BillBro
Member
Anybody else ever use any? A month or two ago Graf &Sons had a bunch of it (I think they're the sole US supplier) and not much else so I did a little search on the interweb and people had generally good stuff to say about it. I bought 4lbs of the 7 1/2 and 4lbs of the 6 1/2 and I'm very happy I did so. Wow its clean, clean as my dear Vihtavuori powders, and no magnum primers required, just like VV. Come to think about it, it looks alot like VV powders too. Hmmmmm, wonder why that is. Started comparing caliber and bullet charge weights, almost identical. In fact, their two load data PDFs look very, very similar across the board.
So yesterday I loaded 100 rounds up of 44mag and used 7.
5gr of the 7 1/2, a 240 plated flat point bullet, the cheapest fiocchi brass I had and a Federal large primer, not a magnum primer.
50 of the mags went through the Henry BB, the first 50 through it and at 50yds I shot a 10 round group of about 2", windage was spot on but I was about a foot high. Adjusted the rear on the Henry, got very lucky because the next 10 were spot on. These powerbond plated bullets were doing fine and there was no unburned powder in sight. I shot 3 more 10 shot tubes and got basically the same result each time, and no unburnt powder.
Next up was the M29. Same loads and this time I saw just a few specks of unburned powder but just a few. The combination was showing good accuracy here too.
It appears to be a fine plinking load. 7.5gr is obviously at the minimum charge weight which is fine for a plated bullet, about 1150fps according to Vectan. Very mild recoil, no flame obviously. Seems to be a real decent powder.
Might try to up the charge considerably and load a different bullet and see where it goes. Didnt have my chronograph today but will the next time.
The 6 1/2 shows some higher velocity numbers and they also list loads with it for the 357, again, no mag primer.
So if anyone else likes these or has used them, what was your experience with them? My initial use was not spectacular but certainly not disappointing neither. The powders were only like $20 per 1.1lb so I figured I couldn't go too wrong. And these will help save the H110 and IMR4227 and others for more serious usage. Who knows though, these may turn out to be as useful as some other powders. The similarities to VV is almost uncanny.
So yesterday I loaded 100 rounds up of 44mag and used 7.
5gr of the 7 1/2, a 240 plated flat point bullet, the cheapest fiocchi brass I had and a Federal large primer, not a magnum primer.
50 of the mags went through the Henry BB, the first 50 through it and at 50yds I shot a 10 round group of about 2", windage was spot on but I was about a foot high. Adjusted the rear on the Henry, got very lucky because the next 10 were spot on. These powerbond plated bullets were doing fine and there was no unburned powder in sight. I shot 3 more 10 shot tubes and got basically the same result each time, and no unburnt powder.
Next up was the M29. Same loads and this time I saw just a few specks of unburned powder but just a few. The combination was showing good accuracy here too.
It appears to be a fine plinking load. 7.5gr is obviously at the minimum charge weight which is fine for a plated bullet, about 1150fps according to Vectan. Very mild recoil, no flame obviously. Seems to be a real decent powder.
Might try to up the charge considerably and load a different bullet and see where it goes. Didnt have my chronograph today but will the next time.
The 6 1/2 shows some higher velocity numbers and they also list loads with it for the 357, again, no mag primer.
So if anyone else likes these or has used them, what was your experience with them? My initial use was not spectacular but certainly not disappointing neither. The powders were only like $20 per 1.1lb so I figured I couldn't go too wrong. And these will help save the H110 and IMR4227 and others for more serious usage. Who knows though, these may turn out to be as useful as some other powders. The similarities to VV is almost uncanny.
