I noticed something the other night while putting some loads together for my new 22-250. My bench is disproporationatly biased towards one brand. I don't know why because there are plenty of good powders out there.

My go to brand is apparently Hodgdon.

What's your go to brand? (powder brands made by the same company different ie. IMR & Hodgdon as separate)

bing that hodgdon owns imr and produces ww they do cover most of the field

Alliant for rifles and Accurate for pistols.

I do have some IMR&Hodgdon as well but the above two is what I go to first.

My stash consists of Hodgdons, IMR, Alliant

alliant for handguns and shotguns and Hogdon for rifles.

ADI produces some of the Hodgdon powders and ADI has the major share of my powder safe.
2209-H4350 in majority. 2208-Varget, 2207-4198, BL-C2.

Von Gruff.

A quick look around my bench shows that I favor IMR powders. Truth is I like them all, but am most impressed with V-V powders.

Here the only reasonably priced powders are the Vithavuori; the US brands are so expensive that I don't buy them anymore since many years.

I load for 22 diff calibers at this time so I have no brand fav. I use what works best in that cartridge. I use them all in one form or another.

I buy American powders because of relatively low cost and high availability here.

BUT, my preferred powders are Vihtavouri for 3 reasons:

1. Actual performance.

2. Burning cleanliness.

3. The much greater selection of burning rates in their range of selections...they seem to have one or another that is perfect for just about any cartridge.

I guess I really don't have a prefered maker. I have all of the makers mentioned above except Vihtavouri.

I do have some unusual biases though. I will always take the IMR or WW brand over the equal Hodgdon and even take the AA4350 over either of the others even though I know IMR and AA 4350 are the same. Can't tell you why since the Hodgdon headquarters is 5 miles from my house and they have always been VERY good to me. I'm just wierd.

I seem to shoot a lot of Alliant, mainly RL-22 but also RL-25, RL-19, RL-17, and RL-15. I also shoot a lot of Hodgdon H-4831SSC and H-1000, IMR-7828SSC, IMR-4064, Win-760, and Accurate Magpro. Good shooting.

me?
after a couple decades of trial and error ...
Hodgdon -- h335 can fire ALL the rifles i have.. from 222-550 express and magnum ... ALL of them ... and great results in bigbores.

aliant for pistol
2400, bullseye, power pistol

I used to be alot more into the reloader XX and winchester powders .. for awhile, nothing but 748, 760, and 296 ...

but, in terms of POUNDS burnt per year ..

Hodgdon

What I would prefer is The Key to the factory's second level rear door !.

Most everybody's ; As they all have specific uses and price structuring advantages as well as disadvantages .

Hodgdon's IMR Alliant Vihtavouri are primary and a couple of Accurate's powders .


Like Fred says ; # 27 for me !. To Dam many but beats buying ammo .Thankfully some are shot far more than others ,other wise I wouldn't be pecking on this keyboard !.

fredj338 X2
one of us


Posted 28 January 2010 00:15 Hide Post
I load for 22 diff calibers at this time so I have no brand fav. I use what works best in that cartridge. I use them all in one form or another.

Alliant for pistols and shotguns(GreenDot and Unique), Hodgon(322,335,4895 and 4350) for rifles.

Hodg, then IMR, lastly Alliant, in that order.
But I am faithful to none.

Just about all Alliant, but one jug of Varget and one jug of H4198.

In descending order of # of bottles in my bin--Vihtavuori, Hodgon, Winchester, IMR. Rifle and handgun loading for targets only- long and shot ranges.

quote:

Originally posted by wildboar:
Here the only reasonably priced powders are the Vithavuori; the US brands are so expensive that I don't buy them anymore since many years.

Lucky you! I agree with what Alberta Canuck has to say above.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Hodgdon powders as much as the next guy, but the clean burning high performance VV powders are fantastic.

I like Ramshot's Tac, Big Game, and Hunter because they meter like water through my Harrel's measure. I can consistently throw charges to +/- 0.1 grain as verified on an accurate scale.

quote:

What's your go to brand?

Hodgdon mostly.....I have successfully ended use of Ramshot and am working on ending Aliant.....

Not because they aren't good powders....because I don't need forty different powders in the cabinet.

It's darn hard to delete RL-22 and RL-15 and STEEL from my inventory!

Hodgdon mostly.

I don't even think I still have any IMR powder left.

I have a bunch of Reloader 15, 22 and 25 but when I'm out of 22 an 25 I plan on finding a Hodgdon replacement. Reloader 15 is too good to replace.

Needless to say, I'm streamlining my inventory.

It's a tie between Hogdon and VV for me, probably cause that's what shot best in my fav calibers....4831 and 270's anybody

W.W. for pistols and Hodgen for rifles.

Whatever works for whatever I'm loading. In rifles, seems like Alliant for the mags, IMR for the mediums and I'm still working on the small stuff. For pistols, Unique for paper punching and IMR for hunting.

If it was called surplus at one time or the other I probably have or have had a bunch along with a real dukes mixture of most brands. Many years ago I only used IMR and Hodgden. roger

Since I've only been reloading for two months or so, I haven't amassed a huge variety of powder brands. It's almost a dead split between Alliant and Hodgdon: almost 18 lbs. of Hodgdon (TiteGroup + about a pound each of H110 and Long Shot) and around 17 lbs. of Alliant (2400 + a pound of Unique as an "emergency" powder).

I have used IMR powder for years. One reason is that IMR powder seems to be less sensitive to temperature change than others. Where I live, we might see temperatures as high as 100 F degree in the summer and as cold as 0 to 10 degrees' in the winter. I am not saying that IMR is the best powder, but it works very well for me with different calibers.

Hog-dog

Mostly Retumbo and H1000

quote:

after a couple decades of trial and error ...
Hodgdon -- h335 can fire ALL the rifles i have.. from 222-550 express and magnum ... ALL of them ... and great results in bigbores.

I am surprised somebody has not made this statement about H-Varget. If only had to have "1" powder I guess it would be Varget.

It seems to be the Jack-of-all-trades! However I always seem to find a powder that each rifle likes better!

Hodgdon, which also makes IMR powders and Winchester. I like what I use, am familiar with their different powders for different applications.

This might seem minor, but I like the containers.

It would be very difficult to live without RL 15.

Hodgdon powders dominate my loading bench but I do love the IMR and reloader powders as well.

Hodgden and IMR is the main powders for me, My favorites are IMR 4064, H-4895, and Varget.

I started reloading ammo in 1953. Back then I could get Hodgon 4831 and 4895 surplus powder for $ 0.25 per pound. I still like Hodgon powder but have a varity of powders on hand.

If I counted only the one pound cans in the cabinet, people would think I preferred Hodgdon products. If I count the total pounds I have in bulk I use a lot more IMR than any other manufacturer. In the order of use: IMR, Hodgdon, Alliant, Winchester, Accurate.

I have all of the different powders made, except for Accurate.
Hodgdon leads in numbers of containers, then IMR, Allient, Ramshot, Winchester, and Vihtavori.
I have everthing covered with those that I have, so I never got into the Accurate powders.
I have two 8 pound containers, IMR-4895, and TAC. Both are outstanding for what I use them for.

Don