Selecting a Powder

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] when I open my email every month I see a great deal of redundant questions that I keep off of hunt camp mail because the question is already been answered numerous times in past episodes one of the most frequently asked questions I get is why do you use that powder or how do I pick a powder to use add to this most of the comments in my cartridge and reloading videos are people stating things like this powder is the best or this powder was made for that caliber comments like that make me realize that the vast majority of Reloaders have no clue about what makes a good powder for a particular application in this video I won't tell you what powder to use for your application so please don't ask but I will explain in detail why certain powders are optimal for particular loads in the gunpowder world we have fast and slow powders to choose from as the name suggests slow powders burn at a slower rate and faster powders burn at a faster rate in practice burn rate determines the energy and the pressure duration at which a bullet leaves after primary ignition the burn rate of a powder is controlled by the shape size and chemical composition of the powder kernels in particular the surface area to powder volume ratio mostly determines burn rate you'll notice that the slower powders usually have larger kernels slower powders produce longer duration pressure curves so slower powders create more pressure behind the bullet and provide higher velocities as a result but slower powders are also often less efficient and result in more inconsistencies in velocity and precision also slower powders have that long duration burn so they also require more barrel length to achieve efficiency with those powders when you hear somebody say that cartridge is overboard what they're telling you is that you have a large capacity case that shoots a small diameter bullet what they're really referring to is case volume to B area ratio think of a garden hose with no nozzle on the end that would be akin to a straight wall cartridge now think of a pressure washer where High volumes of pressurized water are being forced out of a tiny hole that's the 257 weatherbe magnum generally a cartridge like the 458 lot is going to like a faster powder like h4895 and an overboard cartridge like the 257 weatherbe is going to like slower powders like Ram shot Magnum or h1000 case volume to bore area ratio is why the 308 and 223 three use similar powders and it's why the 30 out6 and 7x 57 use basically the same powders it's why I use h4895 for both my 223 loads for coyotes and my 458 lot Dangerous Game loads case volume to bore area ratio is a main factor when you're determining powder compatibility when people comment on my videos and say things like reloader 15 is the best powder for 30 out6 or you know they might say 4831 is the best powder for 300 wind mag ever made but when people say things like that I cringe because it makes me realize that most people know very little about the powder that they use bullet weight has a huge impact on what powder that you're going to use in every single cartridge there is no Universal powder for a cartridge it all depends on bullet weight you know it takes more pressure over a longer duration to move a heavier bullet you know as you go heavier in bullet weight for any given cartridge you need a slower burning powder to push it out of the barrel with the desired velocity take the 30 6 for instance you know this shoots from you know 100 grain bullets all the way up to 220 grain bullets you know you'll use powders as fast as Benchmark for the 100 grainers and maybe as slow as IMR 7828 for the 228 uh for the 220 grain bullets so bullet weight is a very important factor when you're selecting the powder for any cartridge powder kernels come in many different shapes and sizes some of the best powders out there have huge kernels and it often makes it difficult to put enough powder into the case to get the velocity that you want you know uh compressing a load a little bit in the case or using a drop tube usually isn't a big deal but highly compressed loads can be dangerous also crushing kernels of powder will cause variations in Burn rate and affect precision and velocity so we always want to avoid compressing powder too much the other side of the problem is that we don't want a bunch of empty space in the case after we load it a cartridge can have too little powder to completely cover the primer flash hole during detonation and this might cause a dangerous squib in fact most of the squibs I've seen in hunting rifles have been from guys trying to make reduced power loads also empty space in the case causes inconsistent powder burn pressure variations and could have negative effects on precision and I made these little uh cutout cases right here for you just to demonstrate case fill and as you can see right here this is what you consider a 100% perfect case fill right there it's not compressed and there's no air gaps in there it's pretty much perfect and this right here I guess you'd say this is uh 80% case fill that's what I call that 80% so let's say you know you're your average guy out there you load up a load to 80% case fill then you load it in your rifle and it's sitting in your chamber and you go over a hill and down on the other side of the Hill there's a deer over there so point it downhill really fast and when you do that look at the uh powder is not covering the primer flash hole anymore so uh that's going to be a problem and that's why filling up the case as much as you can is pretty important so When selecting a powder you want something that almost fills the entire case when a particular bullet is seated to its final overall length I try to stay in an area where my load density is over 90% you know 100% load density is perfect but it's not always possible to achieve that unfortunately most powders won't give you exactly what what you want when you balance load density with your desired velocity but luckily for you modern reloading manuals provide the case fill percentage numbers in them for individual loads with their bullets and this is a big help when choosing a powder for the bullet that you want to use you know even though your load will be a little bit different than the book load because your overall length probably won't match theirs it gives you a good place to start in my opinion so whatever powder you decide to use for your cartridge bullet combination try to fill that case up to almost 100% uh case capacity you know sometimes it's really hard to do that because you hit a pressure sign before you fill up the case and sometimes the load compresses before you get the desired velocity but it's worth the time and effort in my opinion to try to find a powder combination that does that for you smokeless gunpowders are generally not different today than what your old grandfather used but there have been some advancements to the chemical additives used on some Modern powders the last big development in smokeless powders was when hodgden invented their extreme line of powders the hodgden extreme powders were the first really temperature stable powders available to Reloaders and to this day they're still the most stable temperature powders that you can buy I almost exclusively use hod and extreme powders when I have a choice next you need to consider powder metering if you're using an old school powder throw due to being on a budget or because you're using some type of a progressive press a ball powder is probably going to end up being better for you but if you weigh powder on a highly accurate digital scale you could take advantage of the benefits of a good extruded powder for the majority of people out there a good modern reloading manual is going to be a good starting point for selecting powder you know then you can fine-tune things with load development as you go you know most of us have multiple reloading manuals I know I have a whole Shelf full of them so we have access to lots of load data for many different powders but sometimes your Barrel or bullet just won't like a powder also you know the best powder you can use for your gun might not be available so often we can't use the powder that we want and in these cases we have to compromise and use another powder in the appropriate burn rate range for our cartridge and bullet weight also remember that gunpowder is an organic compound and being such there's always inconsistencies and variables from lot to Lot number you know a lot that shot great 3 years ago might perform bad from a brand new lot so there are lots of reasons that you might have to find alternative powders but in my opinion the burn rate chart is a great place to start so your goal with powder is to find a powder in the correct burn rate range that gives you good load density and produces the velocity and precision that you want you know that sounds very simple and straightforward but it's seldom easy or even possible in real life practice you can't just pick a load from a reloading book or an internet forum and expect results from that if you do that you're probably better off just buying commercial ammo finding the perfect load for your Barrel requires a good load development process you have to find a good powder node a good powder and a good powder node then you know you need to optimize your seating depth and anything short of doing that is really a recipe for failure once again don't bother asking me for powders or load data don't be lazy do your own research this video is just an explanation of what makes a powder optimal for your particular load I want to thank you for watching and as always good hunting [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Desert Dog Outdoors

Views: 6,988

Keywords: smokeless powder, gun powder, best gun powder, H4350, H4831 powder, Varget powder, H4831sc powder, H4350 powder, powder for 30-06, powder for rifle, handloading ammo, cartridge loading, load development, reloading ammo, reloading, Hodgdon powder, IMR4064 powder, IMR powder, Reloader 17 powder, ball powder vs stick powder, Ramshot hunter, powder for 308, powder for 223, selecting a gun powder, compressed powder load, compressed load, powder charge, load density

Id: 38IzN4gKTEI

Length: 14min 8sec (848 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2024