I have acquired an 8 pound jug of powder with a printed label that says "Surplus Powder for the 30-06 M2 ball" ;
"River Valley Ordnance 3790 Harvester Road, Harvestor MO 63303"; and "Like BR780"

As far as I can tell River Valley Ordnance is out of business. Does anyone have experience or load data with this powder?

I have a jug of their M2 ball powder that was sold as WC852; I am not familiar with BR780. Sad to see them gone, I bought several jugs of powder from them over the years.
C.G.B.

Never heard of BR780 shot a lot of 852 still have several jugs of that.

Winchester Supreme 780 The Hodgdon website has data. May or may not be the same powder? Use at your own risk. List of curremt military powder- Saint Marks Military Powders

This vintage manual is know to list maximum loads that are dangerously overpressure .My Speer #8 reloading manual (published June 1970) lists the following .30/06 loads with 780-BR powder and a 150 grain Speer spitzer:

64.0 2908 ft/sec
62.0 2812
60.0 2722

The primer used was a CCI 250 Magnum, cases were "Government Issue" and the test rifle was a Springfield with a 24" barrel.

I still have some of RVO's "M-2 Ball Powder", and I do have the load data furnished with it. What cartridge(s) do you need data for?

I used WC852 from RVO with very good results....looks very similar. Start low and work up....you will be happy with it!

Cheers,

Dan

There were two different powders sold by surplus dealers under the number "WC 852". One powder was the military equivalent of civilian WW760 or H414 (which are the same powders.) The other powder sold under the "WC 852" designation was somewhat slower and apparently very similar to the obsolete H-450, which in turn, was very similar to WW780BR. All of these powders were ball powders produced by the St. Marks, Florida plant which was originally an Olin plant, then subsequently sold a couple of times. I'm not sure which conglomerate now owns the St. Marks plant.

Now, whether any of this applies to "M-2 Ball Powder", I can't say. But if there is a connection between "M-2 Ball Powder" and "WC 852", then the powder could be of the faster or slower variety. So, if you use it at all, use it with extreme caution.

I have a bit of experience with this powder. Basically you can use H450 data as long as you work up. Win 785 data can also be used.

I always wondered why this was used for M2-Ball as is it slow for 152 gr 30-06.

The powder is temperature sensitive and also temperamental in that a tight chamber raises pressures more than you would expect.

I have used it in 30-06, 7x57, and 6.5x55.

Overall it has decent accuracy but not tops. It is good powder for everyday shooting. It works best with magnum primers but Winchester LR also work well.