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Powder comparison

Retired shooter

Gold $$ Contributor
Removed this from another thread so as not to hijack it.
Another shooter stated he was using the AA-2520 powder. Is this the same as. Accurate 2520
My question, not knowing much about the Acurate powder is this. Are they the same powder, or different powders.?

From you more experienced than me, what cartridge, or caliber is it most beneficial use.!

Thank you
 
Accurate Arms rifle powder as it was originally. Czech's made a lot
of the powder for AA, and some in Israel. Canada is where most, if not
all of the AA ball powders come from.. With Hodgdon picking up AA in
its portfolio, They may have made changes to where they get the bulk
powders from for packaging. If really concerned., contact Hodgdon.

Hodgdon has loading data on their website for Accurate powders.
 
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Accurate Arms rifle powder as it was originally. Czech's made a lot
of the powder for AA, and some in Israel. Canada is where most, if not
all of the AA ball powders come from.. With Hodgdon picking up AA in
its portfolio, They may have made changes to where they get the bulk
bulk powders from for packaging. If really concerned., contact Hodgdon.

Hodgdon has loading data on their website for Accurate powders.
Thank you sir!
 
Acurate powder. Are they the same powder, or different powders.?
Many different countries have produced powder for Accurate. Some even coming from *China.*
Currently ball powder is coming from St. Mark's in Florida. (as said above.)

Load data from years ago, is outdated. With new Hodgdon supplied powder, use Hodgdon Data.

As with any new lot of powder, reduce the load by as much as 10% & work back up.

Example.........
Even H4831 can have a spread of about 10% between lots.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA572333. -


Photos of all powders. There are 6 different photos of 2520 powders.
 

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If it is really 'AA' (Accurate Arms Co.), it's an old powder predating 2003 when Western Powder Co bought the Accurate Arms Co and changed suppliers.

AAC was originally a buyer /distributor of surplus military powders, just like the early Hodgdon. Its earliest grades included a fair pile of such powders from Israeli sources including the very original AA-2520 ball powder. That would be around the 1980s, maybe early 90s. This version of 2520 soon acquired a great reputation amongst XTC M1A 308 competitors loading 168gn SMKs, so much so that it was nicknamed 'The Camp Perry powder'.

When that source dried up, AAC turned to Explosia in the Czech Republic for this and other grades. The M1A shooters quickly found that although claimed to be identical to the original surplus product, it wasn't and didn't perform nearly as well. (Not the first or last time this has happened, cf surplus IMR-8208 vs new ADI-manufacture 8208 from Hodgdon for 6PPC in short-range BR!)

When Western Powders bought AAC ca. 2002, 2003, it quickly ditched Explosia as a supplier. Tubular grades mostly came from General Dynamics Corp Valleyfield Division in Canada (which makes the legacy IMR grades for Hodgdon); ball powders mostly the same corporation's St. Marks Powder Co. operation in Florida, although it seems 2520 might have been supplied by Eurenco P.B Clermont in Belgium which manufactures the Ramshot ball powder range for a period. (In any event, Western's published loads data for Accurate-2520 was identical to that for Ramshot 'Wild Boar', a Europe only Ramshot grade, down to 0.1gn loads and 1 fps / psi results.)

Around the time of the AAC to Western changeover in 2003, the brand name on the tins was changed from Accurate Arms to simply Accurate. (AAC pre-Western may have started this shortly beforehand.) In any event it's not too far out to generalise that if the can label says Accurate Arms, it's Czech manufacture; if simply 'Accurate 2520', it's later from St. Marks. Although similar, they're not the same and pre-Hodgdon the old Western Powders used to warn European handloaders not to use its US 'Accurate' data for the Czech powders which remained available in Europe (under the Lovex trademark name).

After 15 or so years without the Czech versions in the US, many reappeared under the Shooters World brand with new names for individual grades. This included AA-2520 / Lovex D0-73.6 which the company sells as SW 'Match Rifle' and provides loads data for.

https://shootersworldpowder.com/match-rifle/
 
Its appears that 2015 & 2015BR are the same? But i dont know for sure? Email Hodgdon.

Some published info, from Accurate 1992 data.
The #5 & #9 powders are the HOT ones if using old data in 357 mag. with current powders.
 

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Just keeping a powder "identical" without intentional changes, meaning that it is from the same plant/process and supposed to meet the same specs every batch... isn't as easy as folks think.

If you see a new batch or lot number on your powder, it is on you to test your old versus new lot to see if you must change the charge.

Case in point as posted above, 4831 is not a bulk grade powder, it is supposed to be "the same" every batch and here is the abstract from the paper that was linked by @243winxb .

1724259874741.png

When you care about performance out past 300 yards, you have to test lot variations of all sorts, not just the powders. Trust only the target to tell you if the powder is really "identical" in a new "batch" or "lot". Now that chronographs are falling off of trees, this should all be common knowledge.

I realize nobody wants to hear it, but sometimes we live in a world of bean counters and politicians with different morals and values. The engineers and quality control folks get run over instantly and changes get made that are not in favor of the consumer. During my career, there was an ever increasing moral breakdown in corporations and they manage to justify it with new words like "DEI" or "green", but it was really just greed and the same old stupid-human politics we have heard forever.

If you shoot past 300 yards, my advice is to test your stuff if you care. YMMV
 
@Laurie
Is there a difference between Accurate 2015 and Accurate 2015BR other than lot #'s.

Not Laurie, but yes there is. I have some of a '92 lot of 2015BR which is my powder of choice in 358 Win. with 200s. Comparing it with a '22 (Hodgdon marked) lot of 2015. All other components from the same lot/box; the older powder gives me c. 100fps more velocity with equal charges between 46-50 gr. I haven't run the newer lot up to pressure yet.

The older powder was made in China, while the '22 lot has no country of manufacture on the bottle that I can see. Also looking at the 2 powders side by side with a magnifying glass the older lot's granules appear to be a tad longer & maybe a shade lighter in color.

After a discussion elsewhere a while back, I learned that there is an even older version of 2015BR that came from Israel. I believe Handloader #149 (Jan-Feb. '91) has the info on this original version.

Handloader #263 (12-2009) says that after the Israel source stopped, it was renamed XMR-2015 & Czech made, no mention of the Chinese supply, until 2009 when Gen Dynamics in Canada started production.
 
@Laurie
Is there a difference between Accurate 2015 and Accurate 2015BR other than lot #'s.

The old (pre-2003) Accurate Arms Co. called its (Czech) version AA-XMR2015BR, later just AA-2015BR, maybe even simply Accurate-2015 briefly. AFAIK, Western powders only ever called their Canadian made version Accurate-2015, but couldn't swear to that. What does it say on the tin label re manufacturer / origin?

We still get the original in the UK as Lovex S060, an excellent fast-burning, but very flexible powder. The later US/Canadian version is different, but we've never received that or other post-2003 Accurate grades here.

Strangely, Shooters World didn't adopt S060 alongside the other Explosia grades it now sells.
 
If indeed it was AA 2520 it must have been in his stash a long time, according to Laurie.

I just looked @ a bottle of A 2520 I picked up probably a year ago . Hogdon name on it Claims made in U S A. Distributed by Hogdon. Shawnee Mission. Kansas

Thank you to all for a great history lesson.!
 
The last of the Accurate Arms branded powders we received here had the manufacturer's name in the small print along the bottom of the label. It wasn't 'Explosia' back then, but a similar looking/sounding name. None of the original AA bottles we received here had that cap form with the funnel (?), so I suspect that's post-2003 and a Western Powders era tin.
 
Laurie
Thank you for the wealth of information.
Is the info all in your memory bank, or from publication you published. My personal memory bank gets reduced every night I sleep.

Thank you Sir!
 

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