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Old 03-15-2013, 09:14 PM
garbler garbler is offline
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I used to burn a lot of this powder about twenty-five years ago when I was doing some IPSC and a lot of pins and plates. I liked it a lot in the 357 mag plate/pin revolvers and with the 38 super and some 9mm also though I don't care for the 9 much.

Anyway 4756 is a sneaky powder and used to be pretty batch sensitive so you would always dump you last third or 1/4 of a can into a fresh one to balance out the differences. I found out that you had to work your way up to your load and do it in 1/2 grain increments. Back in the 80's and early 90's there was a lot of chatter about some of the loads listed in the manuals from Speer, Lyman and Hornandy and others. There was as much as 2.5 grains difference between max loads with 158 grain bullets and there were guys locking up guns because of it. As I recall from old Handloader magazine articles and other competitors it was essentially a problem with batch lots.

Anyway I have probably shot fifteen pounds of this stuff and used enough to buy in 5 lbs cans but I loved it. Once you dial into a load that gives you close to the velocity and accuracy you need then only increase in like third of a grain steps. When you get close to max the pressure will jump right up there and let you know with flattened primers. It can happen in less than a grain believe me and often in half a grain. But once you get there I find the powder to be most accommodating and the recoil and the way a semi functions to be very smooth or rolling like — not sharp like H-110 or some stiff Unique loads. It also burns pretty clean and ignites easily so even mild primers play well with this powder

Good luck
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