Recommend me some powders

To learn and introduce new loaders. Tips and tricks from old timers.

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Morne
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Recommend me some powders

Post by Morne »

So I'm gonna start hand loading. Got the lee anniversary press. Got some old loading manuals, going to buy a few current ones as well. Here are the calibers I want to load for:

.38 Special 158 gr.
.357 Magnum 158 gr.
.44 Magnum 240 gr.
.45 ACP 230 gr. (revolver use only)
.223 Rem 62 gr.
.300 BLK 110-150 gr.

At this point I plan on using only plated bullets rather than any bare lead. After I get some experience I might dabble in lead rounds.

The one thing I'm sure of so far is that Hodgdon's H110 is a good choice for the two magnums and the .300 BLK. Is there a good, common powder that would work for both the .38 and .45? Seeing as both are low pressure rounds I would hope so.

Lastly, what about .223? I have barrels ranging from 11.5" to 24" in my ARs, all with 1-9 or faster twists.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by JustaShooter »

I'm a fan of Bullseye for both the .45 ACP and .38 Special for lead, and as I understand it lead loads are similar to what you want to use for plated bullets. Sure, Bullseye is a bit old-school but my .45 ACP Bullseye target loads are sweet shooters. Haven't really done much work on the .38 Special loads but they do just fine in my GP100.
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slowhand23
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by slowhand23 »

Clays is another powder that works well in both .45 ACP & .38 Special..
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by kb8ywy »

9mm, 38 and 45 acp I use Winchester 231 or tightgroup I am also going to try auto comp for 9 40 45
they treat the 300 aac blackout like a pistol round I see h110 and imr 4227, lilgun, h4198, 296
357 mag I use H110
223 varget, 748, benchmark, i want to try cfe 223 I can also use it for 22/250
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by Whirlwind06 »

I use unique and red dot, both work well for pistol loads for me. Unique used be pretty dirty burning but the new formula is a lot cleaner.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by Cloudwraith »

The only one of those I load for is .223 and I use Varget when I can find it or IMR4064 when I can't.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by tbram88 »

Win 231 and Unique both work well for me with 9mm, .45acp, and .38/.357. For 300 AAC Blackout I use H-110 and for .223/5.56 I use H-335 because it meters better than Varget in my Lee auto disk.

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Sevens
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by Sevens »

I'm going to recommend that if you choose H110 (you have stated good reasons for doing so) that you use magnum primers (in the handgun rounds) as H110 is a hard-to-ignite powder. Now I don't know what brand of primers you'll choose, but we do know from ATK directly that CCI's small pistol magnum and CCI's small rifle non-magnum are the same primer. That simplifies your use of H110 in the .357 Magnum because you can use the CCI-400 small rifle non-magnum in your .223 & .300 Blackout loads. Also keep in mind that H110 is not like almost all other powders in that it does NOT like to be dropped much from max, which might suggest it is not the world's greatest "beginners" powder. If you should decide you want to make some "less than full-nuts" .357 and .44 Magnum rounds, you simply -HAVE- to get another powder to load them besides H110.

I realize that most new handloaders get all upset and/or annoyed at the idea of buying a slew of different powders... but if you want to enjoy the wonderful -range- of the .357 Magnum, you'll need to have more available on the shelf than H110. Alliant 2400 is a good choice and I have had really good luck using Hodgdon's Long Shot also. Long Shot will not get you to the absolute max performance that H110 is capable of, but it will get quite solidly in to that arena and it offers the bonus of MUCH lower charge weights for the frugal among us.

In .45 Auto, I've been using Universal. I don't think it's all too popular a powder to use in .45 Auto, but it's worked for me. W231 is probably the most popular powder for .45 over the last 10-20 years, and Bullseye was likely the most popular .45 Auto powder in the hundred years leading up to W231's reign. :P

Last quick tip...
I truly love a number of powders from Alliant and I've always had good experiences with Accurate powders. I also see a lot of really impressive loads and hear great reports about many of the Ramshot powders. But Hodgdon powders will always have my attention simply because of the fantastic online Reloading Data Center that Hodgdon offers. Now there are many place to research published load data and a skilled handloader won't ever stick to one simple source with cross-referencing and pondering the loads he'll try. But this tool is a just a fantastic thing for us to use and Hodgdon has earned my respect & my money with the time and care they've put in to it. It's a quick way to look things up, it's updated constantly and it's extremely flexible in it's use. I've spent a lot of time simply playing with it to just get ideas here and there.
http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
One of the fun things you can do with it? You may have your particular caliber on the screen and you can pull down a menu that shows you all the other chamberings in which they have published data using THAT powder. It's pretty slick.

And Hodgdon markets and supports all the Winchester and IMR branded powders also.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by SMMAssociates »

Morne:

I started with Winchester 231 because the guy I bought the Dillon recommended it. Worked fine in .45ACP.

Couldn't get 231 for a while, and tried Winchester's WST and WSF. Those are shotgun powders, but they work fine with the .45. The brain is offline, but one of them is a little strange, in that the Hogdon chart puts very little difference in quantity between not-get-out-of-the-barrel and blow-up-the-range....

(I think that chart's in error.)

I was using CCI's "large pistol" primers, but managed to score a pile of their "magnum" primers in the same size. I don't really see any difference, but I'm sure there is one. If I can keep the wife away from the VISA, I'm going to add .40S&W to the lineup, but that's one major problem with the Dillon - something like $200 to add another caliber. (I also cheaped out on the automatic case feeder. Very convenient, but also $200 :D.)

With the Lee, I'm told that the primer feed can be interesting. Try to avoid the temptation to toss it through a wall. Dillon's is kinda Rube Goldberg, too, but mostly is just a PITA to take off the press if there are issues. I've had to do that two or three times in a bit over a year, which isn't too terrible. Once in a while I'll get a primer inverted, but that only means that you need to inspect the things before you bag 'em for the range. No primer at all, once in a while, too.

One of my buddies picked up a Lee (don't know which model) at a flea market about a year ago. He did a lot of work cleaning and re-painting it, but it's cranking out .38's for him without much trouble.

(You can also buy a bottom of the line Lee for about what it costs to upgrade a Dillon. I've thought about that, too :D....)

WTH, I'm enjoying it, and wish I'd gotten into this 40 years ago when I first tried. Meantime, I'm saving a pile of money. I don't know what the break-even is with the Dillon, but don't tell the wife :D.

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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by BobK »

Sevens wrote:I'm going to recommend that . . . .
I was hoping you would give him your write up on why he should not use Unique. You have been very eloquent and I love your argument.

I agree that Unique was a great choice for about 80 years, but the last 30 years have seen a whole slew of better choices hit the market.

One key factor for me in powder selection is the powder must meter well from a powder measure. It is a necessary condition (but not a sufficient one). By necessary, I mean that if it will not meter consistent charges, I do not want to waste my time even considering it. There are too many modern powders that meter like water to grab my attention.

Hodgon's Universal has much of the flexibility and performance of Unique, but also meters well.

I also love the Hodgdon online load data. However, Ramshot's downloadable PDF is also a complete and exhaustive work. Ramshot powders get very high marks in my book as well.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by mreising »

Lots of excellent info from the above posters so I've got nothing musch to add, other than I have not had any luck finding Ramshot or Alliant powders locally for quite some time; at least not the ones I wanted. I pretty much stick with Varget for 223 with 69, 75 and 80 gr bullets. Win 231 is my go to choice for 45 and I've been using a bunch of WSF lately for 9mm. I'll be loading a couple thousand 38 spl. later in the month and will probably be using 231 for those, mostly because I have a larger quantity of that than anything else. Just be cautious when you are looking at load data for Hodgdon's powders (they make Hodgdon, Winchester and IMR) as there are some Hodgdon powders that have similar numbers to IMR, but Hxxxx is not the same as IMRxxxx.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by glocksmith »

BobK wrote:
Sevens wrote:I'm going to recommend that . . . .
I was hoping you would give him your write up on why he should not use Unique. You have been very eloquent and I love your argument.
Me too. Sevens reloading write-ups are always chock-full of information.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by Sevens »

BobK wrote:
Sevens wrote:I'm going to recommend that . . . .
I was hoping you would give him your write up on why he should not use Unique. You have been very eloquent and I love your argument.
Haha, thanks guys.

Actually, I haven't rallied against Unique in quite some time. And usually when I do, it's only because someone new has been directed to it, which didn't actually happen in this thread. Sometimes, it also helps to know what tool(s) the end user will be attempting to meter the powder with -- Unique, even for as much as I don't care for it... STILL does what all the old timers love it for doing: it gives really good mid-range and can be used in a -LOT- of different chamberings with success.

Philosophically, I don't care to use a "WONDER!" powder that does "good" in a zillion places. I love keeping a silly array of different powders that (theoretically) serve a particular role rather than a wide "middle of the road" ... so I can make different stuff with them and them compare the results head to head.

Sounds corny, but Unique is truly a "jack of all trades and a master of none" in my opinion. So when I have, use, and keep well over a DOZEN different powders, I have no interest in one like Unique. (all the while I'd will admit that I use a lot of Universal, which was perhaps specifically designed to be a MODERN equivalent/alternative to Unique... :lol: )

Unique meters crappily compared to most powders on the market. Evan Price coined a phrase that I've stolen a few times. He claims that it meters like crushed oreos. There are worse. (IMR-800X!) Unique is also a "dirty" powder, even though Alliant has claimed to be offering a "cleaner burning!" version of it. It's often referred to as "combustible dirt."

Unique is an amazing propellant that has stood the test of time. If there was a smokeless Hall-of-Fame, it would have an honored spot. But it's absolute heyday was in a time when choices were extremely limited. Older guys who are attached to it simply have no good reason to explore others, but it's long been my opinion that brand new handloaders are better served by the selection we have today, and they are missing NOTHING if they never buy any Unique.
I like to swap brass... and I'm looking for .32 H&R Mag, .327 Fed Mag, .380 Auto and 10mm. If you have some and would like to swap for something else, send me a note!
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by evan price »

Your 223- is it AR blasting rounds or accurate long distance?
I use h335 for bulk- its the.canister equivalent to military for this roynd. I use varget for long range accuracy.
I like ball powders for their easy metering in pistols. Win 231 is my usual recommendation for new reloaders. It will work in anything.
To get more magnum performance you need a slower powder. I prefer #9 but 2400 would be my second choice and these also work in 300 blk.
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Re: Recommend me some powders

Post by Jake »

You might as well have asked 9mm or 45acp.

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