Stew0576
Addicted
By taking knowledge of others and building on it we advance the knowledge of all, this cannot happen without questions
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Choosing a powder for my first loads was difficult due to the sheer number of powders out there. I'm not complaining but if I started in 1970 picking a powder may have been a little easier. Here's an example. .38 special 158 gr. jacketed. First pic is Lyman 45th from 1970, second pic is Lyman 50th.
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I started with a sack of shot, a box of primers, bag of wads, and a 1# can of unique and I think that is about the only things I used for 10 years or more. When I ran out of ONE, I bought ONE of those. When a hull split, I threw it away. Nothing to figure out every time I loaded a box, no wonders, no worries. Killed a lot of pigeons with nothing more than that and a rock to throw on the barn roof.
Even more striking is to look at how the data changed between published manual 45 to published manual 50 between those two powders listed in manual 45! Now what is the newbie to think?
And don’t you wish you could buy that bag of shot for those prices today.I started with a sack of shot, a box of primers, bag of wads, and a 1# can of unique and I think that is about the only things I used for 10 years or more. When I ran out of ONE, I bought ONE of those. When a hull split, I threw it away. Nothing to figure out every time I loaded a box, no wonders, no worries. Killed a lot of pigeons with nothing more than that and a rock to throw on the barn roof.
Even more striking is to look at how the data changed between published manual 45 to published manual 50 between those two powders listed in manual 45! Now what is the newbie to think?
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this one from the quantity of nitroglycerin being single bass or double bass and several other factors including coatings have a huge impact on Burn rate characteristics. It's a lot more different than the color of the can. Form sphere, flake or ball is a huge factor on its own.
There are many powders available, and even if you divide them into pistol and rifle powders, there are still many of them in each category. There is not a lot of good information available in the manuals or online or even from the powder manufacturers' websites about what would make a particular powder better or not so better for a particular application. The manuals often have a section with a blurb about each of many powders. Those blurbs are superficial and if you read more than a few of them you start seeing the same wording used over and over again. Go to the websites for the manufacturers and you see the same thing. IMR, Hodgdon, and Winchester all have powder profiles on their websites and none of those really tell you much except rifle vs pistol (or, shotgun -- but then some of those are good for pistol, too) and a general range of calibers that the powder can be used for. Even reloading articles in the various magazines don't tell the readers WHY a particular powder is better or not so better for the applications being described.
Nope, they are politicians.What's the matter, don't trust Colonel's and Generals?
There are forums so the grumpy old men have something to complain about. It's kind of self serving.I don’t disagree that most, if not all things, can be answered with a google search. So why post/ask anything? Why have forums?
I don’t disagree that most, if not all things, can be answered with a google search. So why post/ask anything? Why have forums?
Some of those powders may have changed, but the testing method changed for sure.
Heck in the old days I would have shot sand before I paid what it cost now.And don’t you wish you could buy that bag of shot for those prices today.
So I will agree got powders that are specifically made to clone another powder most likely have a very close burn rate curve. If that is the standard of your observations then your conclusion would be right. But there are a lot of powders that don't come even close to each other.Made in the land of pines, brewed in the land of sky blue waters, and yet the beer was not that refreshing. Sure, lots of different ingredients, maybe even Indians dancing around the vats, but what really matters, is the pressure curve. The rest are misdirection's to make you think the stuff is special and unique. And, I don't see that.
In fact, Alliant told me AA2520, a double based ball powder, was blended to the pressure curve of IMR 4895, a single based stick powder. Over my chronograph, by charge the velocities were essentially identical. The selling point was better metering, but in my opinion, it did not result in improved accuracy on target, (accuracy was outstanding with both!) and I found AA2520 peaky and it left the gas system filthy.
Charles Petty, an inprint gunwriter whom I respect, when testing one of the 1911's du jour, just stated there are too many "45 ACP" powders to test!" And it is true, you could load a different brand of 45ACP powders each day, and maybe do it for a month before repeating. (Maybe February, not a leap year, or a lunar month?)
I think the term is elastic marketing where the differences between products are less than the differences in advertising claims.
I guess what sticks in my craw is when folks ask about loading different "CALIBERS" when they really mean "CARTRIDGES".
Yes, I'm a grumpy old man sometimes..