What Powder Does Remington Use?

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I tore down several Remington 125grain semi-jacketed soft point .357 magnum rounds to salvage the brass. I have shot them before, and they are unpleasant in my 66-2 to say the least. Now I know why... each round had 19.8 grains of what looked like Alliant 2400 powder - no wonder they are flame throwers and just too hot for me.

Does anyone know for sure what powder it is? I have no intention of reusing it - it is right now flower food.
 
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A lot of commercially loaded ammo uses powder blends that are not available to the general public vs "canister" powder which you find on the shelves at you're local reloading supply. So unless someone has inside info, it's a mystery. Also that's over Alliants recommended max for 2400.
 
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Ammo makers are not restricted to commercially available powders, so it is probably a proprietary secret. They could tell you, but then they'd have to turn you into flower food too ;) .

I have shot this round too, it is very blasty.
 
It is not canister powder, but it is quite probably made by same manufacturer. At 19.8 grains, I think the powder you have there has a bit of a slower burn rate than 2400. Max. Load for 2400 and a 125 gr. bullet is 17.5 grains.
 
They all have their secret blends. The amount of powder to be would indicate a slow burning blend. Most recoil, blast "junkies" like those.:D It s a hunting round.

Heck some of the older loads were "worse";) Save them for big Rugers:eek:
 
And it is entirely possible that the factory powder blend changes from batch to batch, depending on what is available and cheapest. That's one of the reasons certain batches may be recalled when the blend wound up too hot.
 
I have worked up some 357 loads with 20grains of w296 and 125g sjhp and they were pretty much as blasty as the factory remingtons. They both pretty impressive In s&w 686+
 
I don't think it's so much of a "secret" blend as it is a tested lot where the charge that meets ballistic specs is used. That lot needed 19.8g to get the performance they want out of that bullet. The next lot of the same powder formula may need 17.8g so that's what you'll find in that cartridge.

That's the problem with pull down powder, it will be close but not exactly the same from lot to lot. Commercial cannister powder is blended to give the same performance/energy with equal weights and equal volumes (but not guaranteed exactly the same, just close enough to be "safe").
 
They must add a flame enhancer to their stuff. The fireball is hard to match.
 
The ammunition manufacturers and the powder manufacturers work together to develop the best load for each caliber and bullet weight to reach the industry-standard velocity with acceptable peak chamber pressures. It's no secret, but the propellants that the powder makers supply the ammo manufacturers are special products not available in a can at your nearest Cabela's or Bass Pro Shop. Canister powders are more consistent as they will be used by many different reloaders over a long period of time, so high lot-to-lot ballistic consistency for each powder type is necessary. But for the powders sold to Remington, Winchester, Federal, etc., and the Government ammunition factory at Lake City, they all have ballistics labs to develop satisfactory loadings for each new lot of powder (which could be over ten thousand pounds) giving the proper standard MV and chamber pressure characteristics.
 
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The powder in your Remington ammo could be a batch of 2400 that did not meet the +/- 3 percent tolerance required for canister grade
 
Ammo makers load to pressure and velocity specs. They know that this bullet should go this velocity at this pressure. They really don't care what powder gets them there.
 
Grayfox is correct.No powder manufacturer mixes a particular batch of powder for a certain ammunition load.Winchester Olin first revealed the practice of mixing whatever was on hand to create a run of ammunition.This practice ,according to Winchester is what all major ammunition manufacturers do.This was from Ed Sanow's visit to the Winchester plant covered in an article written in 1985.
 
John P. said:
It is not canister powder, but it is quite probably made by same manufacturer. At 19.8 grains, I think the powder you have there has a bit of a slower burn rate than 2400. Max. Load for 2400 and a 125 gr. bullet is 17.5 grains.
Click to expand...

Hey John, I guess that is what manual you are using:) The Speer #10 lists 125gr jacketed @19.5grs of 2400 @1555fps using a mag. primer.
 
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