Orphan Powders

[fyrewall]

Some powders seem to be always available and cost less than those having great popularity. Some that come into mind after quick inventories at various gun stores are IMR4831, IMR4320, RS BigGame, RS Hunter, Alliant 4000MR, Hodgdon 380. Having no experience with Accurate powders I did not attempt to track them.

I use IMR 4831 with great success in .22-.250 with 75's and 6mm AI with 87's. Alliant 4000MR is a favorite powder for .243W with 87's & 105's and .300 Win for 178's. RS Hunter works well in my .22-250 with 68's & 75's, 6.5X47L with 140's and .243 with 87's. In the distant past I used H380 in the .308 with 168's and the .22-.250 with 53's - that powder is available at lower costs at my LGS.

With environmental stuff like, "REACH" I fear that restrictions might be extended somehow to the US. I don't know if any extruded powder is made in the US. Much extruded powder sold by Hodgdon is made in far distant Australia - past shortages of H4350 and now Varget. The extruded IMR powders seem to be all made in Canada.

Ball powder like H380, 4000MR, is made in Florida. I fear that some executive order by an anti gun president might halt importations of smokeless powder into the US. Environmental concerns may also be used to restrict importation of powder into the US. Apparently various OSHA regulations have limited powder manufacturing to ball powder types in the US.

I am always looking for domestic powders that work well in my modest battery of rifles of conventional & popular calibers.

 

[ShootDots]

Some of the IMR powders are very good. Most of the IMR powders are pretty dang sensitive to even "minor" temp swings. Almost all the ball powders are pretty sensitive to temp swings. I believe that is why you see them readily available. As "information" becomes known about the characteristics of powders, the more "temp stable" the powder, the more demand there is for it. That does NOT mean that there is not a huge market for "temp non-stable" powders. Use them in hunting season and you will probably never see any difference. I used to shoot IMR 4831 in a older .257A.I. and in a .358STA and in one or 2 7mm Rem Mags.. As long as I used them in about the same temp span as I developed loads in>>>no sweat. But I believe that is the reason some are in high demand and others are not in high demand.

 

[riflewoman]

while extruded powders May not be made in the US anymore, we have way more powders to choose from than EVER before. The bigger problem is finding powders that get discontinued abruptly. I remember fondly Norma 203. The original. Very accurate in 308 303 Brit and 30-06. Ultra fine grains etc. Norma dropped it way back when and I hung on to my dwindling supply for a long time until it was gone.

 

[ShootDots]

while extruded powders May not be made in the US anymore, we have way more powders to choose from than EVER before. The bigger problem is finding powders that get discontinued abruptly. I remember fondly Norma 203. The original. Very accurate in 308 303 Brit and 30-06. Ultra fine grains etc. Norma dropped it way back when and I hung on to my dwindling supply for a long time until it was gone.

Another powder that was abruptly discontinued, and I believe was a mistake to do so, was IMR 4007. It was pretty temp stable, tiny kernels, was in a perfect burn rate range for almost all of the "smaller" F-Open cartridges! It produced excellent accuracy and had a propensity for producing a fair amount of velocity for a "non-double based" powder!

 

[fyrewall]

Good point.

Some of the temp stable IMR ENDURON powders are so new that extensive loading data is not available, thus these powders are more available, especially for IMR4955 which appears to be a short term "orphan powder". The old conventional IMR 4350 is always a big seller and is not an "orphan powder"; I don't use is so I have no comments on how temp sensitive it is. My last experience with temperature stability happened last September when carefully worked up H414 .22-.250 75 ELDM loads at 60* temps. gave sticky bolt lifts at 90*; I switched to some H4350 loads and kept on shooting. I can always buy H414 at low prices.

My past use of ball powders has been limited to temperature swings of from 50 to 80 degrees and I have not noticed any great pressure variations. This was fine until I got into shooting rodents at temps close to 100*. IMR 8208 & the pricy and hard to get H4350, became powders of choice. Keep your ammo in the shade and don't spend much time with a round in a hot chamber. Re16 probably will never become an "orphan powder" - REACH compliant, temp stable, & similar to H4350 - hopefully big quantities of it will be imported into the US. I have really some nice Re16 .22-.250 loads.

I have not seen much documentation of actual pressure testing at various temp increases but my experiences with H414 might fall in line with pressure testing lab work. Ramshot TAC, a ball powder, seems to be a popular powder and is usually sold out at my LGS. I think TAC might be made in Belgium with some NATO temperature constraints - in any event it is popular in .308W and .223.

I think I remember seeing some info that some 4007 powder was discontinued and recalled because of some deterioration problems?

Just hoping the great variety of available powders will continue. Price stability is also an important factor. Possibly the new STABALL ball powder, should it be made in the US, will provide a domestic temp stable powder.

 

[1lnbrdg]

Old school IMR-4064. Not exactly temp-stable per some of the others out there but it's always produced some good loads for me and I've never had temp issues.

Working with it in .223 currently gives me the lowest Max / SD's of any of the powders out there yet.

 

[Laurie]

I think I remember seeing some info that some 4007 powder was discontinued and recalled because of some deterioration problems?

ALL of it now - and urgently if you believe Hodgdon Powder Co. even pulling loaded rounds and dumping / destroying the charge! See:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=IMR4007&submit=Search

(A.S. Bulletin 24th October) Sadly, I have four tins sitting outside the back of the house quietly marinading in tap water.

Another powder that was abruptly discontinued, and I believe was a mistake to do so, was IMR 4007. It was pretty temp stable, tiny kernels, was in a perfect burn rate range for almost all of the "smaller" F-Open cartridges! It produced excellent accuracy and had a propensity for producing a fair amount of velocity for a "non-double based" powder!

I suspect 4007's problem was that it didn't give top grade MVs except in a few cartridge designs, so it hardly ever appeared in reloading manuals. As @riflewoman says, there is now such a large choice of grades that manual compilers have become very 'picky' - some old established favourites plus a selection of new grades that produce very high MVs. As they also use QuickLOAD to help make initial selections long before loading a cartridge, 4007 suffered because it rarely shone when modeled in the program. Viht N160 is another such as QL gives misleadingly mediocre results in many cartridges it's ideal for.

 

[fyrewall]

A quick look at my 2016 & 2019 Hodgdon load magazine finds no IMR4007 loads - that does not mean IMR 4007 loads have been omitted, I just can't find any. Lots of H380 & IMR4320 at bargain prices at LGS's, possibly the powder makers had a huge inventory of those. Whatever don't recycle that marinade