Irreplaceable powders?

[Silvercreek Farmer]

The recent thread on discontinued powders has me wondering just how irreplaceable some powders are. I have most of a lb of 4759, but wonder if it is even worth working up a load?

[Loudenboomer]

As good as SR 4759 is (was) I don't think any powder is for the most part is irreplaceable. Powder selection is such that we've never had it so good. Still it's sad to see some of our old friends go.

[T_McD]

I would venture a guess that no powder is unique enough to be irreplaceable, although trailboss comes to mind as a possibility.

[ascast]

The recent thread on discontinued powders has me wondering just how irreplaceable some powders are. I have most of a lb of 4759, but wonder if it is even worth working up a load?

if you shoot black, 4759 is very good for a duplex load. 10% or a tad less. Makes good hunting loads. You can play with it a bit and find the charge that leaves your bore clean.

[Walla2]

Irreplaceable powder? Talcum.

[country gent]

WHile not irreplaceable IMR 4895 is one of the most versatile powders there is and would be a shame to lose it.

[dragon813gt]

W/ most powders there’s a lot of overlap. If one goes away there’s another to fill its role. It will most likely have a different burn rate but it will work.

I find SR4759 to be an irreplaceable powder if you shoot cast bullets. There’s no other powder that performs like it did. As mentioned above it worked for duplex loads as an added bonus. If you don’t shoot cast bullets you most likely didn’t know SR4759 even existed. Should have bought more the last time it was available. Bought what I could afford which was two cases. A couple more would have been nice to keep on hand.

[RED BEAR]

I have my favorites like anybody else but any powder can be replaced.

[dpoe001]

During the last Ammo/reloading shortage i realized there are other powders than what i learned with.I actually had fun developing new loads. Recently i picked a new powder just to try with my 45 auto loads if i don't like it with them i will try a different cal.

[dverna]

I would hate to lose Varget as it works very well for me. I would likely find something else as accurate but would not want to start over. I have about 20 lbs of it and should stock more. Will likely do that next year before the election.

I have a handful of favorites but no other applications were replacing them would be much effort.

[goryshaw]

No such thing. Given the number of powders available now, and their overlap, there is nothing that can't be replaced at the drop of a hat.

I use a lot of RL 15 for heavy .223, but there are at least a dozen powders I could swap for it with no changes in my scores. SR 4759 might be the closest, but there are still several that will work, albeit maybe not as well.

[Cast_outlaw]

I am sure unique, 2400, and red dot would be among the not irreplaceable but very missed powders if they were discontinued although i don’t have any red dot or 2400 in my stash

[waco]

When stash of SR4759 runs out I'm going tot give Rx7 a try. I hear good things about it.

[Black Powder Bill]

I am sure unique, 2400, and red dot would be among the not irreplaceable but very missed powders if they were discontinued although i don’t have any red dot or 2400 in my stash

OHHHHH MY that's like a cardinal sin of the reloaders Creed!



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[jmort]

Lot of load data for RL 7
RL 10 gets overlooked

[Texas by God]

Unique is irreplaceable to me. Lots of close but no cigar powders to it. I may never try another powder in 44-40 WCF. Maybe.

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[richhodg66]

Unique and IMR 4895 sure would rank high on the list. Been having a lot of fun with a big quantity of 700X lately in a lot of things too.

SR4759 is a sad loss. Used to shoot that with my old Lyman manual's recommended most accurate load with the 311284 in the .30-06. Amazing stuff.

[mattw]

Now in this day and age a trip to the burn rate chart and understanding of volumetric data likely makes none impossible to replace... But, having said that I would sure hate to run out of 4895, 4227, 2400 and H110! Those three will feed, I bet, 85 to 90 percent of my guns. May not be the best for each one, but one of them could likely be made to work. I love 4895 in 30-06, 303 Brit, 30-30, 6mm... all with cast. 2400 and H110 work so well in magnums and near magnums and 4227 gets all the intermediate rounds.

I have other favorites and some guns do not like the above, but will digest the above. I guess 4895 would be the one I would choose over all.

[stubshaft]

SR 4759 and IMR 3031. There is no real substitute for 4759 and 3031 closely emulates cordite for big bores.

[megasupermagnum]

W/ most powders there’s a lot of overlap. If one goes away there’s another to fill its role. It will most likely have a different burn rate but it will work.

I find SR4759 to be an irreplaceable powder if you shoot cast bullets. There’s no other powder that performs like it did. As mentioned above it worked for duplex loads as an added bonus. If you don’t shoot cast bullets you most likely didn’t know SR4759 even existed. Should have bought more the last time it was available. Bought what I could afford which was two cases. A couple more would have been nice to keep on hand.

I agree, and most of what I would call irreplaceable would be in the so called medium burn rates, from say 800x to 4759. The slow rifle powders are no big deal, and in my opinion, there are 5 times what there needs to be. Once you get much faster than Green dot, they are so close as to be practically interchangeable.

Bluedot would top my list of irreplaceable. Unique doesn't even touch what it can do in handgun or shotguns, and 2400 has next to no use in shotguns at all. Next would be H110. Lil' Gun is a decent substitute sometimes, but H110 is THE magnum handgun powder for a reason. Alliant STEEL powder is irreplaceable. Nothing else comes even close for steel shot, and after the 20+ years since it came out, not even one other powder has come out for steel shot. It should be a good powder for both handgun and rifle as well, but for whatever reason never landed in load manuals. 800X is my ace in the hole. It's never all that impressive on paper, but sometimes when I'm not getting the accuracy I'm after with my usual powders, 800x has turned out some outstanding accuracy in handguns. It also outperforms Unique in shotguns.