Alliant Powders - talked with a tech today

[ebg3]

I've been using e3 for loading 9mm and .40 S&W. I guess I've used 12lbs or so over the last year. Works great and is pretty clean. I actually sent some loaded ammo to Alliant for pressure testing; Load was 4.5grs e3 under a 180gr Zero jhp and seated to 1.20" OAL. Produced 34,500psi and around 950fps. This is my USPSA major match load. I still don't think Alliant lists e3 as a pistol powder.
EG

[machinisttx]

I posted my results with Lil' Gun a while back. I might try it in .44 mag or .45 Colt, but I can't say that I expect it to fare any better. Not impressed with it at all.

[Frozone]

I'm giving it a 'shot' in my .454 as soon as the snow lets up.

Lil'Gun is a standard powder in the Beowulf/AR15 package.
AA didn't like to low temp ignition characteristics of H110, Now I'm not sure it's an Improvement!!

I was surprised by the cold/pressure thing! That is good info for up here.
Did Alliant provide have any info on how much delta to expect??

[Catshooter]

On the subject of cold temps raising pressures, I could speak briefly.

I am working up a load for one of my .45 sixguns. I shot 7.8 grains of HS-6 in it about three months ago (before winter started here) and got an average of 856 fps.

This moring I shot 7.9 grains and got an average of 955. The only change is that these shot today spent the night outside last night, got down to about 20 degrees or so. The boolit is a Lyman 454424 in three parts lead to one part WW.

Interesting.


Cat

[BD]

I've had good luck with LilGun in the .450Bushmaster for jacketed loads. In fact it's the reloader's "gold standard" for that round. No luck with cast though. H110 and WC 297 do much better behind boolits, and run much cooler. I have not seen the pressure increase at low temps either, unless somehow the pressures go up with out a coressponding increase in velocity?
BD

[Bucks Owin]

I don't have extensive experience with LilGun but I did burn a pound of it a couple years back. Like others, I was enamoured with the data Hodgdon printed regarding it's use in the .357 mag. As I remember, in a 10" pressure barrel, 18 grs was supposed to do 1500+ fps with a 158 gr at only 28K pressure or somewhere in that range. (I don't have the data in front of me) I thought it would be the perfect powder for a S&W M-19 so as to not beat up the gun while still getting good velocities. Well, 18 grs in my 6" M19 barely cracked 1300 and SD/ES didn't look good. Satisfied, after several hundred rds, that it wasn't the "be all, end all" of .357 powders, I used the rest up in .44 mag loads where I thought it inferior to W-296. Velocity was no greater and again, I didn't find it especially uniform. Tried mag and std primers. Then when I read about it being extremely rough on forcing cones due to heat issues, I kinda gave up on LG. Since I don't have a .410 or a Hornet (where it's supposed to also work wonders) I doubt I'll buy any more of it any time soon, and will stick with 110/296. Apparently, others have had better results with LG, but I've not seen their chrono printouts. Makes me wonder if it's really as good as some may think!.....FWIW, Dennis (PS: As I remember, I DID get what I thought was excessive muzzleblast and flame with LG. Anybody else notice that?)

[truckmsl]

Sometimes I shoot serious, sometimes I'm a "blaster and plinker". It's all great fun and I am always mystified why there are those who insist on looking down on others who share the same interests.

[Vance in Ak]

Well I'll start by saying that most folks here have vastly more experience than I do, BUT, I have to say that so far Lil Gun has been the clear performer in my limited testing of 400gr Lee bullets in my SRH in 480 Ruger.
It has used less powder to give higher velocity with better accuracy & lower deviations than H-110.
I'm not going for max velocity, but do want reasonable & Lil Gun is giving 1167 (as I recall) with 20gr (midway betwen Hodgons listed min - max) while 20gr of H-110 only gave me a little over 900fps with standard primers & under 900 with federal mag (Weird). Recoil was only slightly greater, & the the change was negligable considering the velocity increase.
I'll be the 1st to admit that I'm not a great shot, not really even a good one.
With my 4moa red dot at 50 yds I'm getting about 2.5" with the Lil Gun from a rest. Not great compared to most of you guys (heck, most guys on the net can do that offhand @ 100yds with iron sights!), but a third smaller than the best with H-110 (I did try heavier loads if H-110 with 370 bullets with similar results & greater recoil. Velocities were less with the 370 than with the 400 & Lil Gun).
I don't have a huge selection of powders locally (nor the cash to buy one of everything) so my testing is limited. It's been a while since I've done much with handguns so hopefully I will improve Good thing I live in Alaska where the targets are bigger!
Sorry for rambling.

[leadman]

I have used Lil'Gun in the 44 mag., but it did not shine there. It does a super job in my 41 magnum though! 17.8 grs, WLP, 220gr. Saeco TC, 1,360 fps, consistently 2" or less at 100 yards.

Does a very good job in the 357 mag. with 180 gr. boolits.

[ebg3]

I worked up a very accurate load using Lil'gun and the 310gr GC Lee bullet going 1400fps in my 7.5" SBH. I was really surprised to get that much velocity out of this combo. Now I'm a little worried about the erosion problems I've read about using Lil'gun. I do have a fair amount of cutting on my topstrap but I can't blame all of that on Lil'gun.

[pmeisel]

This thread illustrates one of the reasons I really like this board..... I don't have to do every learning experiment myself, I can get a lot of mileage out of what a number of others have done. Based on these reports, I'll probably never try Lil'Gun.... but I have managed a long time on mostly Unique, 2400, H110, and 4227.....

[pmeisel]

Tripped on this thread while searching for something else... but I have an update. A fellow board member who I respect from reading his work elsewhere highly recommends Lil Gun in the 357... so I bought a pound and will try it.

[leadman]

pmeisel, I found it worked better with the 180gr bullets in the 357 as opposed to the 158gr and lighter.

[kelbro]

I had good luck with LilGun in 357 using 158gr XTPs. Just got a 180gr mold and plan to try it there as soon as I can cast some. Also trying some tomorrow behind some 75gr Speers in a 25-20.

[45r]

I've tried LIL gun and it gave good velocity and accuracy in 357,41mag and very good velocity in 454 casull.It is not the best for high volume shooting due to the erosion and heat issues but for top velocity in a hunting load that you will only shoot once or maybe a few more follow up shots it works.I got higher velocity with 180 grain boolits or higher in 357,255 grain in 41 mag and 300grain and higher in 454 casull than 296,H-110.I've found it to shoot up 150 fps faster than 296 in my 454 with 3 inch groups at 75 yards using my MM 315GC boolits.It likes to be near max like 296.Its not perfect but it can be used for good hunting loads.My Marlin 357CB shoots 180XTP J-words into a ragged hole at 60yards with 15.5 lil gun and the velocity is higher than 296,whats not to like.

[Tom W.]

To beat an old horse, I bought a can when I got my .454 Encore barrel. I found a load that is pretty accurate with the Lee 300 gr boolit, and some really great accuracy from some RCBS 300 gr SWC boolits that a Gent in Alaska sent me. I also loaded up a box of .44 mags with the 310 grain Lee boolit, as well as some of the 300 gr, for my .45 Colt.
I'll stick to Herco and the RCBS 270 SAA booilt in my .45 Colt, and when I run out of the Lil' Gun, I'll go back to H110..

[gon2shoot]

I bought a couple pounds of Lil gun, and only found one High end 45 load that worked well. Since I dont care to run my guns at max all the time, I happily returned to my proven load of 2400.

The 44 loads were not much better, although I was playing with different primers and didn't give it a real good test.

[jandbn]

I've never used LG as I'm an H110 fan, but but it seems the "affinity" I've read about LG over the last couple years here on CB and a few other websites is that LG seems to be give better velociy when compared to W296/H110 using the heavy weights for caliber such as 180gr/357 Mag, 300gr/.44 Mag, 330gr/45 Colt. But maybe I haven't read enough about LG and that "affinity" hasn't panned out.