Ball powders vs stick powders ?

Ball is supposed to be a little easier on them, but I think it is more of a temperature and pressure thing. Ball powder is usually much more dirty in my experience. I prefer stick.
 
Ball type powders are reputedly easier on barrels. The problem I've experienced with them is being finicky when temperatures go up, the pressures have seemed to go off the chart when temps went up in some cases. But I have a friend who uses them almost exclusively and doesn't have problems.
 
I shot ball powders for years on p dogs and chucks.....

barrels that had nothing but ball powders shot in them (win 760) vs IMR 4064 in another gun, seemed to last MUCH longer. I never had problems with ball powders being heat sensitive until I started leaving the ammo out in the sun to heat up...
 
Ok so what should I substitute

Shooting 69gr MK in my 22-250AI H4831 SC really shinned . Sierra manual list Ram shots "Big Game" as highest Velocity. That's a ball powder isn't? Is re#22 a ball powder?...................Says Accuracy load is 38 grs of H4350 for 3200 FPS. I shot that load and it produced 3375 plus target looked like a buck shot pattern?????
 
I spoke with a technician at Hodgdon and he said ball powders were easier on a barrel, but you would need at least 10,000 rounds through a barrel to begin to see the difference. He said that is why the military uses it because of the high volume of shooting involved in their barrels.
 
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