I have several pounds of Universal in my powder magazine and have found a load I like for the .40 S&W with powder coated bullets.
I recently emptied a can and opened another to find powder that looked different. The old was a light color whereas the new is red. Looking closely at the almost identical cans, I see that the old was made in Australia and the new is made in Canada. No problem, but I wanted to check a few over the chronograph and at a target just to make sure.
I was surprised at the difference. The old powder clocked around 980fps, whereas the new powder averages just over 900fps. Same load, bullet, etc., same day. I had to adjust the powder measure slightly due a small difference in density. No big deal, I'll just spend a little more time to work up a load I'm confident with for the new powder. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this type of variation in what is supposed to be the "same" powder. Yes, I know it's not the same seeing how it's made in a different country by a different company in a different plant, but it seems that one would expect it to be the same formulation with closer to the same performance?