Originally Posted by
megasupermagnum
This thread is horrible. Half these posts are false gibberish. I'm not ever sure where to begin on this one. I guess I'll start with H110. H110 is not going to go boom if you reduce it. Well, it might, but that's what you want. There's no crazy phenomenon with H110 that causes it to raise pressure as you lower the charge. It doesn't detonate. Worst case is you get a dud that sticks a bullet in the barrel, but let me be CLEAR, you have to be way outside of the normal range with H110 for that to happen. H110 works best in certain applications, but it will definitely ignite fine with a standard primer in most conditions. Just because it isn't the best for everything doesn't mean it is dangerous. You are somewhat correct in your assumption that H110 is at it's best in a narrow field, but that can be seen from 10 minutes in a reloading manual.
Bluedot is a powder that is still around for good reason. It is quite possibly the single most versatile powder that was ever created, rivaling Unique. For some reason unknown to me, people who know nothing about it spread myths. Here are the FACTS about bluedot you need to know. In 2008, during testing, Alliant found that a few of their loads listed on their website were over pressure. They issued a warning that 357 magnum with 125 gr bullet data, as well as all 41 magnum data was considered unsafe. It was removed from the website, and they promised to provide updated data in the future. You will note that you can find post-2009 data from a number of sources for those two cartriges.
That is all there is to know. Any post you read about bluedot acting strange, or otherwise being unsafe can be traced back to that single warning about a couple of cartridges applying only to Alliant data. Beyond that the truth is bluedot is a very mild mannered and consistent powder. It is an older powder, so it is effected by cold and hot like other older powders such as green dot, herco, and 2400. I've never found it to be very much. My handgun rounds gain or loose about 25-40 fps in the summer to winter. You will see people talk about bluedot being dirty, and it's not true for the most part. In handguns especially, bluedot is fairly clean. It's not a target powder mind you, but it's as clean as anything similar, even with the newest powders out there. The myth mostly comes from shotgun, in which data can often run very low pressures. Bluedot in shotguns performs best at decent pressures. Trying to shoot an 8,000 psi shotgun load, sure, bluedot will probably leave a bunch of flakes in your barrel. Load it up 10,000+ psi, and it's plenty clean. The great thing about bluedot is that it does work in such a wide range really well. It can load any shotgun gauge, I'm not aware of data for any other powder that can do 10, 12, 16, 20, 28, and 410. It works really well in most handgun rounds from 38 special, up to the biggest guns like 500 linebaugh. In a rifle, bluedot is basically the same thing as 2400 or unique. It shoots very well in my rifles.
Blackpowder, wow johnsonian09, you took all that time to write that post which is all false. Blackpowder does not need to be compressed to work well. It does not explode without it. You don't even have to believe me, just pour a little on the ground and light it. Adding more powder absolutely does allow it to shoot faster, at least until you get stupid such as having 1/2 your muzzleloading barrel full of powder. Using the same projectile, 80 gr will shoot faster than 70. 100 gr faster yet. 150 gr faster yet. This is easy to test, everyone has access to chronographs now. I'm not sure how such myths still exist in 2022. Then you start off on detonation, which is just not true. Not for blackpowder, not for smokeless. Every single ballistician will tell you detonation does not exist in small arms propellants. Secondary explosion event is a different thing, and some claim it can happen, but it seems to only be an issue with very slow smokeless powders and rifles. The truth is blackpowder is idiot proof. There's a reason it was the gold standard for 300+ years. In a cartridge, its even safer yet. You can not possibly go wrong with blackpowder in a cartridge. It doesn't blooper, and it can't be overloaded. It just doesn't make a lot of sense to download a BP cartridge since it already is fairly slow even with a full case in most handguns and rifles. It does make sense sometimes to download shotguns with BP since shotgun loads really haven't changed that much.
Still picking on johnsonian09, two of his four warnings are bunk. You can absolutely download H110 below 10% of maximum. Most load data has starting loads of H110 around 25% reduced. I've loaded way less than that. H110 doesn't work best reduced, but there's no danger in starting lower than you think just to be safe, and working up. The second is XXXX powder is temperature sensitive. Again, everyone now has access to chronographs. EVERY powder is temperature sensitive. Some are more than others sometimes, but not always, but they are all effected.
So you want a list of powders with inconsistent tendencies? Well you wont find it in common smokeless powders people still use today. If any powder was inconsistent, it would have been dropped decades ago. Trailboss is kind of an odd duck outlier that still exists. I would think most people know what it is. Trail boss is odd in that it is meant to be bulky like blackpowder, but it's only bulky for a set range of cartridges. It is claimed to be safe to fill any cartridge with it, which is mostly true. I have my doubts on something like a 50-70 trap door. Trailboss is not suitable for shotguns at all. To top it all off, you can't compress the powder. To do so would break up the flakes/discs and dramatically raise pressure. How much, and if it would be unsafe I do not know. Despite all that, trail boss works just fine, and there's nothing unsafe or wrong with it if you just read the bottle. That's as close as you are going to get to a powder today that needs special precautions.