What Are Your Worst Powders?

[uscra112]

Paying the one pound price for a half pound of powder(Trailboss).......

Strongly suggests that the retail price of powder is driven by distribution and marketing, not the cost of manufacturing the product.

[Kosh75287]

And the other issue was that the LIL' GUN seemed to burn into the sides of my Uniflow if I left it more than a day or two.

I had the same problem with W231, back in the day. It was the only propellant from which I had that behaviour. Of course, the RIGHT way to do things is to not leave the powder hopper full overnight, but sometimes "SPIT" happens...

[mtnman31]

Geez, don't get me started on powder and component pricing. I'll just say that some of the Shooters World powders currently aren't the bargain they were. Their pricing on a few of their products has seen a big jump. Alliant powders are being priced off my bench. Currently, some of their rifle powders (the few currently available) are priced around 60 bucks a pound. Alliant may have some good powders but not so great that I can't find a suitable, more affordable replacement for. There are alternatives from other manufacturers that work well in the 45-50 dollar range.

I appreciate the good discussion on this thread.

[huntinlever]

My worst powders are the ones with excessively high prices.
All powders have their place in loading.
they are all equally usable to me.

Yeah, I can't chime in because among my powders nothing has proven to be a total tank. Each has their purpose based on bullet weight, etc.

But I will say, $80-90+ for 8 oz. of Blackhorn 209 is a no-brainer for me.

[BrianL]

What has been your experience with Shooters World Buffalo Rifle. My understanding is that it was sort of equivalent to 5744? Other than in 45-70, I tend to have a lot of unburned powder and dirty and have not worked up many loads because of this.

[wasa]

Unlike others, TrailBoss is my favorite powder by far. As another said, I shoot it out of my MilSurp (8mm Mauser, 303 British, 7.62x54R, 8x56R). If anyone is SE Michigan is selling any....

Worst powder? Not a fan of Unique in pistols. Never had good luck with it and it is very dirty. Also doesn't meter worth a darn. CFEPistol for 9mm or 45acp I'm not a fan.

[Rapier]

870, was not bad, was just disappointing, they stopped making it, and I had a 1,000 yard custom 6mm rifle that only shot real well with the 870 and the 115 VLDs.

[405grain]

All the powders that I have suit their purpose. I can't think of a "bad" powder, but there is one that has some limited applications. That is Levereloution. It isn't a bad powder, but you can only use it in a limited number of cartridges.

[mozeppa]

i could never get johnsons and johnsons baby powder to work in any gun!

[Electrod47]

Winchester AA Super-Handicap
I have a Lb of this for years now. Have made up a half dozen rounds of .38 now and then. But since I can't confirm anything published I just leave it sit. I have used Bullseye data reduced.

[PDshooter]

Win 630

[bedbugbilly]

I know a lot of folks like Unique, but I just have never been that impresses wit the results I've had with it in either my pistol or rifle loadings - still have a pound of it and will certainly use it up, but the three powders I always seem to reach for is Bulls Eye, Red Dot or Green Dot. But everyone is different with different experiences.

If anything, my one "dislike" is not the powders, but rather, the packaging some mags. come up with. I have shot more BP in the last 60 years that smokeless - and let's face it, powders were generally sold by the pound for, well, centuries. During the Obama shortage when shelves were pretty much bare, I was able to buy, what I thought was 2 1# containers of 700X. When I got it home, I read the container before putting it on the shelf and discovered that instead of being 16 ounces of powder, it was 14 ounces. Huh? A number months later, I was in the LGS where I had scored an 8 lb jug of Red Dot and they had two containers of Trail Boss on the shelf. OK - I had read a number of things about it so asked to see a container of it. As already mentioned in one of the posts here, I quickly discovered it held half the usual weight of most powder containers but was priced at the amount of what you'd expect to pay for a pound. No thanks.

And yes, I'm old and well understand business, distributor pricing, supply and demand, etc. Not much different though from what we are experiencing now from food suppliers who cut down the size of packaging and the quantity within, yet started out still charging the same price as before - now increased even more by Biden's inflation.

[uscra112]

A l-o-o-ng time ago I tried Unique in .38 Special. All I can remember is that it was extremely dirty. Later I loaded it in the .32-20 at a higher pressure and it was better, but I didn't pursue loading that cartridge very far. Haven't used Unique since. Probably 20 years now. But it still scores well above Trail Boss in my book.

[MT Gianni]

If I had 50 primers left in the world, 50 38 special cases and 40 different powders to choose from, I would happily load 5 gr Unique and the Lyman 358477.

[NObamain2012]

Any of the slower ball powders in 12 and 10 gauge hunting loads used in sub-freezing weather. I agree Longshot works well in 20 and 28 gauge, but larger gauges, NO.

[GONRA]

GONRA noted: "5010 powder" in ABOVE discussion. That's for .50 BMG ammo fellas....

[technojock]

Lil'Gun. It burns 3x as hot as any other powder and seems to have random pressure spikes. I'm glad to be rid of it...

Tony

[uscra112]

Lil-Gun wasn't meant for revolvers or semi-auto mag dumps. It doesn't burn hotter, but it does burn longer which causes barrel heating when it's mis-used in such applications.

[challenger_i]

i could never get johnsons and johnsons baby powder to work in any gun!

You're loading it on the wrong side of the wad, Pard! Had a jokester of a friend that would load 12 ga shells with J&J and then sneak one in the mix when we were shooting clays. Makes for a BIG puff of white cloud!

[challenger_i]

If I had 50 primers left in the world, 50 38 special cases and 40 different powders to choose from, I would happily load 5 gr Unique and the Lyman 358477.

+1.

Several folks have listed Unique in their "don't wannas". Can't speak to that, as I haven't had their experiences.
I have found Unique to work well with 45 ACP, 45 Colt, 38 Special. It is the ONLY powder that works exceedingly well
in 9mm Browning Long with 110gr XTPs.

Every cloud has a silver lining: if there are folks that do not care for Unique, that saves more for me!

As for Trail Boss, I find it works well in 45 Colt, in my 1858 Remington with conversion cylinder.