Newbie reloader question- which powders?

[HSMITH]

For lead bullets to wear the rifling out physics would have to be ignored. That is like saying that the butter is going to wear out the knife if you use it to often

Lead is several orders of magnitude softer than barrel steel, plain and simple. You cannot even express the hardness of the two on the same scale of hardness for aplles to apples comparison.

chaim, lead bullets are never ever gonna wear your barrel AT ALL unless the lead is contaminated with something harder than barrel steel (RC 40 or so). The flame cutting associated with all loads will be present, but that is all of the wear that will take place.

 

[chaim]

As far as lead wearing the rifling out, well I know enough as a shooter and not yet a reloader to know that is false. Lead is not only much softer than the steel used in the barrel, it is softer than the copper jackets used in jacketed ammo. What I think he might have been refering to (and I'm only guessing here) is the wear caused by more agressive cleaning that the increased lead build-up in the barrel from lead v. jacketed ammo may cause wear to the rifling. As for wear from the bullets themselves, I know that many revolver shooters shoot lead for the very reason that it will prolong the life of their barrel.

As for poisoning, that isn't why I want to stay away from lead bullets as much as possible (though it is part of why I will never cast my own). Handling them while reloading won't put any more lead in my system than handling the lead sinkers I use when fishing, and in fact I'll get less since I will be handling them with latex gloves on. For me it is more because I hate when cheaper commercial ammo and commercial reloads shoot so dirty, I can't stand the oily, sooty mess you get after as few as one or two cylinders- and I've been lead to believe that this may be due as much, or even more, to lead bullets and the lube used for them than it is from the powders. So to keep my loads as clean as possible and to keep clean up easier I want to stay with jacketed ammo. Heck, even without the soot lead does leave more deposits in the barrel so you take longer cleaning and for that reason alone I'd prefer jacketed ammo which is easier to clean up after.

 

[Mike Irwin]

The organic lead in primers is a MUCH greater poisoning concern than the elemental lead in bullets.

 

[Master Blaster]

Hogdon Titegroup for light accurate target loads, its a modern version of bullseye (fast powder), with a cleaner burn.

New Unique for medium to heavier loads (its a moderate burner).

H110 for heavy magnum loads only with a magnum primer.


These three will do ya until you start reloading rifle.


TMHO. YMMV.

 

[John Galt]

As a company, I like Hogdon. They provide lots of info and make many different powders.

I first tried Win WST, but will stick to "Clays" for the future, in my 45ACP.

I shoot 200grn SWC Lead Molly coat and use "Clays". I use a friend's Dillon 650. If you are going to reload a lot, the 550b and 650 are probably the best presses made for loading lots of pistol as well as rifle. Great for IPSC and Cowboy.

The lead bullets are far cheaper and work great for low velocity 45acp. The SWC puches a hole in paper like a hole punch.

With any cartridge, you match the burning rate to the bullet weight, velocity and barrel length. A light, fast bullet in short barrel likes a real fast powder. etc, etc. Cast bullets need to be kept under a certain velocity or they will smear the whole barrel.