Which powder companies tend to make the best smokeless powder?

[Beerd]

The Best?
That's easy.
While Herters didn't make powder, the smokeless powder they sold was the World's Best, cleanest burning and always Guide approved...that with their Perfect Primers...you just knew you had the BEST.

Best hell.
That was THE FINEST PROCURABLE!
..

[M-Tecs]

The Best?
That's easy.
While Herters didn't make powder, the smokeless powder they sold was the World's Best, cleanest burning and always Guide approved...that with their Perfect Primers...you just knew you had the BEST.

Until your turned the next page than is was the super best in the world. I really missed the old Herter's catalog. You did forget to top your load with the Herter Wasp-Waist Sonic bullet.

[gpidaho]

Can't say for sure it's the best, but my most used and personal favorite would be Alliant. The Dot powders + the RL powders. Pretty much covers anything I load. Gp

[goryshaw]

A quick look through my powder closet shows in order by weight; Alliant (mostly because I have full 8 lber's of 2400 and Red Dot specifically for cast shooting and between 8 and 9 lbs of RL 15 for service rifle), IMR (19 lbs of 4759, 6 lbs of 4166 and 4 lbs of 4895 for 30-06 Garand, a few of 4198 for 45-70), Hodgdon (8+ lbs of Benchmark for Service rifle practice loads, lots of 1 lb one offs), Accurate (only about 6-8 lbs total, a few AA 7, a couple AA 9, couple 2495, went through 3+ of 4064 in 2014 but switched to IMR 4166 when it became available, Winchester about 5 lbs of pulldown 231.

I don't believe there is any such thing as 'best', they all work for their intended purposes, and there is so much overlap that you can't say any one is better than any other. AA has/had a reputation for lot to lot variation, but that seems to be less of an issue than it used to be. Most of my variety is due to the great 2012-2016 powder shortage, beggars can't be choosers, and hodgdon's burn rate chart is irreplaceable for finding comparable powders for unavailable types.

I was down to 6-8 lbs total and maybe 3k primers when the component crisis kicked off in 2013. Decided that never again will I be so short of supplies. Started buying powder and/or primers with every paycheck and am now up to 100+ lbs and 10k+ primers in my cache. Just turned 52 so figure that's probably a lifetime supply for most purposes. Could use another 20k primers, and more RL 15 and IMR 4166 as hi-power and JCG matches go through a lot of that each year.

[Two Barrels]

I use IMR most often for rifles. I have gravitated towards Hodgdon for most shotgun loads. For revolver and pistol loads I have yet to settle on one manufacturer.

[Hossfly]

I use Hodgdon the most, but have used a pulled powder that was 40+ years old and worked very well with what I was doing.

[megasupermagnum]

For most uses, Alliant. I used to shoot 700x a lot for light shotgun and handgun loads. I've found American Select to be a better powder for my uses. The exception is full power rifles, which I do not shoot a lot of, I use IMR the most for that. H110 is about the only thing I really like from Hodgdon. Accurate powders meter like smooth sand, but I never found a load I liked. I do really like Blackhorn 209, which is produced by Accurate/Ramshot.

[NWPilgrim]

My “best” got realigned to “what is reliably available and works.” Generally that is Hodgdon. I started off really liking the Accurate powders, esp AA2, AA5, but they often ran out and were only in small quantities.

Now I mostly load with HP38, H110, Varget, H335, and BL-C2, along with Alliant Power Pistol and Unique. I gave up on many of the IMR powders because of the measure unfriendly kernel (log!) sizes. But IMR 8208XBR is very excellent accuracy and short cut extruded measures nicely.

Just from trying a couple of VV powders I would guess they might be best, but too expensive for my talent to make it worthwhile. N110 gave superb accuracy and clean burning in .44 mag. I may try it again someday.

[Arkansas Paul]

I'm an Alliant fan, but am under no illusions that it is "the best".
I just like it the best.
I could do all my pistol loading with Unique or 2400. Rifle could all be done with RL15 or RL17.

[44Blam]

I knew this was gonna be a little bit of a quagmire. But there is some good info here.
I have my favorite powders for my calibres, but I was talking to a friend recently who was really having a hard time. He shoots IDPA with power factor. Forgive me, I'm still not 100% on what this means. And he tuned his pistol to basically shoot just at the level of power factor.
Then the company he uses moved all their plants from Australia to US and since he says the same charge is not as consistent and occasionally, he gets low power from the same charges.

I have some focus on developing loads on a couple new calibers. One is 357 Sig, then 40 S/W and I am still working on the good old Tokarev.
I got some Accurate powders: AA7 and AA9 and both of those powders burn really nicely.

Recently, I shot 176 rounds of 357 sig with a 125 grn boolit (actual weight was between 127.5 and 128 grn) under 12.5 grn of AA9 at a COL of 1.14" with an Acurate 35-125yg that was PC'd. I ran one wet patch of Hoppes and one clean patch and each patch after was clean as can be. After 100+ rounds, I tend to have to run 1 wet, 1 dry in a couple rounds to get the barrel clean.

I need to do some chrono work, but I am impressed with Accurate powders - probably more so than other powders. But batch to batch is a big concern and when they move from one country to another or one factory to another, there has to be some variation.

[robg]

Whatever meters well is the best for me.

[derek45]

St. Marks Powder makes a lot of it

win231 and HP38 are the same
Win296 and H110 are the same

[GhostHawk]

I chose some 5 years ago when I got back into shooting to try alliants Red Dot for everything.

Now there are a couple of caveats in there.
A I am not hunting.
B I am not competing.
C I am just punching holes in paper.

That being said, 5 years later I am still very very happy being Mr Red Dot.
I have found that as long as I don't try to push the speed, they can be incredibly accurate in everything from the smallest of pistol rounds to big bore rifle. And incredibly thrifty on the wallet.

My handguns of choice these days all shoot .32sw long with 2 grains of Red Dot. 2000 round per pound of powder. 1.5 to 2 cents per load. Penny's worth of lead, and a 3 cent primer. At that rate you can shoot till your tired of shooting and still not burn up 2$ worth of ammo.

3-6 grains in a .30-30 does just fine. 6.5 grains in .44mag, .444marlin, or .45 colt stacks them up. Plus it is easy on the shoulder. You could shoot them all afternoon.

And they are all reasonably quiet, low on recoil. And chances are will not cycle a rifle semi auto.

But they sure cycle the pistol caliber carbines and the pistols just fine.

Your choices will reflect your needs, going to be different for each of us.

But for me, I'm happy with Alliant.

[lightman]

I can't define "Best" for a powder. There are too many that work well. I use Alliant, Hodgdon, IMR and Winchester more than any of the others but I've used some of all of them and they all work.

[Burnt Fingers]

It us an interesting question because several of the powder companies listed don't actually make powder. E.g. Hodgdon, Winchester, Accurate, Etc. And others source powder from a variety of manufacturers abroad.

General Dynamics in St. Marks, Fl makes powder for a few on the list.

That being said, a scan of my load journal shows that I've used more Alliant powders than any other.

Very true.

There is no "best". What works well for one person might be a complete dud for another. I mainly load and shoot pistol. I've got around 30 different pistol powders on hand right now. I have more WST than any other powder. I've caught a few sales on it and stocked up. I shoot a lot of .45 ACP and WST under a 200 gr SWC is hard to beat. Next up would be Ramshot Competition, again I caught a sale and picked up 16 lbs. I've used it in several cartridges but for me it shines under a MP 147 gr RN 9mm. 2.7 gr makes a nice accurate soft shooting load that will cycle my Canik TP9SFx and my Sig P365 with factory recoil assemblies.

I've also got a lot of Vectan A1 on hand, again another sale. Sport Pistol, while not on sale, I bought a 8 lb jug because I wanted to try it and had to order it. I've tested it in 9mm and .45 ACP and have found it works quite well in both.

I'd like to try Promo. One of these days I'll procure a jug and give it a try.

The biggest problem is that when loading .45 ACP and 9mm a pound of powder can go quite far. 1590 rounds out of a pound of WST, 2900 9mm loads out of a pound of Competition.

[jmort]

I'm an Alliant fan, but am under no illusions that it is "the best".
I just like it the best.
I could do all my pistol loading with Unique or 2400. Rifle could all be done with RL15 or RL17.

Agree, there is no best, per se, but both the poll and reality are clear, Alliant.

[Love Life]

I use a little bit of everything. Wish I would have standardized on bullseye, 2400, and IMR 4895 from the outset.

[dragon813gt]

I use a little bit of everything. Wish I would have standardized on bullseye, 2400, and IMR 4895 from the outset.

I should have stuck w/ W231, 296 and 748. Have lots of loads worked up for them. But then I decided I needed to “try” other powders. Their Hodgon versions obviously work for less money. I would have to add W760 for the 375 H&H.

At this point I’m seriously considering getting rid of all firearms that aren’t 9mm, 223/5.56 and 308/7.62. There’s the old saying about “beware the man w/ one gun.” That would really simplify reloading/casting.

[JBinMN]

At this point I’m seriously considering getting rid of all firearms that aren’t 9mm, 223/5.56 and 308/7.62. There’s the old saying about “beware the man w/ one gun.” That would really simplify reloading/casting.

Nah... If you have kids, or plan to have some in the future, you & they will likely appreciate your not selling them off, along with the other stuff.


Just a suggestion, but you do as ya like.

[jimb16]

Although I voted for IMR, I use Unique the most. I use around 4 lbs of it for every pound of other powders because it is so versatile . But I load rifle, pistol and shotgun with it. But rifle is confined to cast bullets and I shoot a lot of jacketed as well. For handguns, I use a variety of powders. Application makes a lot of difference in powder choice. So the real question should be "what powder do you most often use?".