Alliant STEEL in .30 caliber cartridges.

[Bill*B]

I'm finding that STEEL is a nice powder, provided that you don't push it too hard.

11.0 grains in the .30-30 will launch a 180 grain cast bullet at 1400 fps in a 16" barrel Trapper carbine, and my 24" 7.62 X 51 Izzy Mauser sends a 168 grain cast bullet downrange at 1525 fps, with a 12.0 grain load (both with Remington 9 1/2 M magnum primers.)

They will print as well as I can hold at 100 yards, and the burn is CLEAN.

I use soft (BHN about 11) lead with a GC bullet.

The downside is that you do have to weigh each charge - I haven't found a measure yet that is accurate with STEEL. The Lyman Gen 6 auto dispenser is accurate to +/- 0.2 grains - but I just dump the + drops (about 1 out of 10) back into the hopper, for a +/- 0.1 grain accuracy.

Give STEEL a try if you are O.K. with target level loads, and either have an automatic dispenser, or can put up with the tedium of tricking EVERY load. The reward: a very clean burn, nice accuracy, and an available powder.

[tomme boy]

Steel came about to replace BlueDot powder in steel-shot shells. BlueDot had major problems with ignition in cold weather. Guess when you hunt ducks? Steel also upped the speeds of the shells were able to get also. But it is a very dirty powder in shotshells.

I think Bullshop was doing a bunch of testing with Steel also. And you are right. It does not meter very well at all. When I use it I run it through my chargemaster.

[Bill*B]

Lord, I can recall my duck hunting days! Freezing your butt while you wait in the blind - the best part was going home! (sorry, duck hunting lovers). Bill

[L Ross]

I load Steel for high performance steel shot waterfowl loads. (Precision Reloading's Lightning Steel loads) I found it to be very clean burning. I use a Belding and Mull measure and if I operate it consistently I get very uniform charges.

Duke

[tomme boy]

Every time I looked in my shotgun barrel it looked like half the powder was still in the barrel. These were 1500 fps loads out of the PR manual

[OptimusPanda]

Has anyone tried steel in place of the 13gr of red dot used in reduced loads for full size rifle cases? Sounds like it might work if you weighed all the charges.

[runfiverun]

steel is on the other end of the burn spectrum from red-dot.
it will do a lot of things very well but don't confuse it for what it isn't.
I have used it in several revolver cartridges as well as it's intended purpose and like it.
anyway it's slower than unique and I'd be more inclined to use that data to start with.