Powder substitution

[Ralph Littlefield]

I mainly load for 308 Win & 6.5 Creedmoor. I also load and shoot 223 Rem, 22-250, 243 & 7mm-08. My go to powders have been IMR 4895 for 308 and H4350 for 6.5. I also have rl16, Varget, IMR 4064, and H335.

My shooting is informal benchrest, no competition, out to 600 yds. Given the availability and cost of replacing my current inventory, I am considering looking at different powders.

Anyone have suggestions of powders that deserve a look?

 

[Walt Krafft]

N140 is a good substitute for H4895 and Varget. N150 for H4350. As always, work up new loads with the different powders.

 

[big5ifty]

The new Sta-Ball powders are worth looking at. Being ball, they meter very consistently by volume.

If the slow burner of the series is really like H1000, then I could use just those three for every rifle I have.

 

[LHSmith]

I suggest the Ramshot line of powders- bargain priced with good reviews and AVAILABLE (at least at the moment)

 

[Laurie]

Re16, VarGet, 4064 and H335 will cover your cartridges nicely.

I've been range-testing alternatives to Hodgdon and IMR powders, most of which are unavailable now to us in Europe4 because of the EU REACH regulations starting with H4350 and VarGet alternatives, now writing up H4895.

You can read my results free on the targetshooter.co.uk website under the Reach-Out headline, now at Part 7 with 8 currently being written.



Part 2: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3624 (start of H4350 alternatives)

Part 3: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3657

Part 4: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3683 (Final part of H4350/H414)

Part 5: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3741 (Introduction to VarGet/H4895 section and issues over 223 chamber throats /loads employed

Part 6: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3811 (VarGet)

Part 7: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=3856 (Viht alternatives for VarGet)

All powders covered are available in the US bar some Reload Swiss grades (and of these, RS60 is sold in the US as Alliant Re17)

Parts 8 and 9 will cover H4895 alternatives. Parts 6-9 are all extruded grades. I'll then continue with VarGet / H4895 ball powder alternatives including four Ramshot grades, and the H4350 exercise will have Staball 6.5 added after I get around to testing it later this year.

 

[6.5 forever]

I suggest the Ramshot line of powders- bargain priced with good reviews and AVAILABLE (at least at the moment)

This. TAC is a good one.

 

[jpmimproved]

Shooters world precision rifle, which Laurie references in his Reach articles, has been showing promise for me in replacement of Varget, and seems to have decent availability. IMR 4064 is tough to beat as a versatile powder unless you absolutely must have temp stability.

 

[Doom]

N135 is a good powder in 308 and 223 Rem. I use it with 52/53 gr bullets in 223. In 308 it's good for bullets up to 155gr per VV and I'm having some success with it with my 20" bbl 308. It has the benefit of burning out in the short barrel. I would suggest 8208XBR as it is also good but you can't find it.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Ralph if you want to save some money I would do it now while Powder valley has these powders on sale. Accurate 4064 and 4350, Ramshot Big Game. PV sales don’t usually last long.https://www.powdervalleyinc.com/pro...attributes=1&tags=1&sku=1&ixwpse=1&in_stock=1

 

[deadidarren]

H4831sc will shoot well as a substitute for 4350

Only if you'd like to lose a lot of velocity in a 308 size case

 

[SBS]

RL-16 for the 6.5; Varget for the .308; H335 for the .223; 4064 for the 7-08 and the .22-250. These may not be ideal depending upon your bullet weight, but they will work. 4064 and RL-16 will work for the .243, but I'd be looking for slower powder unless you use light bullets.

 

[MSS]

4064 here if you want it:

IMR 4064 Smokeless Powder 1 LB for Sale | Midsouth Shooters

Shop IMR 4064 smokeless powder for sale online today at Midsouth Shooters Supply. This versatile propellant works well for a high number of cartridges.

www.midsouthshooterssupply.com

 

[deadidarren]

We use it in a 270 wsm as a replacement for H4350, we note about 2950 fps under a 140 AB with very good accuracy. I’m not sure why any faster is necessary.

Ok stated he mainly loads 308 and creed so 4831sc not much good to him .

 

[Ned Ludd]

Regardless of the brand, powder and primers have been difficult to obtain for the last couple years at least. You will run into the exact same availability issues regardless of which powder you choose as an alternative. My suggestion to you would be to take your time, search diligently at major reloading supply vendors online such as Powder Valley, Bruno's, MidSouth, Natchez, and Grafs until you can find yourself a stock of Varget, which will work reasonably well in all of the cartridges you listed. Varget has been around from time to time in the last 6 months or so, and will probably continue to be available intermittently. Far better to have a decent stock of one powder that will work for all the cartridges you listed than to try and chase after several different alternatives, which may be no easier to find than Varget.

 

[spudgun]

Print out a powder burn rate chart. This will tell you what other powders are burning at the rate of the powder you want to change from.

 

[K22]

Print out a powder burn rate chart. This will tell you what other powders are burning at the rate of the powder you want to change from.

^^^^ This.

In my experience, with most cartridges, an extruded powder with a similar burn rate will produce close if not identical results. Some charge variation may be necessary, but they usually work quite well.

The most significant component factor I've found is the specific bullet selected. If a rifle likes a particular bullet, then there are usually several powders that will yield similar results with careful load development.

 

[Bronsin]

My LGS has Varget in stock, and quite a bit of it, as well as VV N150. They also have a good stock of Accurate Arms 4064 and 4350. Both of those would be a good pick. I bought 1 of the 3 8lb jugs of RL 15.5, and I'm hoping no one else ponies up the money to get the other 2 before I do.

 

[MGYSGT]

Look at the AA powders. Way cheaper than Hodgen and the rest, at least at our local stores.

 

[Beiruty]

This. TAC is a good one.

I liked this powder, I orded 12lbs
Source: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?paged=13&cat=58

TAC, whose burning rate matches that of the much-missed Alliant Re12 of days gone by. It falls between Hodgdon BL-C(2) and H4895, likewise Viht N133 and N135. This is a flexible number with a large range of uses in small to mid size cartridges and Henry Krank’s Ken Grey tells me it’s the company’s biggest seller. It’ll work in 223 Rem with the lighter bullets but really comes into its own with projectiles weighing 69gn or more where it gives better velocities than X-Terminator, although not that much more. TAC promises good results from 308 Win with a good size bullet-weight range, data provided for bullets up to 200gn. I had excellent results from TAC in a heavy-barrel 308W Ruger 77V with 155gn Sierra Palma MatchKings in my earlier try-out, so was keen to try it in my Howa 1500 ‘affordable F/TR rifle’ with its short 22-inch barrel. Running TAC + 155s through QuickLOAD suggested I should exceed 2,800 fps despite the barrel length. It’s still fast-burning enough to have uses in some big-bore straight-case rounds too.


TAC and Wild Boar produce very high MVs in .308. Wild Boar suits .223 with 75-80gn bullets.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I liked this powder, I orded 12lbs
Source: http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?paged=13&cat=58

TAC, whose burning rate matches that of the much-missed Alliant Re12 of days gone by. It falls between Hodgdon BL-C(2) and H4895, likewise Viht N133 and N135. This is a flexible number with a large range of uses in small to mid size cartridges and Henry Krank’s Ken Grey tells me it’s the company’s biggest seller. It’ll work in 223 Rem with the lighter bullets but really comes into its own with projectiles weighing 69gn or more where it gives better velocities than X-Terminator, although not that much more. TAC promises good results from 308 Win with a good size bullet-weight range, data provided for bullets up to 200gn. I had excellent results from TAC in a heavy-barrel 308W Ruger 77V with 155gn Sierra Palma MatchKings in my earlier try-out, so was keen to try it in my Howa 1500 ‘affordable F/TR rifle’ with its short 22-inch barrel. Running TAC + 155s through QuickLOAD suggested I should exceed 2,800 fps despite the barrel length. It’s still fast-burning enough to have uses in some big-bore straight-case rounds too.


TAC and Wild Boar produce very high MVs in .308. Wild Boar suits .223 with 75-80gn bullets.

I often wondered what Big Game would do with the 105 type bullets in the 6BR Norma. I t falls pretty close to N140 on the burn chart.