For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Ecclesiastes 1:18
He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool become servant to the wise of heart. Proverbs 11:29
...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40
Carpe SCOTCH!
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.
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.
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.
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.
“There is a remedy for all things, save death.“
Cervantes
“Never give up, never quit.”
Robert Rogers
Roger’s Rangers
There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.
Will Rogers
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.
i could never get johnsons and johnsons baby powder to work in any gun!
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.
“You should tell someone what you know. There should be a history, so that men can learn from it.
He smiled. “Men do not learn from history. Each generation believes itself brighter than the last, each believes it can survive the mistakes of the older ones. Each discovers each old thing and they throw up their hands and say ‘See! Look what I have found! Look upon what I know!’ And each believes it is something new.
Louis L’Amour
The Californios
Win 630
NRA Life member since 91
Retired Guard 20yrs
Shoot,Shovel,Shut-up
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.
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.
Cognitive Dissident
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.
[The Montana Gianni] Front sight and squeeze
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 noted: "5010 powder" in ABOVE discussion. That's for .50 BMG ammo fellas....
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
Hi, my name is Tony and I'm addicted to gunpowder.
AKA Geezerbiker
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.
Cognitive Dissident
Rights, and Privileges, are not synonymous. We have the Right to Bear Arms. As soon as the Government mandates firearm registration, and permiting, then that Right becomes a Privilege, and may be taken away at our Master's discretion.
+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.
Rights, and Privileges, are not synonymous. We have the Right to Bear Arms. As soon as the Government mandates firearm registration, and permiting, then that Right becomes a Privilege, and may be taken away at our Master's discretion.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |