Versatile powders ?

[mousegun]

One will need to be useable for loading pistol calibers, the other has to cope with everything else.


Actually I'll narrow the pistol powder choice down to something suitable for 9mm and\or .45 ACP - I forgot I can only own one handgun unless I get ranked as a competitive shooter, something which I'm not very interested in. So in my personal frame of reference it's a straight choice between a Hi power or a 1911.

So does everything else include shotguns? If so, we need a pistol / shotgun powder. Sorta knocks 231 off the list as much as I like it. There really isn't much if any shotgun data for 231. If I wanted this speed for dual purpose, I would go with Green Dot. Covers 12 and 20 gauge as well as 9mm and 45. You could go Herco for heavier shotgun loads but it will be pretty filthy with the 45 unless you load it +P and it will only be dirty.

As far as rifle goes, 748 would be a good choice unless you have a heavy hitter magnum. The fastest powder I would think of trying in my 375 RUM is a 4350 flavor. But then 4350 is not exactly suitable for my 223. or 45-70. So to be fair in the question, what caliber range for rifles are you looking at? You may find yourself looking at a minimum of two rifle powders.

[Precision]

I forgot I can only own one handgun ...

Up until 5 minutes ago I had TWO handguns (of different calibers) on my person.
Damn crazy european (no cap on purpose) gun laws / nazis.

Look at it from my point of view - I'm going from no handguns to one handgun, which is a 100% improvement

Strictly speaking I will be able to own more than one - it'll just have to be cap and ball....which is something I have been meaning to get into for ages, but never gotten around to. Those cowboy guns fascinate me so much more than modern pistols.

Must put pyrodex on the shopping list as well...

Even I will admit, 1 is infinitely better than NONE.

[Highspeed]

So does everything else include shotguns? If so, we need a pistol / shotgun powder. Sorta knocks 231 off the list as much as I like it. There really isn't much if any shotgun data for 231. If I wanted this speed for dual purpose, I would go with Green Dot. Covers 12 and 20 gauge as well as 9mm and 45. You could go Herco for heavier shotgun loads but it will be pretty filthy with the 45 unless you load it +P and it will only be dirty.

As far as rifle goes, 748 would be a good choice unless you have a heavy hitter magnum. The fastest powder I would think of trying in my 375 RUM is a 4350 flavor. But then 4350 is not exactly suitable for my 223. or 45-70. So to be fair in the question, what caliber range for rifles are you looking at? You may find yourself looking at a minimum of two rifle powders.

Shotguns I don't need to reload for.

Rifle wise I'm planning on a CETME and an SVD, but you know that a plan never survives first contact with the enemy
I've got a stupidly accurate heavy barrel .222 BSA CF2 which I might try to export, depending on how painful the legal paperwork is going to be. It would make some sense because I have a couple of thousand suitable bullets from 40 to 55 grain.

[mousegun]

So does everything else include shotguns? If so, we need a pistol / shotgun powder. Sorta knocks 231 off the list as much as I like it. There really isn't much if any shotgun data for 231. If I wanted this speed for dual purpose, I would go with Green Dot. Covers 12 and 20 gauge as well as 9mm and 45. You could go Herco for heavier shotgun loads but it will be pretty filthy with the 45 unless you load it +P and it will only be dirty.

As far as rifle goes, 748 would be a good choice unless you have a heavy hitter magnum. The fastest powder I would think of trying in my 375 RUM is a 4350 flavor. But then 4350 is not exactly suitable for my 223. or 45-70. So to be fair in the question, what caliber range for rifles are you looking at? You may find yourself looking at a minimum of two rifle powders.

Shotguns I don't need to reload for.

Rifle wise I'm planning on a CETME and an SVD, but you know that a plan never survives first contact with the enemy
I've got a stupidly accurate heavy barrel .222 BSA CF2 which I might try to export, depending on how painful the legal paperwork is going to be. It would make some sense because I have a couple of thousand suitable bullets from 40 to 55 grain.

Longshot for higher velocity, W231 for economy in the pistols. Rifles: W748, BL-C2, H or IMR4895.

[NVGdude]

Pistol: H. Universal. The old farts are going to say Unique, but Universal has the same burning rate, same load data, and is a million times cleaner. It won't really do the magnum calibers that well, but to span the range of pistol calibers you really need one fast and one slow powder.


Rifle: IMR 4895, H 4895, or Reloader 15. Pick one, don't care which. Those will handle everything from the .22s up to 30-06 class. Again for the heavy magnums you will want something a bit slower like 4350.


Edit: Since you said limit it to 9mm and 45 acp the top choices are W231, AA#5, Universal, or Power Pistol.

[slowpoke]

Let's imagine you were moving to a country where it's hard to obtain powder, because reloading hasn't really taken off for some reason.

To keep things simple you want to take no more than two brands of powder with you.

One will need to be useable for loading pistol calibers, the other has to cope with everything else.

Which two would you take ?

Careful bringing powders between Euro countries that you don't fall afoul of some ITAR bullshit.

[blackeagle603]

Unique firing residue isn't a bug. It's a feature. Graphite is lube, not dirt.

Universal's fine though if you must go with new fangle stuff.
I'd be stocking up Power Pistol if 9mm was my primary pistol loading goal. It was made for the caliber specifically.

[Combat Controller]

Another vote for Unique for the pistol, and IMR 4320 for the rifle. Although I have had success with Universal, but Unique was always available so I bought 16 pounds of it.

[evan price]

Well I'm going to assume that whatever I get I won't be able to get more of it easily. That means it has to be a powder that's economical and has a wide variety of uses. Probably something that measures easily so as to not be spilled or wasted would be good too.

So- for rifle, I'll take H335 or the military equivalent (WC 844) Ball, so measures well. Works in dang near anything that's not a Magnum caliber or a large, slow round. Reduced volume powder so it uses less per load than a lot of other powders. Magnum primers recommended but if we're talking about a rough resupply I'd standardize all my loads with Magnum primers anyway. Could go with BL(c)2 (WC846) too. 6 of one, half dozen of the other.

Pistol- tough choice, but I'm going with Titegroup. Loads for it for 25 acp all the way up to 500 S&W as long as you don't need 100% Magnum performance in your Magnums and can get by with a bit less velocity. Heck, there's even a subsonic .223 load for Titegroup. I've used it for every pistol caliber I load for. It takes a small quantity of powder so you need to be cautious about double or triple charges but a little goes a long way. Loads pretty close to Bullseye for those not familiar with it.

There's also lots of shotshell loads for Titegroup, so it can work for pistol and shotgun.

[FastRope71]

Pistol and shotgun - Longshot
Rifle - H-335, Varget, BLC-2, 4895, etc. There's a bunch of versatile powders. Since you are looking at .308 and 762x54R Any of those powders will give you a decent selection of loads from the books and there are a variety of loads on the 'net.

Given that you're in Europe, I think I'd look at the economy of the vithouri powders, as they might be more cost effective there than it is for us over here. Either way it's going to be cheaper than factory ammo (probably).