+% load density.. then you needed to go slower. my 500 jeffery is the only grossly oversized case i have that i didn't bother trying.. 4350 or 414/760 work just fine in that one.

In other words, h335 works GREAT for my range of calibers, and i'd rather spend the money i SAVE on powder groping on bullets and primers.

one primer.. if it will take it, there's few things better than federal large mag primers, rifle and pistol as correct. small primers, why, that CCI aint it?

in a pinched, winchesters work just fine, as well as rem and cci .. i haven't bought any wolf's yet, but i reckon that's coming.

at 23bucks a pound, and typically only using it for load dev till i give up and go back to h335, I've learned my lesson.

Oh, I'll try TAC -- its the burnrate right between h335 and 4895 ... why not?

One bullet? that just don't make any sense, unless you are talking about all the guns in the same caliber..

one primers? aint there 8 sizes/rating, so 1 primer is hard to phsyically fit.. 4 primers, one could see.. but i tend to stick federal 215s in anything that will take them.

I am a simple kinda guy.. i like doing some load work, settling that "this bullet will go this fast" and hunting with it.

or, at least, shooting water jugs at Hogkillers with em

I'm thinking about trying TAC. Huntingtons has it in stock. Don't know what I'll use for primers though, maybe matches.

quote:

... or, at least, shooting water jugs at Hogkillers with em ...

Do you notice that the actual velocity doesn't really matter? I loaded up some mild loads for my 303 Brit and found them to be just fine on red deer even at 165yds! (180gr RN's at just below 2300fps at the muzzle!)

303 - i agree -- If a muzzleloader will still hit em at 1200 fps with basically pistol bullets.. and if a 257bob (wow, it looks TINY compared to a .475 bullet) will do it, then accuracy means more than most things.

a bullet can't "fail" if you miss, and a deer can't tell 100 fps.

A humorous story here.
As a kid growing up in the late 1940's and early 50's, my Step Dad had only TWO powders in the house, for a raft of rifles. One powder was IMR-4064 and the other was IMR-4227. The 4227 was for his 22 Hornet, and the 4064 was for everything else.
When I think about that today, I alway get a chuckle out of it.
I have a whole lot of different powders on the shelf. He'd probably turn over in his grave is he saw the shelf full of powders I have.

Don

Hey fla30-06, I should have included, it is not always possible to get the level of accuracy a person wants when the kinds of Powders are limited.

However, if you Hunt relatively close, then that might not be such a big deal.

Best of luck to you.

For one powder, Varget would be hard to beat. Especially if your going down to .223.

For two powders, I would consider Ramshot TAC and either HUNTER or MAGNUM.

I recently loaded .308 with TAC for the first time. It is a double based powder, essentially spherical and "flows like water"----no crunch.

Ramshot was also a couple of $ less/lb.

Ramshot's HUNTER is slower than 4064, the slowest recommended power for the Garand. It is next to Reloader 19 in burn rate.

Jeffeosso

Powder Valley now has both 1 lb and 8 lb canisters of H335 in stock.

quote:

Now you've got my attention with your comment about H4895. Fill us in on your whys.

I find it a finicky powder... unlike IMR's version...

you can develop a load with H 4895 and it can be a tack driver.. then you change your primer, or add or delete a 1/10 of a grain or so and the groups open up all over the place...

finding a tight load with it has been a challenge for me in a lot of caliber...

H 4895 was the first powder I tried to use in a lot of calibers I was loading for, because I was told it was universal.. and worked well in a lot of calibers.. it was what my local store carried....

when I started using IMRs I saw the flexibility and consistency I was told to expect with H 4895, but was not seeing...

Varget on the other hand is a different story...
it works well across the board...with a burn rate very close to H 4895....

so, today i was shooting 257 roberts and 470 Ar today... both loaded with h335.. 83gr in the 470, and about 1/2 that in the 257!

while i have a 223 still, the 257 is my smallest normal shooting stick.. and the 335 is so horrible in accuracy .. like .450 net groups at 100 yards.. but that gun shoots any given load well.

and my 470 ar shoots h335 realy well

oh well, just my opinion that h335 is THE all around powder.. but i'll try tac

Julian - thanks!

quote:

while i have a 223 still, the 257 is my smallest normal shooting stick..

Interesting, that. I want to use my 303-25 for everything - my hornet is now collecting dust!

Back to topic - consider this (which may or may not be salestalk BS).



The "Secondary Pressure Event" is sais to be caused by light bullits, slow powders worn throats and maybe low drag bullets. This may or may not influence powder choices (or bullet choices).

IMR 4895 is NOT the same powder as Hodgdon 4895!

quote:

Originally posted by Wm.S.Ladd:
IMR 4895 is NOT the same powder as Hodgdon 4895!

Amen, and Amen..

I bought some 222 Remington Magnum ammo that Nosler custom makes for Midway since I couldn't find any empty brass at the time. The ammo shot so well I couldn't believe it was factory ammo. I disassembled one of the loaded rounds and decided on my own that it was IMR-4895. So, with a few of the empty cases I got from shooting the Nosler sutff, I loaded up the same weight of powder using the IMR powder, and it didn't shoot at all. So, I called Noser and talked to their ammo guy and he gave me the load they use, and it was H-4895, not the IMR I had thought. After switching to the H stuff, the groups shrunk down to what Nosler's deliver, a 1/2" at 100 yards for 5 shots. I use a 20x scope for ammo testing.
Yes, there is a difference between H-4895 and IMR-4895.

Don

fla3006, to look for "one all around" powder for all the different cartridges you load is CRAZY. It's like looking for "one all around" engine for all motocycles, cars, trucks, tanks, etc. If you want to simplify, I'd suggest buying variable rate-burning powders in one line such as Alliant, Vihtavuori, Norma, IMR, etc. I get the best performance from Norma. Regards, AIU

The fast powder rifle cartridges like IMR4895.

The big game over sage brush cartridges are overbore, and like H4350.

It makes me smile to see so many for 4895. I just picked up 5 lbs at a rediculously low price.