AL-5 And AL-7

[Kp321]

A friend gifted me one pound of Alcan AL-5 and two pounds of Alcan AL-7. I realize they are probably from the 1970’s but show no signs of deterioration. I can find some old handgun data in a Lyman manual for the AL-7 but nothing for AL-5. I don’t even know where it falls on the burn rate chart. Any help from you guys? The cans are neat if I end up dumping it. By the way, when I started loading 16 ga shotgun shells in 1962, I used AL-5 but never used it in metallic cartridges.

 

[bedwards]

Saw some 20ga shotgun loads in the Lyman 44th for it. Did you search only for it? There is a good bit coming up in searches.

 

[Kp321]

Sorry, I was not clear. I was looking for pistol loading data.

 

[bedwards]

This was all I could find:

 

[Skeet 028]

Look in Ke Waters pet Load data. I think e tried bout every powder available AL 5 loads pretty well in some medium 38/357 loads I think.. Actually they were most used for shotshell loads...and xc for them

 

[gwpercle]

AL-5 is a tad slower burning than Unique ... quite useful in 38 Special mid-range handgun loads , one of my favorite powders .

AL-7 is slower still , used more in magnum handgun loads .

I have used lots of AL-5 over the years ... most data was taken from the older Speer Reloading Manuals ... #8 , #9 and #10 .
These manuals have lots of Alcan Powder data ... it was popular at that time ... I still got a small supply of AL-5 , it keeps very well !
Gary

 

[Skeet 028]

I mostly used AL-7 in shotgin meavy loads for ducks the load was 27.5 -r powder Red Win wad 1 3/8 copper 5s in a AA case. I also used it about like Herco in the 357 and 44s. Al-8 was good in the 44. Have a couple 3 lb kegs of AL-5 and 8...still good

 

[JKP099]

AL-5 seems to be a bit closer to HS-6/540 than AL-7. However AL-7 is pretty close to AL-5 in the real world too.

My Alcan data lists only one one oz load in WWCF hulls 16 ga and that with AL-5 and PGS wads. My experience tells me that PGS wads pretty much parallel the performance of current one piece wads.

Federal hulls same thing.

Either hull and PGS wad, is 23 Gr of AL-5. Myself I'd have no problem subbing AL-7 for AL-5 in that load but full well expecting some deterioration of performance and a bit of ash in the chamber. Typically where AL-5 and AL-7 are listed for the same performance, say in 1-1/4 oz 12 ga loads. Typically in a 12 ga load of 31 gr. of AL-5, it takes 2 more grains to get the same performance with AL-7. Use this information at your own risk.

 

[Kp321]

Thanks to all of the members who responded. I now have a good idea of how to use these powders.