Powder situation
- Thread starter Mikehenrybell
- Start date
ALBERTA BOY
Regular
- Location
- Edmonton, AB
All those powders commonly available in Edmonton with a little footwork. I've bought all three in the last month.
I found only one place where N550 was in stock. No luck with Varget, 4895 or RL15. I am just starting reloading so I only bought 1 kg hoping to test other powders down the road. The guy at Cabela’s almost rolled his eyes when I asked for powders/primers.
It is fun, but the real beauty of reloading is that you can just about always find a recipe for your rifle, with just about any powder that is within the safe parameters listed for your particular rifle/cartridge combo in several different manuals and find a sweet spot that you can depend on, when it's important.
The main reason I went away from factory loads, was that every time there was a lot # change, the characteristics of the cartridge would change and scopes/sights had to be adjusted accordingly.
Often, there would only be one or two boxes of the same lot on the shelf or the rifle just wouldn't settle down well enough to trust that lot. At least with handloading, you can tune a load to the individual rifle.
Example, I have two identical 7.65x53 Mausers. Their chambers are so close I can't see or measure any difference between them. Seating depths are, of course, limited to the length of their mag wells. The leades are well beyond that. Both have excellent bores and both are from the same crate, with serial numbers only one last digit apart. To bad they were bubbaed.
One will shoot a load about 150fps faster with the same components, charge weights, bullet weights, than the other.
The rifle that shoots slower with that load isn't as accurate as the faster barrel.
If I tweak the load with 5 grains of the same powder, to get the same velocity the groups tighten up and there aren't any pressure signs.
If I use the heavier load with the faster barrel, I get flattened to the point of flowing primers and other pressure signs, such as a very distinctive expansion ring. The accuracy goes the way of the willow as well.
Both loads are within the listed safe parameters of the #7 Hornady, had to go back and check, manual.
You just usually can't get that flexibility from factory loads, especially with older firearms that weren't machined on CNC lathes.
I can remember when it wasn't uncommon to go to a yard sale or gun show and find several partial boxes of ammunition.
The sellers had gone through several lots before they found one that their rifles would shoot acceptably.
We don't see that as much today.
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I tend to not think about those auctions when buying gun powders, heck I usually just ask my local gun shop to get some in stock within a few days. The auction houses in Canada are nothing but a bunch of fishy guys like frankestein303 trying their best to raise the price and waiting for sheeps to overpay something that has function issues.
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Some guys can spot quality and will pay for it, at least till it gets silly.
I wanted a rifle and just held the button down and closed my eyes till I got it.
AS it was for ME and not to resale for profit then I had the advantage, 10 years from now it will sell for a lot more.
I wanted a rifle and just held the button down and closed my eyes till I got it.
AS it was for ME and not to resale for profit then I had the advantage, 10 years from now it will sell for a lot more.
Investigate powders of similar-ish burn rate. The folks who will only use 3031, 4895, 4350, 4831, and Retumbo are like the guy who will only date someone who is a ringer for his first girlfriend. Reloader became popular and is basically unobtainium now. Try the Enduron powders, or Vihtavuori.
VV is available in some shops, Reloader and Enduron not so much.
We have substantial orders of VihtaVuori coming from Finland and suggest that you contact your dealer if interested as the demand is growing and there are large back orders.
Most who try VihtaVuori stick with it, at least serious shooters as opposed to plinkers.
Most who try VihtaVuori stick with it, at least serious shooters as opposed to plinkers.
