I don't think we are saying anything different. You have to be mindful of the rules and procedures for reloading. You have to know the materials you are working with. If I were a commercial reloader, I would have to think about the powder I used in a different way. If I was going to push the envelope on velocity and performance, i wouldn't use Titegroup. None of that says it is any better or worse than any other powder. If your circumstances make it a bad choice, don't use it. For some purposes, it works just fine if the person pulling the lever does his part. I have to think twice when I hear people making blanket statements about anything.
Yes, I don't find much for us to disagree about. You have to know your materials and your processes.
I think the (fine?) point of disagreement comes down to what makes a powder "appropriate". I haven't been a commercial reloader for about 20 years now, but what I learned up to and including that time taught me a lot about powders. I used them from many difference sources, including non-canister powders I ordered from a couple companies.
It's not just a question of "knowing" Titegroup. I "know" Titegroup, along with a bunch of other powders, and the difference (again fine point?) between our opinions is that in my opinion, Titegroup is not a forgiving powder, which means, when you are a new loader or learning a new press, it should be avoided, because results like the subject of this thread happen.
Not always, but enough that it's bad. How many people have troublesome results with Titegroup as I described and their gun doesn't blow up, but they have to take it into a gunsmith with the cylinder bound up? Or they have to go home, remove the cylinder, chuck it in a vice and use a brass rod to pound out the stuck cases?
Powders like Titegroup and Bullseye (another peaky powder, but even more popular, so it starts wars when you talk about this characteristic -- But read the stories of it's failures; there's a mountain of them) are very specialized. They need to be restricted to low-pressure loads, and they aren't great in large-volume cases. When a person's loading process isn't rock solid, the variables compound to the point that nasty things like what happened to Dutch happen...
That makes it an undesireable powder in my opinion. Much better to use something like W231 or Unique, or even Red Dot, if you really want a fast powder (as RD is more forgiving than Titegroup or BE).
After re-reading my response, I think we may be disagreeing on another point, which hasn't really been said outright:
Powders like Titegroup and Bullseye are popular and outstanding, because they fulfill a certain niche better than anything else. For example, the classic 2.7grs Bullseye with 148gr WC load. Stick to the load, and (as long as your process is good) you'll have lots of favorable experience. I like my powders to be flexible. I want to be able to load any caliber from 32ACP and 32 Short to 45 Colt with a moderate (middle-of-the-road, a.k.a. "standard" velocity) load and have safety and success. This makes me shy away from these specialized powders, which must be loaded in narrow charge ranges. The fastest powder I've found which works the way I like is W231 / HP38 / SMP231. (All the same powder from the same factory, just different production and packaging.) Even better is Unique, and it has the added benefit of being a little slower-burning, so it's more forgiving, and it's bulkier, so harder to double-charge (especially in low-volume-size cases).
This isn't just a "bash fast powders" rant on my part either. Get too slow on the powder burn rate chart, and certain powders exhibit the same loading problems/restrictions as the really fast powders (but obviously in the opposite direction). For example powders like H110/W296, which have the warning not to load below 10% of max. Again, specialized powders for specialized uses. No one loads H110 for light loads... Going back to my mentality about safety and flexibility, this is why I use AA#9 and 4227 as my primary slow powders. These two powders have more flexibility and more safety margin and there's no warning or prohibition about down-loading them too much. Between these two powders, I can also fit the right volume of powder into various cases to get the performance desired. Do these two powders mean I don't get that last 100fps of extra velocity that 296 would give me? Yep, but that's a small price to pay for the benefits. I still have H110 on my powder shelf, but it's only used for very specialized loads...
