bigggbbruce
Member
Picked up some American Select. Close burn rate, meters good.
No more Bullseye! What are you switching to?
- Thread starter VinnieL59
- Start date
rockquarry
Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,675
- Reaction score
- 10,673
Look through some load manuals; lots of substitutes for Bullseye. I still have plenty of Bullseye but have been doing load development recently with Titegroup and WST. Results have been very good with maybe better accuracy than Bullseye.
Titegroup is an interesting and versatile powder. I think it is a poor choice for beginners.
I use it in a few places for a few reasons but I absolutely LOATHE Titegroup in .38 Special because of the absolutely ridiculous heat and the way it makes the cylinder of my revolver too hot to handle.
I could never replace Bullseye with Titegroup.
I use it in a few places for a few reasons but I absolutely LOATHE Titegroup in .38 Special because of the absolutely ridiculous heat and the way it makes the cylinder of my revolver too hot to handle.
I could never replace Bullseye with Titegroup.
rockquarry
Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2005
- Messages
- 8,675
- Reaction score
- 10,673
I don't recall experiencing any cylinder heat problem with Titegroup in .38 Special, .44 Special or .45 ACP/Auto Rim. Why do you think it's a poor choice for beginners?
Titegroup is, IMO, a poor choice for beginners because Hodgdon publishes lots and lots of data for it in damn near every handgun cartridge, even when it is a far less than optimal choice.
Newer handloaders typically don’t understand how different powders do their jobs and do them effectively. The only thing most new handloaders see is “wow, I can buy ONE powder and load alllllll of these!”
They end up using Titegroup in magnum revolver rounds where the pressure curve can accurately be described as STUPID, where they are at max with a charge weight that takes 1/3 or 1/4 of the case, where they will get 100% maximum peak pressure with 80% maximum performance and risk accidental double charges.
Folks often counter this argument with “well ALL powders require attention to detail…” to which I will agree but if you are loading .44 Magnum with H-110 and you accidentally double charge, you will pour 15 grains of powder all over your load block or bench top or your hand. If you double charge a .44 case with Titegroup, you still have room for another charge and possibly some more.
I’m not saying Titegroup should be banished, but it’s a poor powder for new handloaders.
Newer handloaders typically don’t understand how different powders do their jobs and do them effectively. The only thing most new handloaders see is “wow, I can buy ONE powder and load alllllll of these!”
They end up using Titegroup in magnum revolver rounds where the pressure curve can accurately be described as STUPID, where they are at max with a charge weight that takes 1/3 or 1/4 of the case, where they will get 100% maximum peak pressure with 80% maximum performance and risk accidental double charges.
Folks often counter this argument with “well ALL powders require attention to detail…” to which I will agree but if you are loading .44 Magnum with H-110 and you accidentally double charge, you will pour 15 grains of powder all over your load block or bench top or your hand. If you double charge a .44 case with Titegroup, you still have room for another charge and possibly some more.
I’m not saying Titegroup should be banished, but it’s a poor powder for new handloaders.
I’m using Ramshot ZIP for 45ACP. It meters great thru my powder measure.
venomballistics
Member
I'm pretty much replacing all alliant powders.
After how they left us high and dry on so many fronts, I simply don't trust them to supply me the goods I need.
That said ... I used to be highly reliant on Unique. So far CFE Pistol has stepped into its role fairly well.
There were certain blue dot loads that I used in large volume. AA#7 seems to be a fair candidate to serve in it's place 2400 .... if AA#9 isn't the answer, 4227 is.
we could go on and on with replacements ... but not without some admission as to just how good alliant was. This work wouldn't be necessary if they weren't. Still, they have much to atone for before I'll marry a new load to an alliant product
After how they left us high and dry on so many fronts, I simply don't trust them to supply me the goods I need.
That said ... I used to be highly reliant on Unique. So far CFE Pistol has stepped into its role fairly well.
There were certain blue dot loads that I used in large volume. AA#7 seems to be a fair candidate to serve in it's place 2400 .... if AA#9 isn't the answer, 4227 is.
we could go on and on with replacements ... but not without some admission as to just how good alliant was. This work wouldn't be necessary if they weren't. Still, they have much to atone for before I'll marry a new load to an alliant product
Reloaders are a very small niche market for powder manufacturers. Commercial and military contracts are their bread and butter. Big money.
A place here Fin, Feather and Fur in Middleburg hts Ohio. Has some Bullseye for 58.00 a lb. They only had a few.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2012
- Messages
- 4,538
- Reaction score
- 7,695
Definitely. But we are useful idiots, here to soak up a little excess production in times of peace.
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2012
- Messages
- 4,538
- Reaction score
- 7,695
I gave up on Unique a long time ago, and moved to Universal. That's out of production now also. So I've been trying out CFE Pistol too and I think it might end up being a great all-around powder. I've had excellent results in 9mm and less-than-full-power .41 Magnum loads.
I did a double experiment with CFE Pistol and an old obsolete Lee 410 208 WC mold. Neither of which I had shot before. I cast a small amount of this full wadcutter bullet, and made an educated guess at a load (not a lot of data for .41 full wadcutters). First five rounds at 15 yards off-hand.....go figure. It also did well with semi-wadcutters. I was girding myself for a longer process. Pretty much done there on the first try.
I've got Bullseye out the wazoo. And if I do happen to run out there's Titegroup and Red Dot and if I run out of those, there's the Accurate and several other Hodgdon powders in that category.
True but we always seem to be burning up ordinance in other parts of the world and if we aren't we are supplying someone who is. What changed since we were heavily involved in a shooting war in Vietnam but you never heard about a shortage of ammo????
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2012
- Messages
- 4,538
- Reaction score
- 7,695
Hard to say. I was in High School and not reloading. Ukraine has roughly twice the combat forces that we had at the peak in Vietnam. I think U.S. production capacity has not kept up and they were relying on inventory. The inventory went quicker than they expected. A lot of people thought this wasn't going to last long.
Throw in Israel burning through munitions. Not to mention other very nervous eastern (and western for that matter) European countries on the border that are now arming up like they are going to have to fight Russia too. Basically almost everybody in the developed world is restocking at the same time. Even the French.
A couple of Hodgdon powders like Trail Boss and Universal are made in Australia by ADI. I believe I read where their production capacity has been committed to France for military munitions. ADI (Australian Defense Industries) is actually now named Thales Australia. Thales is a French Defense company. Thales obviously owns a big piece of that now.
I doubt they gave American Reloaders much thought.
tate razor
Member
- Joined
- May 22, 2005
- Messages
- 11
- Reaction score
- 4
WST shoots like magic in my .45 Colt.
I have been using Shooters World Cleanshot for several years now. Powder in general is in short supply now because of the war in the Ukraine, no powder is coming out of the Balkans now. All the powder is being consumed by artillery and small arms.
I heard a story that New Zealand restricts how much smokeless powder can be onboard a ship, most ships dock in NZ after leaving Australia, Hodgdon used to have a years' supply shipped in one ship. To solve the problem they only buy half as much as the demand. In addition there is only one "gun cotton" plant operating in the US so there is a shortage there. If anything happens at that plant the US is SOL. Good news is White River Energetics is building a powder plant adjacent to their primer plant in Arkansas.
muzzlestuffer2012
Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2022
- Messages
- 330
- Reaction score
- 193
I was not aware that BE was no longer available I did switch to N310 a while back for my BE loads it is much cleaner and extremely accurate with my 200 SWC's I have 12lbs of BE maybe i'll just sell it and buy some more N310.
