Why IMR powder?

The Greek

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Kingman, AZ USA
Does anyone know why there are so many loads in the books for IMR powder and so few for Hodgen's other that IMR has been arround forever? The big reason I ask this is that I really like H-4831SC powder it is so easy to use and after I shoot a box of ammo you can look through the barrel and it looks barley fired. I was trying to find some loads for my 338 Win. mag. useing Hornady 200 grn bullets and although I looked through my Speer, Lyman, Hornady, Hodgens, Winchester, and Cartridges of the world reloding books not a single load for 200 grn bullets with H-4831 powder. Alot for the IMR-4831. I am just wondering why?

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Good Luck
The Greek

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The only answer I can give you for that is a contradiction. IMR powders have been around longer than any of the current name brands. However, the original 4831 powder was Hodgdons 4831 powder. If you look in the older loading manuals, you will see that some of them don't differentiate between Hodgdons and IMR. That's because in the beginning, there was no IMR 4831. If you want to load with H-4831 SC, use the IMR data and start about in the middle of the published load. Since the H version burns slightly slower than the IMR version the data is one way interchangible. DO NOT SUBSTITUE H-4831 DATA FOR IMR POWDER.... You can use IMR data for Hodgdons powder though.

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Dan AZ www.huntandlodge.com
 
I spent a lot of time trying to develop a load to shoot 225 gr bullets in my .338. I also really like H4831 SC, but I couldn't get enough in to get the ballistics I wanted. If I loaded enough then I couldn't get the bullet seated deep enough. Finally gave up and switched to the IMR powder that they recommended in the loading specs for the XLC's.

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You know Deacon, there is an old saying that I made up about 15 minutes ago. 'If you shake a case and hear the powder rattle, you don't have enough powder.' It's always been my experience that you get better performance, consistancy, and accuracy from high density loads. I try to achieve a compressed load whenever possible. So far, it's worked pretty well. 'SC' packs tighter than IMR 4831 and the burning difference isn't that great. Have you ever loaded compressed charges? 338 WIN MAG isn't a round that reaches critical real fast, it's actually pretty safe to load. As a matter of fact, I've found with most rifles, that if you find a load that shoots well with one bullet weight, if you use the same load and vary the burn rate of the powder (faster or slower for lighter or heavier bullets) you will probably find that the same accuracy is maintained. My favorite varmint rifle is the same rifle I use for Antelope hunting. I shoot 55 grain Noslers for Prairie Poodles and 80 grain bullets for Prairie Goats. The difference between the two loads is that I shoot IMR 4320 with the 55 grain bullet and IMR 4831 with the 80 grain bullet. The charge weight is the same within about .2 grains.
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Dan AZ www.huntandlodge.com

[This message has been edited by danr55 (edited 01-08-2001).]
 
Yep, I agree about the compressed loads. Shoot them in all my rifles. That said, if the bullet won't maintain proper depth cause the powder is pushing it back out, then it ain't gonna work. That's what was happening. IMR4831 wouldn't work any better. I had to go to either a ball or flake powder to achieve my required results.
H4831 at 60.5 grains works great in my .270 with 130 gr bullets. I guarantee you won't hear it rattle!
 
I use 75 grains of RL-22, or 73 grains of RL-19 with the Combined Tecnology's 230-grain FS bullet. Nice and compressed loads work great for me, and seem to keep pressure within safe levels.

RL-19 is a little faster than RL-22. The loads listed above are maximum.
 
Yep, I agree about the compressed loads. Shoot them in all my rifles. That said, if the bullet won't maintain proper depth cause the powder is pushing it back out, then it ain't gonna work. That's what was happening. IMR4831 wouldn't work any better. I had to go to either a ball or flake powder to achieve my required results.
H4831 at 60.5 grains works great in my .270 with 130 gr bullets. I guarantee you won't hear it rattle!

Did you try H4350, that is what I use in my .338 Win Mag.
 
In the past where I had issue with a lack of information on certain powders with certain loads, I would call Hodgdon and they were very helpful and would give me a starting point. The last issue I had was between IMR 4350 & H4350. I had plenty of the one powder, (H4350), but any book I researched didn't have any info, except for IMR 4350.
 
Believe it or not, Hodgdon doesn’t, and I don’t think ever has, made its own powder. The original H4831 was simply repackaged bulk military surplus powder.

Now much of Hodgdons powders are made for it in Australia or Europe. Hodgdon owns IMR and Winchester powders.

Random useless information of the day.
 
Back in the 80s I had a gunsmith tell me to use Hodgdon over IMR because Hodgdon was consistent between lots and IMR didn't.
I think I read a few years ago that Hodgdon bought IMR. I load both powders but for different guns. I don't shoot the 06 enough to worry about lot variation.
Anybody notice anything on this?
 
Buy 8 lbs at time, no reason to worry about differences in lots unless you use a bunch of one powder for several rifles. Then just buy 8lbs per rifle if that's the case, or a bunch of 8lbers from the same lot.

Once I find a load a rifle likes, I buy 8lbs at a time.

1lb cans are for load development.
 

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