Powder Burn Rate Comparison Charts

[franzfmdavis]

I have seen a lot of questions on the forum about powder comparisons and thought it might be useful to share these attached charts for those who may not have seen them yet:

 

[grand veneur]

The internet is full of diagrams like this and each one shows something different. They only serve to divide the powders into a range in terms of their burning rate. You cannot do anything with it for reloading cartridges. You can maybe do something with the relative velocity and the relative pressure of the various powders, so far as those are stated, but it remains very imprecise when it comes to single or double base powders that you cannot compare. Ultimately, in order to reload safely, you need loading data from well-known manuals and a lot of personal experience.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Interesting. I'd like to find a way to make it relevant. Today at the range I was trying out (again) some trial loads of 307 gr Hammer 404J bullets using start load data for 300 gr bullets at 84 gr IMR 4895 powder. Holding onto that rifle as hard as I could and it still kissed my eyebrow three times. The weird thing is I can shoot 400 gr Barnes X loaded with Accurate 4350 no problem at all. That's 93 gr difference in bullet weights! The Hammer bullets SHOULD have significant LESS recoil, not more. Just now checking the brass I see one primer is flattened.

Something's wrong. Better call Hammer tomorrow. IMR 4895 must have some serious "burn rate" punch per grain.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Another useful chart is the temp stability chart. Not all that critical for hunting applications (<300 yards) but might factor into longer range shooting.

 

[fourfive8]

For me, powder temperature sensitivity is a much more important/critical consideration for hunting ammo than for any target or plinking ammo I may load. It is the reason I only load Hodgdon Extreme, temperature insensitive powders for most of my loading and exclusively for all my hunting ammo. The only exceptions are the 5744 I load in low pressure cast bullet loads and light Trailboss loads in small, high expansion ratio handgun ammo like cast 38 Spl and 45 ACP.

In my mind an errant shot on a paper target can’t be compared to an errant shot on a game animal, not to mention a locked up bolt during a hunt due to a high pressure event because of high temperature .

Got rid of practically all other powders years ago- many varieties. A shooting buddy happily traded and/or relieved me of a bunch of IMR 4064 which I gleefully replaced with Varget. Did the same with all my IMR 4895, IMR 4350 and IMR 4841 - replacing them with H 4895, H 4350 and H 4831 SC. Likewise, got rid of all double base ball powders- have not had or loaded any double base ball powders in years.

Have not looked back.

 

[sgt_zim]

Interesting. I'd like to find a way to make it relevant. Today at the range I was trying out (again) some trial loads of 307 gr Hammer 404J bullets using start load data for 300 gr bullets at 84 gr IMR 4895 powder. Holding onto that rifle as hard as I could and it still kissed my eyebrow three times. The weird thing is I can shoot 400 gr Barnes X loaded with Accurate 4350 no problem at all. That's 93 gr difference in bullet weights! The Hammer bullets SHOULD have significant LESS recoil, not more. Just now checking the brass I see one primer is flattened.
View attachment 633559
Something's wrong. Better call Hammer tomorrow. IMR 4895 must have some serious "burn rate" punch per grain.

Hammer publishes their own load data. Here's their data for that 307 gr Stone Hammer

What was your COAL for those loads?

Remember, 404J was originally designed for RN, not Spitzers.

 

[Tintin]

And for us Antipodeans using ADI powder (with the local, non-Hodgdon label)

https://www.adiworldclass.com.au/powder-equivalents/

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Hammer publishes their own load data. Here's their data for that 307 gr Stone Hammer
View attachment 633594

What was your COAL for those loads?

Remember, 404J was originally designed for RN, not Spitzers.

Thanks. The OAL was set at 3.53. A little bit shorter. I can pop them out to 3.56 and see if that makes a difference. I only have IMR 4895 but typically the load data is not terribly different when both powders are listed in loading tables for other cartridges. The starting load is much lower in this table than data I had but max of 87 gr is the same. It does not appear that 84 gr IMR 4895 would be anywhere near the max. But that is some fierce velocity for a 300 gr bullet at max load! Typically changing the OAL is more about the jump to lands and accuracy. Barnes, for example, wants thirty-five to fifty thousandths jump to lands for .308 caliber bullets. It's right on the box. My 404 dies are set to SAMMI COL so presumably Hammer needs less jump to lands. Interesting. I'm shooting 80 gr Accurate 4350 for the 400 gr Barnes bullets very comfortably and very accurately. That data also started at 77 gr powder but it was too light - primers were pushing out.

The original Jeffery guns were designed to accept their 300 gr and 400 gr bullet ammo. Presumably 300 gr was not round nose? I cut my Mauser's loading ramp to cycle 400 gr Barnes spitzer point bullets. It may not cycle 450 gr round nose. I don't know and don't care. I would never shoot them anyway.