Alliant Steel

[brotherdarrell]

well done Darrell I am loving the info, can you make any field adjustments or comparisons with say 2400?

None that I can back up with hard data. I will say that I extrapolated a start load for this 70 grainer last week based on start data for 2400 and a 55 gr. boolit and I was way off and ended up with a sticky bolt in my 788, which is not hard with the design. Therefore I am hesitant to make any direct comparisons with 2400. I should have a replacement chrono in the next couple of weeks so I should be able to have some better data. I would also add that the 8 gr. Steel and the 70 gr. NOE gave me nice rounded primers.

Darrell

[Marlin Junky]

I think you will find Blue Dot to be on the faster side on Steel. In my experience Steel is much closer to 2400 than is Blue Dot. At least this has been true with the lots of Steel and Blue Dot I have used.

When did you purchase your Steel? Is there a manufacture date or lot number on your jug(s)?

We'll see what Mr. Chronograph has to say tomorrow.

Thanks,
MJ

[9w1911]

awesome guys!! thanks!

[Marlin Junky]

OK, here's the dope:

Substituting only Blue Dot For Steel in the load described in my post #56, we have the following chronograph data:

n=14 (one got away from me)
high=1828
low=1803
range=25
ave.=1819
std.dev.=7.1

So there you have it. In my .358 Winchester, my lot of Steel is producing 90 fps more than my lot of Blue Dot with the same charge weight. Not having the ability to measure pressure, I can't say whether the increased velocity is due to a large percentage of nitroglycerin in Steel or more pressure due to a faster burning rate or something else entirely.

MJ

[Bullshop]

Well I'll be dang! I never woulda believed it.
The Steel I had was several years old. I want to get more but will pay close attention if I do find some. I started using it maybe 6 or 7 years ago.

[Marlin Junky]

Well I'll be dang! I never woulda believed it.
The Steel I had was several years old. I want to get more but will pay close attention if I do find some. I started using it maybe 6 or 7 years ago.

Bullshop,

Alliant may have tweaked it due to measuring complaints?? I'm just guessing.

Nevertheless, my lot measures as well as any other larger flake powder similar to Unique. When I loaded up the Steel a few days ago, I was throwing 17.9 to 18.1 grains (checked on my PACT) with an occasional 17.8 grain charge (two or three out of 20). For the record, I dumped the 18.1 grain charges back into the hopper and trickled in the remaining 1 to 2 tenths to make sure I was shooting 18.0 grains. BTW, the Blue Dot behaved pretty much the same way through the Uni-Flow. Check Graf about once a week for more Steel. For now I'm going to move on to a tack driver boolit in the .358 and hopefully the 350... the RCBS 35-200-FN.

MJ

[Bullshop]

The lot I had had a terrible tendency to bridge when thrown from a powder measure. Even when it didn't bridge it easily had half grain variations. Funny thing is it would throw several charges very close then for no apparent reason throw one way off.
I took to weighing charges and it started grouping much better for me.
I use Blue Dot too and my Blue Dot is very old powder but the results I get seems to show BD as faster than Steel.

[9w1911]

well done!!! thank you

[Marlin Junky]

Here's some of my first results with STEEL and RCBS 35-200-FN in the .358 Ruger (1:12" twist).

The first five shots (I reused a target from last week... notice the black tape and partial boolit hole poking out from under the orange dot) were from a clean barrel and the shot at 6 o'clock in the white was number two. The shot directly above that and completely in the black was number one. That one high and to the right makes me think a little adjustment of boolit hardness is necessary. 19 grains of #9 puts 'em in the same hole at this range (75 yards) but at 100 fps slower.

The two follow up rounds on the target below were shot after I tweaked the elevation dial by 7 or 8 clicks. I wish I had more of these rounds today but I was mostly fire-forming brass with junk boolits, surplus powder (contradiction of terms these days!) and WLR (not my usual). Nevertheless, shots number 6 and 7 came back to the center of the group... so it could be just a bore conditioning thing that caused number 5 to be a flyer.

Anyway:
17.0 grains of STEEL
RCBS 35-200-FN at BHN 17 & 208 grains naked
Winchester .308 brass necked up
FED 210 primers

Chronograph stats:
n=7
high=1773
low=1748 (that's the one in the white)
ave.=1763
std.dev.=7.4



P.S. I just wanted to add, at the pressure I'm dealing with here, (whatever it is) Steel is very clean burning AND according to a duck hunting site, new batches of Steel are 3-5% faster than original batches... so, it appears Steel is not just faster than Blue Dot with respect to my .358W application. I'd say, treat is as Herco and life will be good... BTW, Powder Valley has it in stock... right now. Based on my experience, it meters just as well as Blue Dot if you don't settle it into the hopper.

[Marlin Junky]

I just wanted to supply some more STEEL data with the components listed in post #69...

I brought the charge up to 17.5 and the groups worsened while the average velocity for ten rounds only increased by 7 fps. The std. dev. did go down to 6.5 fps but I'm calling 17.0 grains a maximum charge under these conditions. I will try heat treated boolits before moving on to something else.

MJ

[Bullshop]

"""3-5% faster than original batches"""
Dang that's too bad I liked it just the way it was.

[tomme boy]

Like I said in an earlier post, Steel is all over the place from lot to lot. That was why I stopped loading steelshot for duck hunting. Every time you went to a new lot you had to test it all over again. The reason they came up with Steel was to help with the ignition with bluedot when it was cold. Had a lot of bloopers with bluedot in the early days of reloading steel. That was even with 209a from Federal. That is the mag of mag primers.

[Marlin Junky]

Well... look at it this way... it's about 3-4% slower than Unique and perhaps 7625, (I haven't tried the latter with RCBS 35-200 yet) seems to be more available than the former and less money than the "deprecated" latter. I thought I was buying a fluffy form of 2400 so I feel really betrayed; nevertheless, I'll recover.

MJ

[Bullshop]

My first lot of Steel was a 4 pound keg and it was very much so a fluffy 2400. That is how I came to like it so well. That was somewhere near 10 years ago. If its no longer what it was I have little use for it and will just stay with Blue Dot for mid range rifle loads.
I came by the keg by chance when a customer traded it in for gun work. That is gone now and I have been looking for more but maybe I will stop looking.

[9w1911]

I am going to get some just to develop some loads for the fun of it. I do that with all powders. Same thing I am about to do with some Promo I just picked up

[Marlin Junky]

I am going to get some just to develop some loads for the fun of it. I do that with all powders. Same thing I am about to do with some Promo I just picked up

Heck yeah... why not. I purchased the Steel for more than one reason. The best reasons were economy and availability. I'm shooting #9 tomorrow, but I'm thinking for next week, I'm going to try a bit less than 17 grains of Steel for 1675-1700 fps with a 17-18 BHN RCBS 35-200-FN. The alloy in question is basically range scrap and with respect to economy, it doesn't get more economical than free range scrap. I think the 1763 fps load above is running a little too high in the PSI department with BHN 17 alloy. If I can pull the above group together at 1675-1700 fps, perhaps I'll try some heat treated COWW metal and 17.0-17.5 grains of Steel.

MJ

[Marlin Junky]

Like I said in an earlier post, Steel is all over the place from lot to lot.

I saw that post; however, I purchased 8 pounds of Steel because it was available at circa 16 bucks a pound. It's possible I'll be very bored with it by the time I'm on my 6th pound. By that time, I'm hoping Alliant 2400 will be flowing like champagne in Hollywood again.

MJ

[sandman228]

a local gun shop has 6 or 8 4 lb jugs of this stuff that's marked for clearance new old stock at 50$ per jug. I use 6 gr blue dot in my 9mm cast loads and 7.5 gr in jacketed 9mm loads, I wonder how steel would work as a replacement ? I do load 12 gauge also but just light 1 oz loads for clay pigeons so I don't think it would work out well that. Im wondering though I load a 195 lead round nosed bullet with 13.5 gr of herco for my 35 marlin plinker loads perhaps steel might work out for that ? i load a handful of other handgun calibers and 30 30 cast loads as well should I pick up a jug or 2 of this stuff?

[runfiverun]

I'd so be all over it at that price.
I'd buy it all...

I don't know about the new steel powder being changed either, the stuff I have is from before 2000.
it has made some outstanding 44 mag and 45 colt loads for me I haven't tried it in rifle loads yet [if ever]
I used 800-x data to get started and it showed the steel powder to be a step slower so I ended up going 1-2 grains heavier.
I load steel for it's intended purpose of shooting ducks and geese so don't burn it up in too many metal cased cartridge applications.

[Marlin Junky]

$50 per jug and no Haz-Mat? What are you waiting for? I don't know what "new old stock" is supposed to mean but if you start with Herco data, I don't think you'll get into trouble. Where are you located?

MJ