Alliant Promo

[Johnch]

I was going to post this the other day , but fell asleep and never got to it :coffee: :coffee:

I called Alliant and talked to a Teck about a few things
I will not bore you with our talk about "STEEL " powder and the lot to lot changes to load data and ignition problems [smilie=b:[smilie=b:
Because , no one uses it for cast bullets

But I ask about Promo in Reddot rifle loads
He knew about "The Load " of 13 gr of red dot with cast bullets
He stated ,
we have not tested Red dot or Promo in rifle loads so we can not recomend it , or give you load data for it in rifles
Even if it is in a Lyman manual
But Promo is a direct grain for grain replacement for red dot
It has the same burn rate , so if a load is safe in your rifle with red dot , it will be with Promo


He hinted he knew more than he was willing or able to say


JOhn

[singleshotbuff]

John,

Please bore me with your conversation about Steel powder. I have a pound or two of it from loading Steel shotshells and am curious about it. I assume it is quite a bit slower than Blue Dot.

SSB

[pumpguy]

How much cheaper is Promo than Red Dot?

[mike in co]

How much cheaper is Promo than Red Dot?

enough that we once considered a group buy and deliver at the cast boolit anual shoot.

after shooitn some red dot loads...i'd love to have 4 8lbrs of promo....
mike in co( aurora to you)

[Bullshop]

I use Steel in the 22 hornet and 22 CCM. The burn rate is about perfect with boolits. The thing I dont like about it is being a flake type powder it does not throw consistant charges from a powder measurer. With these small cases a 1/10 gn variation does cause problems. Works good if I weigh every charge though. With ball powders like H-110 or Win 296 I can just throw and go.
BIC/BS

[Mallard57]

I called Alliant or was it Hercules at the time, I asked about using Steel in some handgun rounds. The tech instantly said "Absolutely Not" and that was the end of that converstation. It was a long time ago though.
Jeff

[Johnch]

singleshotbuff , I use Steel powder to load nontoxic shotshells
Need to explain a few things first

Alliant will not publish data to tell you what bushing drops what
Because it is bulky and dosn't drop consistantly thru a powder measure

Wildcating loads that realy work for ducks is more of a art form than anything other type of loading
I am trying to push a relitivly small shot charge ( 1 1/8 or 1 1/4oz ) at high velositys for shot guns 1500 to 1700 fps
But do it do it with a low SD

Steel powder is between Blue dot and 2400 on the burn rate
It is not temp sensitve , in real cold temps bluedot and 2400 are at shotgun pressures
It is a flake
As it was explained to me it is a laminated powder , a 3 layer powder
Don't remember all the details on each layer , but the outside layers contain burn retarders
Steel powder is a little tougher to ignite than either Blue dot or 2400

There have been 13 lotts of Steel powder , they are currently shipping lott 14 ( no lott 13 )

Big thing you have to understand about Nontoxic shot shell reloading
We have a very narrow pressure window to work in
For 3" hulls I like to stay above 9000 PSI , but 12000 is max

I worked up Steel powder loads with lott 12
The new lott 14 gave me pressure signs with the same loads and a extra 90 fps
Also the SD was way up and some loads had a excess of unburnt powder
So I tryed droping the powder charge , changing primers and droping the powder charge and changing the crimp depth

All in all I fired almost 50 shells over the Cronny to get a load I liked
Like Bullshop said , weighing every powder charge , I can cast 100 bullets , lube and size them and load them faster

Long story , but Alliant still claims each lott is checked against their master lott
Also they claim almost no lott to lott variances
But us fools using it are proving their new lott is about 3 - 5% faster than the last lott

John