Just Wondering is all

[Boerrancher]

I was thinking if I was limited to only 2 powders what two would they be? I thought about the rifles and handguns that I fired, and decided that if I could only have one handgun powder it would be Unique, because it will work in just about any Handgun, and in every rifle to shoot cast boolits with. The main Rifle powder I would choose would be the 4831/3100 powder. The reason why is yet again it will work over a great range of calibers and rounds. I can load it in my 243, or 22-250, and go all the way up to my 300 Win Mag. I know there are better powders out there for each rifle, but in reality there are very few rifles that you can't find a load that will work using 3100.

I was wondering what everyone's choices would be if they were restricted to one handgun powder and one rifle powder. I hope that all of you who read this will post your choices and why, as I am always looking for components that will function across a wide array of applications.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch.

Joe

[shooter93]

Unique and 4895...with those two powders you can find an accecptable load for almost any cartridge in existence. maybe not the most accurate or the fastest...but one that will work with j or cast bullets. Arguably the two most versatile powders out there.

[Alchemist]

My handgun choice would also be Unique for the same reasons you stated, Joe. For rifles I'd probably go with either IMR 4895 or H 4895. It'll work across the board for me except for magnum loads, which I only load for my Dad's 300 Win Mag.

Let's hope circumstances never limit us to just two.....

[mooman76]

I would go with Unique also. It's a little dirty but as you said it is so versitle. Rifles however is a totally different animal. Off the top of my head I'd say Varget. It is pretty versitile, does 223 and .06 and allot inbetween but that's off the top of my head without doing the research.

[runfiverun]

unique and 4895...

[Heavy lead]

Unique for sure, it's almost all I use now for handgun. Rifle is tougher, I'd have to have two. Reloder 22 for the big (and small over bore stuff) and Reloder 10x for the 223 and in a pinch I could use it (and have) in the 22-250

[danski26]

I'd go with Unique also for pistol but would go with Varget for the rifle powder. It just seems that if it doesn't shoot Varget well......there is something wrong with the rifle.

[MtGun44]

Unique and 4064 or RL15. Definitely Unique. 4895 would be an excellent
choice also. Only the big magnums would be hard to develop full power.

Bill

[1Shirt]

Unique and Varget!
1Shirt:coffee:

[James C. Snodgrass]

I shoot more Benchmark than any rifle powder and WC 820 in pistols , But if it's only 2 H-4895, Unique it would be real difficult to cover more ground than you can with those 2. James

[Bass Ackward]

My wife was reading this over my shoulder and her comment was that I would be far better off limiting myself to two guns than two powders.

She said it's cheaper buying powders cause eventually I would own them all. Not so for guns and the toys that it takes to support each gun.

I didn't realize that she was figuring that out! :grin:

[felix]

Agree 100 percent, John! Optimize only those guns which you handle the most for whatever reason: accuracy, feel, looks and in that order for me. I shoot mainly 4 guns out of about 35 these days. The other guns just get standard, off-the-shelf, loads which are mostly just empty cases in cut-off bleach bottles. ... felix

[Jim]

Another vote for Unique and 4895.

[adkpete]

Unique and 4895 or 4064 could do everything I need.

[ktw]

Unique and something in the range of 3031/4895/4064 if I had no choice but to cut it down to just two.

Couldn't realistically do everything in just two, though. I'd really want H110/W296 for the 44/45 handguns and H4831 to let the 270's stretch out and run.

Make that 5 powders. I need FFFg black, too.

-ktw

[Meatco1]

Another guy here for Unique, but for the rifle, it would be IMR 4350

[S.R.Custom]

Herco-- It's a bit slower than Unique, just as accurate in a handgun, and can be loaded to almost Magnum levels while retaining that accuracy. It can also be pressed into manning the oars on some of the lesser rifle calibers. And I can use it to good effect in my shotguns. :mrgreen:

H4831SC-- I like my bottleneck Magnums too much to settle for anything else.

And those two would just about do me, even for full power loads for my .358 Winchester; some mixture of the two would probably work just fine for that. [smilie=1:

[Tom W.]

H110 and Varget....

[Kraschenbirn]

+1 for Unique and 4895.

[bullshot]

I would pick Unique and IMR 4895 also.

[Boerrancher]

Thanks to everyone who has posted thus far. I am still interested in hearing from those of you who haven't posted yet. With that said, if I could choose a couple more rifle powders it would be 4064 and 4350, but since I said one rifle powder I would still have to stick with 4831/3100, as I like large cases with small dia projectiles. Heck I can even make IMR4831 work in a 30-06, it is a little tough to do in the 308 and 300 sav, but a case full of it in a 243 win or 6mm Rem, behind an 85 grain HP is just pure poison on a white tail or prong horn. My father's favorite rifle cartridge for Moose is a 6mm-06 with a 100 gr hollow point bullet with 60 grs of IMR4831 pushing it.

I am glad to see that I have chosen a good handgun powder with Unique. My father was always a blue dot man, and his friend who taught me how to cast was a bulls eye fan. Both of these two men believed that if you needed more velocity out of a handgun than what their choice of powder would deliver, you needed a rifle. I understood their logic, but as I started acquiring more handguns once I turned 21, other than dad's old flat top black hawk I had been packing around the farm for years, I realized that I needed either more powders or a better powder. Unique seemed to work for all of my auto's as well as my wheelguns, and when I bought rifles to shoot the wheel gun rounds in I found Unique worked well for those also. I have a pound of bulls eye, for the days I want to load up a bunch of 38 spls, but other than that it is Unique for me.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[45r]

I've been using power pistol and RE-7 the most in my handguns and leverguns lately.I like Vitt-133 for my .223,half inch groups at 100 yards are the norm and very clean.I like unique,296,HS-6 also and couldn't go without these powders for max accuracy sometimes.I shoot 45 colt the most and have found nothing better for midrange loads than power pistol.Works great in my 45 Cowboy also.

[dromia]

Viht N340 or 350 and N135 or N140

I would like to put in N110 or 120 as well, with three of those I'd be very happy. :-D

[Cherokee]

231 Win and H335

[crabo]

Well, I ran out of Unique, and on the east side of Dallas, the only place I could find it was Bass Pro. All of the usual places were out. I found it for $17.00. I have been thinking about trying some RL7 and started to pick up a pound, and it was $25! I put it down.

It seems like I usually pay $18-20 a pound at my usual Southwest Reloading in Mesquite. I am considering once again trying to get down to about 3 powders for pistols. Right now I have too many.

[1Shirt]

Every time I try to cut down on the number of powders, someone comes out with something new that I just have to try. However, doubt I could ever just stick with two regardless. As long as I shoot cast, will always have at least 2400, Unique, Red Dot, and 4759 on the shelf. Mostly because they are the cheapest to shoot by vol and all will do well if not excellent in my rifles and hand guns. Will also probably always have Rl-7, Varget, and 4831 on hand as well.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[Boerrancher]

Unique seems to run between $17 to $20 a pound depending where you are in the country. I bought a 4 lb jug a few months ago for a hair more than $60 at a Graf's there in Mexico, MO. IMO you get more bang for your buck with Unique. It works so well in so many cartridges, and very few of you posted something different than Unique. I may try other powders from time to time looking for that magic load, but will continue to add to my stock of Unique.

Best Wishes from the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[sav300]

No handguns here and I load for too many rifles.I tend to use ADI 2208 from the 223 to the 358win.But have about 8 different powders on hand.
Lionel.
Boerrancher,hows life treating you?

[singleshotbuff]

I too would have to vote for Unique and 4895.

As an added dimension for me, I reload a fair amount of shotshells, Unique is a very useful powder there as well.

If I could add a third powder to the list, instead of another rifle powder I'd go with Promo, which is just cheap (79.00/8lbs) Red Dot. I use a LOT of Promo in 12ga trap loads, have used it in quite a few handguns and am starting to use it in rifles with cast loads.

In fact, if I didn't load 20ga shotshells, my 2 powders would be Promo and 4895. Unique is more useful than Promo/Red Dot in the 20.

SSB

[Old Ironsights]

I'm shooting for 2400 for 99% of what I load in my 3 calibers - .38/.357, .45-70, 9.3x72R for GP.

I buy that in 8lb jugs.

But I'll keep a couple pounds of Lilgun handy for .357 hunting loads and maybe some RL-7 for heavy .45-70...

[StrawHat]

I have tried for years to limit myself to one powder and have almost succeded.

The main powder I load anymore in any of my firearms is good old black powder.

Obviously I mostly have larger capacity cartridges but I have used it successfully in some small bores also, like the 38 Special and 32-20 (not great but okay).

Mostly I use it in strait walled cases but it has worked in a couple of BN cartidges, 303 and 30-40 to name a couple.

I have also had some spectacular failures with the stuff.

The only cartridges that don't seem to like it (at least that I load for) are the 22 WCF in an old reworked Ballard and the 405 WCF in an old reworked Model 1895. I am guessing the twist is wrong for the lower velocities but have not given up yet. Next I will try 5477 or 777 and see how they like it.

No, I do not get the high velocities I would get with smokeless but with the bullets I favor, complete penetration on whitetails is not a problem so I don't need the added velocity.

[beemer]

Unique and 4064.

beemer

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Due to increased costs I have switched.
I used a lot of Unigue & 2400 in pistols ( shotguns anyone ?) and in cast for riles.
Also used a lot of 700x .
2400 is all I will buy now in a commercial powder. IF I BUY ANY . COST!

Surplus Russian unique & WC 820 is what I burn in pistols now, much cheaper, good stuff, for all my fun/practice shooting.

Rifles I have used a bunch of different IMR's to settle on 4350. COSTLY!

Surplus Wc 860 replaces it for practice & fun.

OK ,SO THATS NOT JUST 2, SO WHAT.

[MakeMineA10mm]

WOW! TWO powders to cover rifle and pistol and shotgun?!? That's a stiff challenge... Awhile back I went through a trimming-down of my powders, so that I could buy in bulk to incur some savings. I settled on the following:

W231/HP-38/SMP-231 (all the same powder) for 90% of my pistol loads.
AA#9 for the remaining 10% of them.

Green Dot for light shotshells.
SOLO1250 for med-hvy. shotshells.

Ramshot TAC for my fast rifle powder.
H-4831SC for my slow rifle powder.


This has only really worked out for my shotgun loads. I just had to get a couple other pistol/shotgun powders for use in pistols (IMR800X is da bomb in 10mm, Herco is special in the 9mm, and there's a couple others that squeeze out the last iota of performance in the 10mm, depending on the bullet). For the rifles, I've ended up getting several more powders. There's just too much of a performance gap. I've added in Varget, IMR-4198, RL-7, H-322, VV N140, IMR-4320, and RL-15.

[Thor Bloodax]

Hmmm. I am thinking: what rifle powders can be used in handgun calibers such as .45 Colt, .45 ACP and .357 Mag? I have never tried it but has someone ever tried to cross over?

[evan price]

ADI/Mulwex AR2208 (AKA VARGET) for rifles with H335 a strong near tie for second.

Titegroup for pistols.

[Ole]

WW231 for pistol and H322 for rifle.

[TDC]

Unique, w231, 2400, H4831 ... PLEASE!! Don't ask me to choose among them..... the pain would be too great!!

[stubshaft]

Count me in also. Unique and 4895.

[Nora]

I'd have to go with Unique and IMR-4350.

[BIGGUNGOBOOM]

2400 and 4064