What powders for steel and HW13

[figgy]

As per title lads I’m looking to buy my powders to reload steel for my fowling. From 32g to 35/36g depending on shot size in steel 2 3/4 and 3” 

i know Alliant Steel is available so will be looking to stock up. Any other powders i should buy like blue dot etc if there are any good loads for them. 

I will mainly load steel due to cost. 

Any help greatly appreciated 

Edited December 12, 2017 by figgy

[6.5x55SE]

31 minutes ago, figgy said:

As per title lads I’m looking to buy my powders to reload steel for my fowling. From 32g to 35/36g depending on shot size in steel 2 3/4 and 3” 

i know Alliant Steel is available so will be looking to stock up. Any other powders i should buy like blue dot etc if there are any good loads for them. 

I will mainly load steel due to cost. 

Any help greatly appreciated 

Personally Figgy I'd Stick with Alliant Steel as it's so versatile with gauges and weights.

I've not got years of Shotgun reloading as others I've flirted with other powders AO-Blue Dot- Vhitavouri and CSBO  again Alliant Steel is tops

[Continental Shooter]

I think I'd second that steel for all non toxic needs but I've seen good loads with 800x and blue dot as well as longshot on some american site. NSI Tecna could do as well for some of the loads.

[Fen tiger]

Steel is good for available data , but published data is with the more recent type A steel becoming a problem, this link to a discussion on DHC  is  just one  of many on the subject.http://www.duckhuntingchat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=852137

 I have been using Longshot recently with steel and HW13 found it good and will be using a lot more of it in the future.

Edited December 13, 2017 by Fen tiger

[motty]

I currently load all my shells with Alliant Steel or Bluedot. I have plenty of recipes for both. You will forsake speed with Bluedot, but then speed is not all its cracked up to be.

[Smokersmith]

Looking at cost alone, the 38g NSI loads take some beating.

For anything heavier than that, the cost benefits are more attractive to load yourself.

[motty]

18 minutes ago, Smokersmith said:

Looking at cost alone, the 38g NSI loads take some beating.

For anything heavier than that, the cost benefits are more attractive to load yourself.

Totally agree!

[Guest cookoff013]

i loaded 42grams of hw13 with vectan A1, had it tested, suprisingly it failed, but not by much.

speed sometimes isnt all its cracked up to be with this stuff. 

 

if i were to start and 1250fps limit 36g hw13, vectan A1 should just about do it.

[iamspuddy]

im using the new ssb150  , was using A steel   but it was hit and miss if you could get it and i could be ar*ed with that  . So stuck with something i can easily get all year round .

It does what it says on the tin. and the birds have fell out the sky . 

[thumpstar]

Anyone got any data for alliant steel? Ideally something around 28-30 gram

[motty]

50 minutes ago, iamspuddy said:

im using the new ssb150  , was using A steel   but it was hit and miss if you could get it and i could be ar*ed with that  . So stuck with something i can easily get all year round .

It does what it says on the tin. and the birds have fell out the sky . 

What does it say on the tin?

[lancer425]

5 minutes ago, motty said:

What does it say on the tin?

SSB 150

[6.5x55SE]

2 hours ago, motty said:

What does it say on the tin?

" Bird's please fall out of the Sky " 

[figgy]

What about pressure spikes with some of the powders mentioned other than Alliant steel. I’ve been reading a bit and it seems a lot of other powders are only good to a point then go way over pressure.

[lancer425]

10 hours ago, figgy said:

What about pressure spikes with some of the powders mentioned other than Alliant steel. I’ve been reading a bit and it seems a lot of other powders are only good to a point then go way over pressure.

Alliant steel is not immune from pressure spikes either, i drop all loads a few grains with the steel powder that is on sale now and velocity is down as a result.

[figgy]

On 12/16/2017 at 09:36, lancer425 said:

Alliant steel is not immune from pressure spikes either, i drop all loads a few grains with the steel powder that is on sale now and velocity is down as a result.

So have you had the carts proofed to see what pressure there doing? You could increase the powder till you get the velocity you want within the recipe load data.

[lancer425]

Tested and as listed many are over pressure, steel and HW 13.  Dropping a few grains helps regain safety with regards pressure but speed drops off when you do this, how much of a problem it is depends on how much you are prepared to accept in velocity reduction.

[cash1]

Do you chaps drop the powder charge by volume or weight? 

Dave

[lancer425]

Weight of powder lighter loads like 1oz drop a couple of grains and  with 42 gram loads you can need to drop 4 grains or more, and in some cases need to change primers to keep pressures sane. 

[motty]

1 hour ago, lancer425 said:

Weight of powder lighter loads like 1oz drop a couple of grains and  with 42 gram loads you can need to drop 4 grains or more, and in some cases need to change primers to keep pressures sane. 

I'm not sure that makes sense.

[lancer425]

What reducing powder charges proportionately does not reduce pressures to stay within safe limits. .? 

[motty]

3 hours ago, lancer425 said:

What reducing powder charges proportionately does not reduce pressures to stay within safe limits. .? 

The lack of punctuation makes your previous post extremely difficult to understand.

[Guest cookoff013]

On 12/15/2017 at 22:35, figgy said:

What about pressure spikes with some of the powders mentioned other than Alliant steel. I’ve been reading a bit and it seems a lot of other powders are only good to a point then go way over pressure.

figgy.

could you provide for me some, clarification what a pressure spike looks like. i run a lot of experimental test loads and i only ever managed to get a pressure spike from one load (in hindsight, i slightly overloaded the powder) and i absolutely hammered a 1050bar rig and my average was 1200bar, going back i absolutely cooked it. the pressure curve for the 720bar and 1200bar  (and all datapoints from the few loads i did were all very sharp pressure peaks.) the ones that fail are the loads that vary too much, have either slightly too much powder or too heavy a load. (or too much shot taking up space.) 

i ran powershot with a charge of A1 that i would have thought got me 1200fps, it got 1210fps and the pressure not far from 900. but its pressure was all over the shop. its like the powershot just sat there upon firing and absorbed all the energy, extracting all what it could, the pressure failed, but it wasnt that bad. i`d easily knock it down to pass cip and get 1100fps or thereabouts. but that actually varied too much, not spike at all.

(42g of powershot #6 on duck is slightly overkill),  but i designed an assay to evaluate energy. thats what came out. 

i personally think and have found out that for every powder there is an optimal charge and within a sensible range of payloads, really stable pressures. 

 

[lancer425]

53 minutes ago, motty said:

The lack of punctuation makes your previous post extremely difficult to understand.

OH!  Thats a lack of education on my part, yo as pobly fa btt dcatd than m.  

[lancer425]

25 minutes ago, cookoff013 said:

figgy.

could you provide for me some, clarification what a pressure spike looks like. i run a lot of experimental test loads and i only ever managed to get a pressure spike from one load (in hindsight, i slightly overloaded the powder) and i absolutely hammered a 1050bar rig and my average was 1200bar, going back i absolutely cooked it. the pressure curve for the 720bar and 1200bar  (and all datapoints from the few loads i did were all very sharp pressure peaks.) the ones that fail are the loads that vary too much, have either slightly too much powder or too heavy a load. (or too much shot taking up space.) 

i ran powershot with a charge of A1 that i would have thought got me 1200fps, it got 1210fps and the pressure not far from 900. but its pressure was all over the shop. its like the powershot just sat there upon firing and absorbed all the energy, extracting all what it could, the pressure failed, but it wasnt that bad. i`d easily knock it down to pass cip and get 1100fps or thereabouts. but that actually varied too much, not spike at all.

(42g of powershot #6 on duck is slightly overkill),  but i designed an assay to evaluate energy. thats what came out. 

i personally think and have found out that for every powder there is an optimal charge and within a sensible range of payloads, really stable pressures. 

 

correct powders are very stable and as you say work best in certain ranges of use,  it is sometimes at the limits of the spectrum spikes are encountered in some loads.