Imr 7383

[Bullshop]

Anyone tried IMR 7383? In what cartridge/bullet/boolit combo?
I just received a case of jugs from Jeff Bartlett. All his data says is 4831 less 15%.
I gave it a go today in a 308 Win. Worked out darn good. Tried two boolits an Egan 220gn and an NEI 200 DD. A full case settled to about mid way in the neck weighs 43 gn and is the charge I worked up to. It produced 2075 average FPS with the 220gn Egan and 2150 with the 200gn NEI boolit. Both were holding nice 100 yard clusters right at about moa. I am well please with the performance. It is not as economical as something like Blue Dot that will give similar velocity with about an 18gn charge but at the price, $8.00 per pound it becomes very attractive.

With all the whining I have been seeing here about powder availability I was surprised Jeff had any. I placed an order and in about a week the package of 6 jugs showed up. Where is the problem with that?

Well I just choked down my lunch while typing this so now am headed back to the shop to try this in a 22/250 with some boolits.

Oh and BTW I tried some of Jeff's WC-860 in a 243 Ackley last week and also got very good accuracy with a 75gn LBT SPT design. Have not yet chronographed that but hope to this after noon. I got the WC-860 from Jeff quite a few years ago because it was cheap and had put it away and forgot about it. Gave it a try just to see what if and DANG!!! I like it!!! 41.5gn with the LBT 75gn boolit in the 243 Ackley is the load for my rifle.
I will try to get up some chrono data on that load this PM.

[9w1911]

interesting and I have read up on this powder, care to work a 45-70 load for me? hahaha Id love a case of jugs!

[texassako]

I think a lot of people are scared of it because of the warnings about it being touchy. I was tempted to order some, but still have a bunch of WC857 and WC870 to use up first.

[MT Gianni]

I have a long document saved from when several of us were playing with this powder on Shooters. It is spikey. Too little will leave burned powder kernals in the bore. Beware when you get it all to burn, stuck bolts, pierced or blown primers and lots of copper clean up. I have had decent results with it but it has been a while. If you want the data send me an e-mail and I will attach what I have.

[Bullshop]

Working a 45/70 load would be very simple, just fill the case to the base of a heavy boolit like 500+gn and should give something around 1400fps. Maybe not for TD's though.
This afternoon instead of going to the 22/250 as I thought I would instead I went with the 243 Ackley because it was out as were the boolits for it. This rifle has a 1/12" twist so I am using rather light boolits in it. The one used today is from Veral at LBT. Its his 75gn spt gc design.
Started at 35gn 7383 and yielded 2380 fps but so so grouping. Going to 36.5gn jumped the velocity to 2500 fps but accuracy got worse, unacceptable at this point where the 35gn load was usable. Dropping down to 34gn did the trick and started grouping very well at about 2300 fps. It was not quite up to par with the previously mentioned WC-860 load but that load was outstanding consistently producing three shot 100 yard groups right close to half moa average. Two groups measured were .4+ and .6+. Today though I couldn't do the 7383 loads justice because the wind was howling and I could not stop the rifle from moving sideways on the rest. Had to try to shoot between gusts and still the horizontal was three times the vertical. Even so it did right fair and I will give it another go on a more colm day.
Over all though it looks like even if the 7383 equals the 860 in accuracy it will do it at a slightly lower velocity. That is as could be expected since the 7383 is slightly faster burning than the 860 which has an effect in the 28" barrel of this 243 AI.
In summery my first try with this powder in two different cartridges 243 AI and 308 Win yielded very good results. This powder looks good for mid size cases with boolits and good velocity for hunting purposes. The density's of loads today ran about 75 to 80%. This may also turn out to be an outstanding powder for over bore capacity cases but I don't do much with that type cartridges accept my coyote rifles and I will be trying this powder in the 25/06 which tops my list for such use.
But for the mid size cartridges on the 308 and 30/06 cases with cast boolits I like what I am seeing with 75% load density's producing 2000+ fps and burning clean.
For you guys looking for deals on powder this IMR 7383 will cover a lot of bases.

[Bullshop]

I have a long document saved from when several of us were playing with this powder on Shooters. It is spikey. Too little will leave burned powder kernals in the bore. Beware when you get it all to burn, stuck bolts, pierced or blown primers and lots of copper clean up. I have had decent results with it but it has been a while. If you want the data send me an e-mail and I will attach what I have.

Gianni
I didn't notice any problem with unburned powder today with pressure in the 30,000 range (estimated) The bore looked very clean and sustained the same level of accuracy through out the testing ending about the same as it started without any cleaning. If I never push a jacketed bullet with this powder I still am finding it very useful with cast of which I shoot many many more than jacket.
Using it for cast at appropriate pressure in the range used today there will never be a chance for a spike in pressure. There may also be some difference between lot numbers of this powder used 10 years ago and lots available today, I don't know. What I do know is that it went to the top of my list for heavy boolits in the 308 in the 2000+ fps range. It equals the accuracy of my previously first choice loads and betters the velocity by 150 fps. When shooting the 308 with 200+gn boolits out to 1000 yards I do need that extra velocity because I run out of clicks in my scope at about 800 yards.

OH and BTW I did chrono the 41.5gn load of WC-860 in the 243 AI with the LBT 75gn boolit right at 2350 fps average and groups running very close to half inch at 100 yards. Only three shot groups yes but I have never gotten as many shots at a gopher. I have gotten a second shot after a first miss but never a third.

[whelenshooter]

Castpics has some information re:7383 under their load data section.

David

[AlaskanGuy]

I bet you are just having a blast being in montana now and able to order powder online.... And having tell you that the WILL ship....

[HollandNut]

I been interested in this powder as well , when they "say" load until it burns clean , does it leave a very noticeable residue until clean is attained ??

This will be for 458 Lott/Win Mag , so I'm thinking like Bullshop says with 45/70 , a full case will probably work fine with no issues , seems I read 85%-105 % load density ..

Of course it will mostly be boolits not j werds

[TCLouis]

in a medium case . . . Say 308 . . .

How quick does it jump from ok to give pressure signs

.1 gr?

.5 gr.?

1.0 gr.?

[Bullshop]

In my testing with the 308 Win I am loading at 100% density with 200gn and 220gn boolits and it is shooting great.
Velocities were just over 2000 fps with the 220gn and 2150 with the 200gn.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that I did try it in a 22/250 today. 30gn 7383 with the 62gn NOE boolit seemed to be about the right charge for best accuracy. Accuracy was great and at the same time terrible. I shot some 1" groups and I shot some 4" groups. It just was not consistent for some reason. I think its in there but I just have to figure out why its so inconsistent.

[Bullshop]

Today I tried a different boolit in the 22/250 but I didn't get to do any group shooting or chronoghaphing because it snowed most of the day. The boolit I tried is from our Mate down under Cast Bullet Engineering. Its a 55gn Loverin style with lots of full diameter bearing surface where the NOE design I originally tried has very little.
The CBE boolit seemed to do a respectable job on thinning gophers in my pasture. My pasture is full of holes that I need to eliminate so I can keep a cow there so the gophers must go. Shots were between 25 and 50 or so yards and there were no misses.
The 30gn charge of 7383 with the 55gn CBE boolit is quite destructive on the gophers as can be seen in the pic. I have shot some with my 221 and the same boolit at about 2200 fps and it is not this destructive so I assume the 30gn charge of 7383 in the 22/250 with the 55gn CBE boolit is going somewhat faster.
I hope to do some group shooting and chronograph as soon as weather permits. So far with the three cartridges tested shooting only boolits I am glad I made the investment in this powder. In the near future I hope to add the 30/06 35 Whelen and 375 Whelen to the list of cartridges shooting boolits pushed by this powder.

[Bullshop]

Yesterday while I was waiting for gophers to pop up I trained my bino's to the nearby rock bluffs that are behind my house. The bluff rises very nearly straight up for about 300 ft. Its a local land mark called Red Bluff for the color of the rocks. From my shop door to the top of the bluff it is 837. I have lazered the range because it seems to be a game magnet and I want to quickly know the range when a coyote or wolf shows up there. Anyway yesterday just glassing across the bluffs I saw some movement so focused on it and saw it was a rock chuck. Then watching the bluffs I began to notice the buggers were seemingly everywhere moving to and fro all about in the large rocks.
Over the winter I was dialing in on some basketball size rocks on the bluff with a 308 win shooting the 200gn NEI-DD boolit and doing quite well at that range. The load I had been using was 20gn of Alliant Steel and it was giving just in excess of 1900 fps.
The load I just developed using this 7383 powder with the same boolit is doing 2150 fps. With the load using Steel powder it it took all the elevation my Falcon Optics scope had up from a 100 yard zero 197 clicks plus 9 mills of holdover.
The load with 7383 is grouping every bit as good and giving nearly 200 fps more velocity. Now if I only had a spotter to call my shots I would sure like to try some 800 yard shots at chucks with the new 308 load. With the old load at just over 1900 fps I was able some time to come down out of recoil and spot the hit in the scope because over 800 yards time of flight was sometimes just enough to get back on target. With the increased velocity of the new load with 7383 I doubt I will be able to spot any hits at all.
Anyone want to stop by and spot for me? I promise to let ya shoot, a little.

[cowboybart]

I have good luck with it in my 260 Encore but not in the 260 AR (haven't found anything that the 260 AR likes). I have also loaded it in a friend's 7 RM and 270 WSM.

[Bullshop]

I pretty much wrung it out in the 22/250 with boolits and never found consistently good grouping. I tested load levels that went from just under 2500 fps up to 3200 fps and got a couple good groups but was not able to repeat them with any consistency.
Just because I had some 50gn jacketed bullets lying about I tried a few with a case full 35gn of 7383 and without even cleaning the barrel first from all the boolit testing the first jacketed bullet group went about 3/4" at 100 yards.
So I have given up on shooting boolits with this powder in the 22/250 but surely have not given up on shooting bullets in the 22/250 with it.
The shinning star so far shooting boolits with this powder has been the 308 Win with 200 and 220gn boolits.

[daengmei]

Maybe jacketed bullets allow more pressure to build? I have yet to use any of my 7383 but somewhere I think I saw it's use with magnum primers. Could that help?

[Bullshop]

I did try magnum primers and heavy crimp and even duplexing but still got ES of 100+ fps with boolits in the 22/250. I got some darn good groups but not repeatable. At 2700 fps groups were only good enough for the 50 yard shots at gophers in my pasture with flyers going out to 3" The example in the photo was with a load that chronoed at 2700 fps.
At 3200 fps flyers were way out there some missing a 2'x2' target or were found randomly scattered anywhere on the target. Funny thing is that sometimes 2 or 3 out of a 5 shot group would be at the correct POI and in a group.
At the higher velocity its most likely not entirely the fault or the powder but the pressure as well.

[Patricklaw]

I purchased several jugs of this from gibrass.com a year or so ago and have been wondering how best to put it to use. I had read many horror stories before I purchased and still concluded that it would be a great buy to replenish my diminishing stocks of 4831 (provided for me by a good friend in gallon root beer jugs). I notice that Jeff now lists (and perhaps always has listed) it as a single based powder. This would suggest that the powder is less volatile that the general belief seems to suggest. I've often wondered if anyone has ever fessed up to being the trigger puller on the devastating Kabooms that we read of. I'm sort of wondering if this is a great powder that got an undeserved rep for being triple base and "peakie".

[PewProfessional89]

I have been experimenting with IMR 7383 to work in my AR-15 chambered in 300 blackout with a pistol length gas system. It doesn't run the gun on it's own... not even at 106% case fill with a lee 230 gr. boolit. So I did some reading and found that people were "duplexing" this powder and wc860 in 45-70 govt. with some good results. So I called Jeff Bartlett and placed an order for a couple jugs of BR-5 (Unique equivalent) and IMR 7383. I started off by trying a case full of 7383, which didn't work, then I added 1 gr of BR-5 to the bottom of the case and reduced the 7383 by 1 gr. and put it on top of the pistol powder before seating the 230 gr boolit. I kept the case fill at around 103%. After some trial and error and shooting several rounds with my butthole puckered really tight, I managed to get 3.2 gr. BR-5 below 9.3 gr of IMR 7383 to run my gun and push the pill out at an average velocity of 1248 fps. with a standard deviation of around 12 fps. More experimenting is needed, but I made a rather rough looking video of my trials and results. The video includes chronograph data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdxzWY3_o0g&t=845s

[smalltownguy]

I have been experimenting with IMR 7383 to work in my AR-15 chambered in 300 blackout with a pistol length gas system. It doesn't run the gun on it's own... not even at 106% case fill with a lee 230 gr. boolit. So I did some reading and found that people were "duplexing" this powder and wc860 in 45-70 govt. with some good results. So I called Jeff Bartlett and placed an order for a couple jugs of BR-5 (Unique equivalent) and IMR 7383. I started off by trying a case full of 7383, which didn't work, then I added 1 gr of BR-5 to the bottom of the case and reduced the 7383 by 1 gr. and put it on top of the pistol powder before seating the 230 gr boolit. I kept the case fill at around 103%. After some trial and error and shooting several rounds with my butthole puckered really tight, I managed to get 3.2 gr. BR-5 below 9.3 gr of IMR 7383 to run my gun and push the pill out at an average velocity of 1248 fps. with a standard deviation of around 12 fps. More experimenting is needed, but I made a rather rough looking video of my trials and results. The video includes chronograph data.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdxzWY3_o0g&t=845s

interesting video