Be It Resolved: IMR 4227 Sucks - I Don't Recommend It

[One Lung Wonder]

I burned up my first and last pound of it and I'm glad to be rid of it! That crap burns like Goex Fg 'cannon grade' and it bunged my Redhawk right up within 150 rounds! Do any of you guys have any luck with it? I am burning it in a .45 long Colt and it is utterly filthy stuff to work with. I use and love some of the other IMR powders...but this stuff? They can keep it!

 

[Garand]

It works great in my Swedish M1896 Mauser in 6.5x55mm, with 140 grain lead gas checked bullets (2" group at 100 yds)

 

[gunlaker]

It's excellent in my .32-40 target rifles . I've never used it anywhere else though.

Chris.

 

[Smcx]

I actually like it in 44 magnum.

 

[Ganderite]

You are running a 50,000 psi rifle powder at 15,000 psi. It does not burn clean there.

A faster pistol powder is called for.

4227 would work at max loads in a 44 mag or 357. (35,000 psi)

 

[Paatz]

I'm loading 25/20 with a little filler on top. Yup it's smokey.

 

[Andy]

In my experience it only works well when burned at high pressures. Anything below that results in yellow-green clumps of partially burned powder. Great in the "WSL" family of cartridges, e.g. 351 WSL.

 

[BCRider]

Yep, need more pressure to make it burn well. It's not the powder's fault. Its simply a poor powder option for .45Colt.

It's not only 4227. During the recent powder shortage I picked up a couple of pounds of IMR SR4756. Turns out from reading around that this is another powder that likes to be loaded up to near max and becomes inconsistent burning and fouls like a sooty fire with light loads. So much for my original intent to use it for cowboy action reloads. And not the light poofy loads. I load to regular .38Spl velocity. But that's just too low a peak pressure for the SR4756 by the accounts I read. So now it sits until I load up my next batch of .45acp or perhaps 9mm where the pressure will be high enough to burn well.

I've loaded some .44Mag with 4227 and it's quite clean burning at that higher pressure. Not "I can skip cleaning the brass" sort of clean but the gun doesn't get fouled up like you're suggesting.

 

[mudgunner49]

I've had good success with it in the .22 Hornet...

 

[notsorichguy]

4227 is the"bees knees" in my 460....

Nothing quite like a 350gr hornady xtp @ 2000 fps out of a 5" revolver!

 

[Canuck223]

You are running a 50,000 psi rifle powder at 15,000 psi. It does not burn clean there.

A faster pistol powder is called for.

4227 would work at max loads in a 44 mag or 357. (35,000 psi)

This....

I find powders seem to burn cleanest and produce the most consistent results when used near the top of there pressure levels.
That clearly excludes some powder from consideration in a given application.

 

[dirtybarry]

I've burned 25+ pounds of it so far and will burn many more. Shooting anything in a revolver gets my hands filthy after enough of it. That's why I carry a travel pack of wet-wipes as part of my range kit.