O
Old Gunner
Guest
Hi there
I've come here mainly to pick your brains a bit if you don't mind.
I've been away from the shooting sports more or less for years, and though I've had the opportunity to do some small bore and air rifle shooting my centerfire rifles have been packed away along with my meager handloading gear and such.
When I first returned to handloading in the 80's after a similar long hiatus first thing I did was to give away all the powders I'd bought in the 60's and seventies to a young fellow who'd just started loading for his Jungle Carbine. These were fast powders more suitable for light loads in a short barreled rifle anyway and I then got all new supplies suitable for full length rifles in medium bore military calibers.
I had always prefered IMR powders and after trying some Winchester powders the fouling was so bad and hard to clean up with the older solvents I gave those Winchester powders away as well and stuck to the IMR powders exclusively.
The more recent crop of non IMR powders seem to not be living up to their earliest results. I haven't tried them as yet so I can only go by the experiances of those who have used them.
Carbon fouling seems to be a problem with most recent powder formulas.
Some of the IMR powders I've used left plenty of visible fouling but cleaned up quickly and easily with the old standby solvents. Winchester Olin and Military Ball powders in the same chamberings and velocity range proved very difficult to clean up even when more recent high powered solvents were used.
My rifles are by any measure antiques, and so they do not have the benefit of modern alloys used for many rifles manufactured in recent years, and rebarreling is not going to be feasible should they wear out. They'd end up as wall hangers should the bores be damaged by erosion or excessive mechanical wear from cleaning stubborn fouling.
Apparently some modern solvents can even eat away the bore, I saw one which warned that it dissolved molybdenum which is a common alloying element of many US military barrels.
Anyway I'd like to hear your experiances with the powders that are getting the most hype these days.
Reloader 15
Varget
Any Hodgdon Extreme powders
The most recent crop of IMR powders sold by Hodgdon, both Canadian IMR formula and Thales ADI substitutes sold as IMR.
The ingrediants seem to be basically the same as the older powders but manufacturing techniques and quality of raw materials can have an effect on the finished product.
Alliant Powders has the contract for recycling degraded single base naval gun and artillery propellants, and these were used to make Military Ball powders in the past, so I'm wondering just which of the Double Base powders use recycled nitrocellulose , and whether any single base powders are know to use them. Ordinarily single base powders never used recycled materials but in these days of massive pollution cleanups that may have changed.
I've come here mainly to pick your brains a bit if you don't mind.
I've been away from the shooting sports more or less for years, and though I've had the opportunity to do some small bore and air rifle shooting my centerfire rifles have been packed away along with my meager handloading gear and such.
When I first returned to handloading in the 80's after a similar long hiatus first thing I did was to give away all the powders I'd bought in the 60's and seventies to a young fellow who'd just started loading for his Jungle Carbine. These were fast powders more suitable for light loads in a short barreled rifle anyway and I then got all new supplies suitable for full length rifles in medium bore military calibers.
I had always prefered IMR powders and after trying some Winchester powders the fouling was so bad and hard to clean up with the older solvents I gave those Winchester powders away as well and stuck to the IMR powders exclusively.
The more recent crop of non IMR powders seem to not be living up to their earliest results. I haven't tried them as yet so I can only go by the experiances of those who have used them.
Carbon fouling seems to be a problem with most recent powder formulas.
Some of the IMR powders I've used left plenty of visible fouling but cleaned up quickly and easily with the old standby solvents. Winchester Olin and Military Ball powders in the same chamberings and velocity range proved very difficult to clean up even when more recent high powered solvents were used.
My rifles are by any measure antiques, and so they do not have the benefit of modern alloys used for many rifles manufactured in recent years, and rebarreling is not going to be feasible should they wear out. They'd end up as wall hangers should the bores be damaged by erosion or excessive mechanical wear from cleaning stubborn fouling.
Apparently some modern solvents can even eat away the bore, I saw one which warned that it dissolved molybdenum which is a common alloying element of many US military barrels.
Anyway I'd like to hear your experiances with the powders that are getting the most hype these days.
Reloader 15
Varget
Any Hodgdon Extreme powders
The most recent crop of IMR powders sold by Hodgdon, both Canadian IMR formula and Thales ADI substitutes sold as IMR.
The ingrediants seem to be basically the same as the older powders but manufacturing techniques and quality of raw materials can have an effect on the finished product.
Alliant Powders has the contract for recycling degraded single base naval gun and artillery propellants, and these were used to make Military Ball powders in the past, so I'm wondering just which of the Double Base powders use recycled nitrocellulose , and whether any single base powders are know to use them. Ordinarily single base powders never used recycled materials but in these days of massive pollution cleanups that may have changed.