Just in case any of you still have any ALCAN "Nike" powder around, this may be of use to you:


I have used Nike for over 30 years for loading small pistol cartridges...predominantly the .25 ACP and .32 ACP.

As a general guideline (which was confirmed to me in writing by the U.S. NRA as appropriate in 1968), one should use NO MORE THAN 80% of the charge of Alliant Bullseye used in the same cartridge with the same bullet weight.

For example, if a person uses a 50 gr. bullet in the .25 ACP over 1.0 grs of Bullseye, then a charge of 0.8 grs of Nike will likely work okay too.

Nike is a VERY, VERY FAST BURNING shotgun powder, of tiny black, red, green and yellow, square, plastic flakes.

I am NOT recommending this powder for anyone, but with what may be coming down the road under the new U.S. administration, some one of you may need to use it to feed your pistol some day. This may be the only reference to that use you will find written anywhere.

Be sure to start another 10% LOW (30% under Bullseye) and work up in 0.1 grain or smaller increments.

One nice thing...it burns immaculately clean...

Nike! Next Alberta will be rehashing recipies for HiVel No. 2 and DuPont 17! Brings back childhood memories. Got any Cordite? How about some AL-5, AL-7, or Herter's 103? You know, come to think of it, there have been a lot of powders come and go in the last hundred years or so.

I've still got 38 spl loaded with AL-5, come to think of it, some 6.5x55 and cast loaded with it too. The Grey B is all gone though.

I've got an old 8oz cardboard "can" of AL-5 that's still half full, leftover from my early reloading days.

Actually, I do still load Cordite in my .404 Jeffery. 55 grains of it under 400 grain Barnes Original RNs, as a matter of fact.

I also use more modern powders with the Barnes-X bullets in the Jeff, but see no reason to throw a lot of good Cordite in the trash. It certainly doesn't show any sign of degrading yet.

And I still load a number of calibers with Hi-Vel #2, since you mention it. It is still my favourite med-slow powder. I find it more flexible than anything else in its burning range on today's market, and I still have almost 20 pounds of it.

Unfortunately, I am clean out of both IMR Bulk Smokeless and Hi-Vel #3. Bulk Smokeless was a God-send when it was available. One used it just like blackpowder, loading by volume, not weight...often just scooping the case through a container of the powder, to fill the case, seating a bullet, and off to the range or hunting field. And no urgent cleaning problems afterward.

Hi-Vel #3 was the best powder I have ever used for cases from about .218 Bee to .222 Remington size cases. Was pretty much THE powder for the R2 Lovell which fell right in the middle of that capacity range.

Lots of powders have disappeared, but it wasn't necessarily because they weren't any good.

Anyway, as said before, I was not recommending Nike for anyone. But, I remember the last great depression, then the war. In those days we were damned glad to get anything to be able to shoot, so lots of older stuff like Lightning, Schuetzen, 1185, etc., all got used. I hope it doesn't come to that again under Obama/Pelosi/Boxer/Bloomberg/et.al., but won't be shocked if it does. In that case, if you run across some Nike, at least you chould now have some knowledge of how fast it burns, and in what.