what 4 powders?

[zomby woof]

2400, Varget, 3031, ?

[helice]

At first I thought this could be easy. The more I thought on it the tougher it got.
If I shoot more than one gauge shotgun I'll need more than one powder. Those would work in most pistols but if I want magnum stuf I'd need another one. That could work in cast/rifle but if I wanted higher velocities I'd need yet another one. If I was to shoot those new-fangled yellow/orange colored slugs I'd probably want to get 'em going 4000ft/sec so I'd want another one. Lord have Mercy no wonder my shelves are full. & I never brought up which ones burn cleaner. Stink!

[Harter66]

Well I've managed to keep it stupid simple .....................so far.

Unique,RedDot
,38/357,9mm,45 Colts,20,16,12ga,06',308,x57s,762x39.

4756 800x
16,12ga

4350
32Rem,06',x57s,308,762x39

FF,FFF
44,45,50,54 C/B and ML

I've H110,4895,4831,3031 but as you see I'm a utility kinda guy and I just don't have the "groove" for these yet.

[tuckerdog]

don't get on line often but was just curious, I try to keep the selection limited due to not much room, but have to admit to also having red dot herco trail boss IMR 4064 as well as the top four, I use them all and shoot 20ga, 12ga, 222 (3031 is a super accurate powder for this one in my rifle), 243, 308, and so on as well as several handguns, I prefer to work from 8# jugs but the powders I dont use as much are 1#

[jetinteriorguy]

Bullseye, Titegroup, 2400, and H335 would cover me. Although I would also add 700X if we could bump up to five powders.

[jrmartin1964]

Bullseye; Unique; IMR-3031; and IMR-4320. I could get by with just those four powders. There's not a cartridge I load for that won't work with at least one of them. I'd prefer to add a couple to that list, but those four powders will cover everything I load.

[trails4u]

Based on today....it would be any flavor of 4350, 4895, unique, and FFg. Unique is unobtanium around here...so I'd take 231 or Titegroup as a sub.... Again...based on what I'm doing today.

[GhostHawk]

Red Dot/Promo, 4895, 3031, and I think 4227.

Red Dot because with it I can shoot everything I want to shoot for a penny or 2.

I love 4895 in my SKS, nice mild load with predictable accuracy and good smack.

3031 partly nostalgia, I first started reloading with 30 grains of it in .243 under a Hornady 60 grain boat tailed hollow point. Man that Rem 788 surprised some varmints out past 300 with that load.

4227 because while my 4.6 of Red Dot is very accurate in my best shooting rifle, a .357 mag handi rifle with 158 gr round nose plain base. 4227 gives me more speed, power especially for going up to a 200 grain.

But it is just not quite as good on the bench, and costs more to shoot.

The Red Dot has been good in all my rifles thus far as long as you do not insist on going fast, or cycling actions. Since the majority of my rifles are single shots and a pair of Bolt action Mosin's I don't worry much about cycling actions.

That .243 taught me a lesson about speed one day. I was shooting at a crow about a hundred yards away. From what I was able to piece together the bullet hit a pencil sized branch some 10-15 feet in front of the crow. Now the crow died, in that case, looked like a shotgun blast. It had visible long splinters of wood sticking out of its breast. But if I had been shooting at a target a bit further away, or if the stick, blade of grass had been a bit closer. That would have been a miss.

Instead of 60 grains going 3k fps plus I have learned that a bigger boolit, like 3 times bigger, going half as fast, will clip a branch and not blow up, or be deflected much by a small twig.

You miss a 4" branch in your scope and smack it, that's on you.

Different strokes for different folks. But I'll go a bit slower and be sure to get there.

[captain-03]

Unique
Bullseye
IMR4895
Red Dot

[rking22]

FFFG, or FFG as second choice for the BP guns
Unique, or 20-28,231,Reddot,or Bullseye for most everything else from 12ga to 28ga and 90% of my cast needs
2400, or another mag pistol powder that crosses to the 410 and is more forgiving than 296, for 410 shells and stout revolver loads
4895, or RL7,4198,3031 for the rifle hunting loads

I have actually considered this for sometime in the future when I may need/want to do signifigant downsizing, but for now I probably USE 15 different powders!

[fast ronnie]

Four powders??? NO WAY!!

I'm with btroj here...too many specialty type loads that four powders don't cover.

Clays for really cheap, clean loads in revolvers...and 12 ga. target loads.

SR7625 for heavy 12 ga. loads.

Ramshot X-Terminator for 55 gr. 223.

SR4756 for soft expanding boolits in 44 mag.

VV3N37 or Ramshot Silhouette for the 38 Sooper comp gun.

WC860 for most any mil-surp rifle.

Re7 for........well, lotsa stuff.

W296 for when ya gotta get that last few FPS from the mag handguns.

SR4759 for boolits in lots of medium capacity rifle cartridges.

IMR3031 cause nothin' else works as well in the 35 Rem.

HP38/W231 for most any light to medium handgun loads.

Oh yeah...and Bullseye, Unique and 2400 cause those are the standards to compare every thing else to. They'll work in a wide variety of applications, but I've found very few instances where I couldn't beat their performance with another powder.

So........limit myself to four powders??? NO WAY!!

Jerry

What are you using now that 7625 has been discontinued?
I got some 800x but haven't tried it yet.

[fast ronnie]

unique, 4895, 4831, 322. next step is to try 800x as 7625 has been discontinued a couple years ago as per Hogdens.

[rking22]

fast ronnie, 800x meters like frosted flakes for me, if you want a good heavy powder for 12 ga hunting loads in 2 3/4 Longshot might make you happy. I do not shoot it in that usuage but have shot some loads a friend had. I use it in some 28ga loads. Check some data, my memory is lousy!

[Alferd Packer]

bullseye
unique
2400
4895

[444ttd]

2400
rel 7
4350
4895

[quilbilly]

RE-7, Red Dot, 3031, and 4198.

[P Flados]

I load for myself and my younger son. We try to get together for a shoot on a weekly basis.

I bet I crank out almost as many Promo loads as everything else combined. It comes in 8 lb jugs & I think I have around 1.5 jugs right now.

I tried Titegroup when I could not get Promo and got happy with it for 9mm. Found a couple of other uses for it where it is better than Promo. Again I buy in 8 lb jugs and think I have about 1.5.

WC 844 (Milsurp H335) is currently all I use in the way of a "rifle powder". It does 223, 30-30, 30 Herret, 7 Tcu, etc. My boy shoots a good bit of 223, and the 30 Herrett and 7 Tcu are IHMSA loads, so we are talking a significant volume of usage. Since it is the only rifle powder I use, I was able to justify 32 lbs for my last purchase.

In the middle (magnum pistol) is a challenge.

I found some WC 1680 (Milsurp AA1680) that I like in my heavy 357 Max and 357AR Max loads. The max gets used in IHMSA so I felt justified with my most recent purchase volume, 32 lbs.

However, for my serious 327 loads, WC 1680 is too slow and Titegrpoup is too fast. I found some SW Heavy Pistol on sale and got enough to feed the 327 until aft I am gone (two 8lb jugs). The burn rate is about the same as Blue Dot and AA #9.

I have a few other powders, but not a lot in the way of regular loads for any of them.

So, there you have only 5 even though I have some "picky" applications. All are bought in 8 lb jugs.

[Texas by God]

Bullseye
Unique
IMR 3031
H414

Sent from my SM-A716U using Tapatalk

[1Papalote]

Unique.4064.Re7.8208

2400/H110

[rbuck351]

231, herco, 2400,and 4831 would be all I would really need as I can make BP. I can duplex these 4 to get about anything in between. This choice will not happen as I have enough of what I use to last my life.