Ideal cast bullet powder

[Thumbcocker]

Deleted.

[2TM101]

Black powder is always a possibility. With today's powder prices, I wouldn't be surprised to see more homebrew duplex loads coming into popularity.

I not only make semi-smokeless rounds (I still think Duplex should only refer to projectiles) but I make the Charcoal for the BP out of Amazon cardboard boxes. And the smokeless I use is some Serbian powder that I get for $13 a pound on Gunbroker, and thats enough for 4000 rounds loaded like this. And then "Factory Second" primers from White River.

[Thumbcocker]

In days gone by there were bulk smokeless powders. As I understand it you pretty much filled the case and seated a projectile. That would sure simply things.

[lightman]

Unique and 2400 are hard to beat. Right now both are hard to find. BE-86 is a decent replacement for Unique and is mostly available and fairly cheap compared to other powders.

[gns4me]

Unique has probably been under more cast then any other powder. Look at its long history.

[Rockindaddy]

I shoot a lot of lead boolits in my old large bore rifles and Gatling Guns. My favorite propellant is 4759 ! Maybe because I have close to 50 pounds of it. Number two is 5744 for pushing lead boolits downrange. 3rd place is 4227 and WW680 ball. Reloader No 7 is great for hunting loads as it seems to produce the highest velocities with the lowest pressures. Especially shooting old original Winchesters and Sharps rifles No 7 works so well. No 7 is just pricey! I buy it by the pound. Hardly ever use Unique or 2400 as I regard these as pistol powders. It is very easy to double charge a large capacity rifle case with these propellants.

[higgins]

My most accurate cast bullet loads in .45 Colt and .38 spl. have been with Hodgdon Titegroup, however, Win. 231 is close behind. I haven't tried Titegroup in .45 acp but I probably will try it or HP38 when I run out of what I'm using now.

[WRideout]

Flake powders (i.e. Bullseye, Rd Dot) were designed for shotguns and handguns to ignite easily and burn quickly. Extruded powders were invented for rifle cartridges in an effort to slow down the burn rate and flatten the pressure curve. A lot of thought has gone into extruded powder design to meet specific requirements. An extruded powder with a coating that retards the burn rate might work for cast, but there are already some on the market that potentially fill that need; think IMR 4895. I suppose one could add inert filler material to make the powder more fluffy, but that would probably also increase the dirt and debris factor in your gun. It would also have to be not abrasive.

Something that worked with cast in 45-70 or 30-06 would probably not be so good in .223 Rem or 32-20.

Wayne

[gwpercle]

Wasn't asking about anything already being or has been made y'all ..

I don't know why some maker doesn't tap into that untapped market ...
It would seem to me a line of powders developed and aimed at cast boolit loading would sell like hot cakes ... a line of handgun powders with a fast - medium - slow burning rates and a line of rifle powders with fast - medium - slow burning rates .
It could be existing powders , tweaked and re-named and packaged as Cast Boolt and some cute name ... CastBoolit Handgun - CBH #1 , CBH #5 and CBH #9 .
Rifle powder CastBoolit Rifle _ CBR #10 , CBR #20 and CBR #30 ...
It would mainly be a Marketing thing ... but maybe I'm over estimating the size of our Market ... Maybe we ain't worth Doodly-Squat and they don't care !

Somebody needs to do a market study ... are we worth the effort !
Gary

[405grain]

Only a small percentage of gun owners reload. Most shooters buy factory made ammunition. Of that small number of shooters that do reload, an even smaller subset of them cast bullets. Just from general experience I believe that the majority of people that do cast bullets are pistol shooters. Gun powder factories cost money; gotta keep the lights on, pay the taxes, payroll for the employees, and buy supplies. Gunpowder's that are specific for cast bullets is just too small of a niche market. Either you wouldn't be able to be competitive with other manufactures, or your product price point would be higher than the consumers would accept. Either way, we already have multiple choices in powders to choose the ones that best fit our applications.

[Bazoo]

Those that are saying that there isn't a market forget that cast bullet shooters are the dedicated of the dedicated in the firearms world.

The one thing that would make a powder sell like hot cakes is the price.

If a powder was developed to be a 1:1 replacement for Unique, it'd be quite popular. I don't mean a powder that would work in some of the same applications, we already have a bunch of those, but rather a powder that has the same burn rate, same powder charge, not spikey, same characteristics, and most importantly, was available at a reasonable price.

[35 Rem]

Why would they make a cast bullet version of Unique that was almost Unique but somehow different and sell it way cheaper? They can't make enough of the present Unique to keep up with demand at nearly $400 for a 8lb jug. I simply don't see anything at all to be gained by creating even more powders than we already have. There is already something that will be perfect for just about any load you want. We need more standardization to lower cost - not more variety to the point that nobody ever has what you want in stock.

It's sort of like car batteries. Look how many different batteries they offer now so that you can't just go buy a battery like you used to do without even taking a look at your car before you go grab one. Why do they need more than 3 or 4 sizes or configurations to complicate things? Why not standardize and then all automotive designers work with the one that meets performance requirements and fit it into their car?

Also, as others have said, us cast bullet shooters are such a tiny blip on the radar that we don't even register. Look at how just a few one or two man operations are able to keep us in custom bullet molds.

[K43]

Cast bullet shooters are a small drop in the bucket of private handloaders which itself is a drop in the bucket of powder sales. If handloaders were a major part the producers' income, we wouldn't get dropped so easily. The money is in supplying powder to commercial ammo manufacturers who cater to government military contracts. Alliant, ADI, and General Dynamics have bigger fish to feed than a few goldfish in a little bowl.

[Bazoo]

Why would they make a cast bullet version of Unique that was almost Unique but somehow different and sell it way cheaper? They can't make enough of the present Unique to keep up with demand at nearly $400 for a 8lb jug. I simply don't see anything at all to be gained by creating even more powders than we already have. There is already something that will be perfect for just about any load you want. We need more standardization to lower cost - not more variety to the point that nobody ever has what you want in stock.

It's sort of like car batteries. Look how many different batteries they offer now so that you can't just go buy a battery like you used to do without even taking a look at your car before you go grab one. Why do they need more than 3 or 4 sizes or configurations to complicate things? Why not standardize and then all automotive designers work with the one that meets performance requirements and fit it into their car?

Also, as others have said, us cast bullet shooters are such a tiny blip on the radar that we don't even register. Look at how just a few one or two man operations are able to keep us in custom bullet molds.

My thought process is, that a company other than Alliant should came out with a competitor to Unique. Not that Unique is not great, but it's unavailable currently, and has been almost completely unavailable for 6-8 years now.

[GregLaROCHE]

If you are looking for economy, compare the recommended size of the loads. Some powders require less grains for the same muzzle velocity. Therefore, you’ll get more rounds per pound of powder.

[RyanJames170]

I would think they do exist for pistol applications, depending on what your shooting for a pistol caliber, rifle might already exist just depending on what your doing with rifle and the cartridge.

I just think the Real thing here is DATA needs to be produced for all the new powders

[Castaway]

Unique, and Unique for pistol

[Bazoo]

Data is key. That's why if you could produce a powder that is a 1:1 replacement for Unique it'd be popular. Unique data is available for everything.

[Wolfdog91]

Imagination really is dead huh ? Bit depressing really

[RyanJames170]

Imagination really is dead huh ? Bit depressing really

I think the powders do exist that are being discussed how ever there is no data for them, Lyman’s data for cast bullets is very old,