What to do with W-785 powder?

[Sasquatch807]

A good friend of mine left the country recently to go work abroad and won`t be back for a few years. Being a shooting enthusiast and reloader he had quite a collection of powders and afraid they would spoil in an unheated storage space he gave them to me so they wouldn`t go to waste. The lot is comprised mostly of stuff I use but there`s a few pounds of Olin W-785. I`ve never heard of this powder before and can`t find any mention of it in all of my loading manuals.

Does anyone know what calibers it`s used for and where I can find data for it?

 

[Why not?]

It is relatively slow powder that works great in cartridges with low expansion ratio: 6mm Rem, 25-06, 257 Wby, 270 Wby, 7mm Rem Mag, 7mm Wby, 7mm STW, 300 Win, 300 Wby, etc.

 

[Sasquatch807]

Thanks Why Not?,

Where can I find data?

 

[Why not?]

I just did a Google search for you. Here's a powder burn rate chart,

http://www.reloadersnest.com/burnrates.asp ,

that has it listed faster than H1000 and IMR 7828, slower than H4831 and barely slower than RE22.

You can take it from there.

Ted

 

[roberti11]

w-785

If you look at www.loaddata.com, there are lots of loads for w-785

 

[257Roberts]

I have some old winchester reloading information that lists w-785.
What cartridges are you loading?
I could see if I can scan the data and send it to you.
257 Roberts

 

[Sasquatch807]

I have some old winchester reloading information that lists w-785.
What cartridges are you loading?
I could see if I can scan the data and send it to you.
257 Roberts

Thanks 257Roberts, I reload .30-06, .308, .300 win. mag. and .30-30.

 

[p-17]

This powder is very similar, if not identical, to H450 (also discontinued, but more recently so). These two powders are also similar, if not identical, to Higginson's WC852 (a powder with which I have some experience). In a nutshell, the burning rate is in the approximate range of H4831 and Reloder 22.

If you have an older manual, you can generally use H450 data.

FYI, I've personally used 75 grains of WC852 with a 180-grain bullet in .300 Winchester Magnum, but that may be a tad hot. It might work with heavy bullets in .30-06, but I wouldn't waste my time with this powder in a .308 or .30-30. These days, I use 49 grains of WC852 with a 175-grain bullet in an old Mauser 7x57. It's a great combination.

 

[pimlott]

It comes witha warning Do not use reduce loads. George

 

[Chuck McCann]

Sasquatch807

My old 3rd edition Hornaday manual shows a listing for Win 785 for the 30-06. It shows a starting load of 58.5 to a max of 63.4 for the 150 gr, 56.6 to 63.8 for the 165gr, 57.2-63.7 for the 168gr, 55.3-63.9 for the 180gr, 55.5 to 62.2 for the 190gr HPbt and finally 51.6-59.7 for the 220gr round nose. There are no loads listed for the 308, 30-30 or 300 win mag.

Hope this helps, I'll poke around in some of my other old manuals and let you know if I find data for any of the other calibers.