Seems like most of the talk on this board lately has been political, not 10mm related, so I thought I'd copy this here, from my post on glocktalk earlier this evening...
Another title of this thread could be "I did something dumb".
I wanted to load up some cheap blasting fodder for the G20L, using some of my cast bullets from recycled lead, used brass, and surplus powder, leaving me to just pay for the primers. I set out some of my Lee 175 TC bullets, and a bunch of 40 S&W brass, then remembered I have 3 old jugs of Hercules 2400 that a friend gave me. I grabbed one of them, the old square can with the "press to open" cap, and dumped it in my powder measure. I decided to start with 9.0gr, with an OAL of 1.145". In my previous experiments with 2400 in the 10mm and 40 S&W, powder capacity was always the limiting factor, not pressure, so I figured this would be pretty safe...
Wow, 1280 fps average out of my 6.6" barrel. It shot pretty well, with no pressure signs, so I worked up a little; 9.3gr gave 1330 fps and 9.6 gave 1360 fps but showed light smiles, so I didn't load many of those.
Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with this stuff, giving me 10mm power in basically a 40 S&W load. So I wondered how the newer Alliant 2400 would compare. Hmm, right off, I noticed the 9.3gr charge bar setting for the stuff in the square can threw 11.2gr of the new stuff. That's not right. I backed the charge off to 9.0gr, and tried a few. 890 fps! About then is where I realized this stuff in the square can isn't 2400, or at least isn't the same 2400. I worked all the way up to 12.5gr of the Alliant 2400, getting only 1180 fps.
So, besides the reminder to always work up loads again with a new lot of powder (duh, I knew that, just didn't do it ), do you guys have any thoughts on what this "mystery powder" is? (see pics below) It looks enough like 2400 that I didn't look closer at first, but now I see that it looks more like a cross between Power Pistol and 2400. It has some thin flakes like Power Pistol, and about the same size, but other thick granules like 2400, and some in between. (It could be a mixture of two powders, probably the most likely scenario here.) Did Hercules change their formula for 2400 way back then?
For comparison, I worked up the same load with Power Pistol (just because it looks very similar, although the flakes are thinner). It seems to have about the same potential as this mystery powder, but takes about 1 grain less to get the same velocity (8.0gr Power Pistol vs 9.0 "mystery 2400" for 1280 fps).
As a side note, I have two other jugs of Hercules 2400; one is unopened but the other looks just like the newer Alliant stuff, except it's a little denser. 11.2gr of the Alliant 2400 is the same volume as 12.1gr of Hercules 2400 from my tall round jug.
Comparison of some different powders:
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/zthang43/Bang/Misc/IMG_0564a.jpg)
4 cans of 2400:
(http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c26/zthang43/Bang/Misc/IMG_0567.jpg)
Alliant swears the formulation of the powder has not changed ever. Any variation is the normal lot-to-lot variations. This is based on a conversation that JohnK from handloads.com had with Alliant about the powder.
A lot of this speculation that it has changed is due to newer reloading manuals having different data. The explained reason for this is because of changes in primers and how much energy they contribute to the mix.
Interesting results in any case.
Quote from: Yondering on July 30 2012 12:27:57 AM MDT
Seems like most of the talk on this board lately has been political, not 10mm related, so I thought I'd copy this here, from my post on glocktalk earlier this evening...
OK, I'm officially a moron. I've been clicking on "unread posts" at the right of the screen on the home page; I just figured out that's only unread posts for the general section. Doh!
Quote from: sqlbullet on July 30 2012 08:08:07 AM MDT
Alliant swears the formulation of the powder has not changed ever. Any variation is the normal lot-to-lot variations. This is based on a conversation that JohnK from handloads.com had with Alliant about the powder.
A lot of this speculation that it has changed is due to newer reloading manuals having different data. The explained reason for this is because of changes in primers and how much energy they contribute to the mix.
Interesting results in any case.
I say HOGWASH (them, not you). I've experienced nearly the same thing Yondering discovered, over the years with the SAME powder series, but with .41 Mags. My 20-30 year old load journal data is absolutely useless with the newer powder. Not even close enough to use as a baseline. Same with Blue Dot (which is probably the reason for the Blue Dot ban with all .41 Mags, and one .357M bullet weight).
Just can't trust anyone these days. :-\ Interesting to say the least.