Need H4895 Lot Advice

[Jet]

Last year I finished up my very good lot of H4895. Have tried a couple different recent lots and can't get my loads to shoot as well as I'd like through three different rifles and 4 barrels (lots of flyers). Anyone have experience with lot # 8022010 7086? if so, how does it shoot for you? Thanks for the help and good shooting.

Rich

 

[Ned Ludd]

How does your velocity and ES/SD for a given charge weight with this Lot# of H4895 compare to other Lots of H4895 you've used with success?

In the past, I've mixed together the remainder (~1-2 lb of each) of several different Lots of H4895 that had previously yielded comparable velocities so as to obtain a larger amount of a uniform mixture. If anything, the results of the "mix" were even better than the individual Lots.

 

[Jet]

Ned

Haven't purchased the lot in question (in picture) so can't compare to previous lots.

Rich

 

[Nature Boy]

I have two 8# jugs that are 2 different lots. Neither one matches yours so I’m no help

 

[newbieshooter]

That lot has been on the shelf for a while .....(2010)

 

[Ned Ludd]

Ned

Haven't purchased the lot in question (in picture) so can't compare to previous lots.

Rich

I guess what I was trying to ask was whether there was some property (in addition to bad grouping) of the H4895 Lots you tried that shot poorly versus your "good" Lot of H4895 that could be distinguished in a quantifiable manner. Velocity for a given charge weight and ES/SD are the obvious candidates. I totally understand that there are shooters that place little value in velocity determination...different disciplines, different approaches and all, and I have no idea whether you routinely record velocity data or not. However for other readers of this thread, the issue you describe with different Lots of H4895 is an example of where not recording velocity data means something has been left on the table.

As compared to a Lot that shot extremely well, I would expect a Lot that shot poorly to potentially exhibit one of at least couple different behaviors. The first would be that velocity for a given charge weight would be markedly different in the same setup (rifle/chamber/brass/primers/bullets/etc.), indicating a difference in burn rate. Another way of saying that would be that a markedly different charge weight would be required to hit a given node. The second behavior might be that the velocity for a given charge weight was similar, but the ES/SD might be markedly higher, suggesting something else was going on. Either way, velocity data can be useful for troubleshooting when issues arise.

The downside to all this is that except for possibly troubleshooting your current issue, the best velocity data in the world won't help much for finding an "acceptable" new Lot of powder, because we have no way of knowing how a new Lot will behave other than by word of mouth until we try it. To that end, I would love to see some kind of Lot-specific powder burn rate data listed directly on the containers, or at least that could be accessed online. There are plenty of examples where similar information is available for shooting-related products, and I suspect that most powder manufacturers already have the Lot-specific burn rate data for QC purposes, anyhow. In any event, good luck with your quest for a better Lot of H4895.