Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Is Alliant #9 too slow for 2" barrel OR do I have a powder moisture issue?

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I'm trying to troubleshoot the situation that occurred to me a couple weeks ago. I loaded up about 15 rounds of 125gr Boolits into .357 mag cases with Alliant #9. The 10 I fired with my lever gun all performed as expected. Of the 5 I fired from my S&W J640 only one seemed normal. One stuck in the barrel 2 stopped upon entering the rifling barely having left the brass. After pounding one of them back in enough to remove the round from the cylinder I pulled the boolit and dumped out the unburned powder. It was dark yellow and had a clumps of powder.

My other theory, and the one I think is more likely, is that I began my reloading session only minutes after pulling the powder and primers from the mini-fridge. Powder condensed moisture and didn't perform properly. But then why would every round in the lever gun shoot fine?

I'm about to learn a lot. Thanks in advance.

AA#9 is in the same slow burning class as H-110/WW296 and WC820, and can exhibit unpredictable ignition and burn characteristics if the charge weight or boolit weight is reduced too much.

You don't say what the charge weight was, but many years ago when I first started experimenting with 454 Casull, I used AA#9 with some 250 XTP jacketed bullets and found that nearly every round was a hangfire.

I now treat all the previously mentioned slow burning ball powders the same.......heavy boolits (or bullets), full powder charge weight, and magnum primers.

I've removed stuck boolits from several guns over the years, and only one was caused by a verified bad primer, the rest were a combination of light boolits and/or light powder charges. I found the same clumped up, yellow powder you described.

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Thanks for sharing that, 454pb! Yeah, I couldn't recall what the exact charge was. I used the Start Grains load for 125gr jacketed .357 magnum from the Lee Reloading Handbook. So yeah, it was a light boolit with a light charge.*

Is the slower burning #9 out of a revolver just not going to be reliable due to the fact that all pressure drops off as soon as the bullet leaves the brass (due to the small gap between the cylinder and barrel) leaving most of the powder unburned? Is this also why the lever gun had no trouble? Because upon firing the brass expanded sealing off the chamber and the powder charge stayed pressurized during the bullet's entire ride down the barrel properly burning up all the powder?

Alliant does not make a #9 powder. Accurate Arms does.

As 454PB says, AA#9 is only slightly faster than H-110/WW296. it should be loaded with the heavier-for-caliber-boolits and at near max loads.

A better choice might be AA# 7 or even #5.

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I've used these slow burners and heavier boolits in my S&W model 19 with a 2 1/2" barrel and have experienced no ignition problems. Up front I'll say there are better powders to use as snuffy said, but I don't think the fact that you were using AA#9 in that short barrel was the problem. I like faster burning powders with the snubbies. For the slow burners, good tight case fit, heavier boolits, and magnum primers are important.
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Snuffy, thanks for the correction on manufacturer. I've got some 158gr cast and lubed. I'll try loading those up with a near max load. I'd like to be able to use my supply of #9 as I don't have #7 or #5 at present. Thanks for the advise!
454 is absolutely correct. All three of those ball powders need tight bullet tension & heavy for caliber bullet for reliable ignition. Your rifle may have been a help with tighter throat & no gap but odds are consistency & thus accuracy will improve with these powders using heavier bullets.

Rick

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Never have had a problem with AA#9 in my .45 Colt loads with 7 1/2 inch. Always used mag primers but get by with standard ones in a rifle. The weight of the boolit helps as does mag primers and tight crimp. Short barrel can leave a lot of unburnt powder any time you use slower powders. As a rule, I use faster powders with shorter barrels like unique, AA#2, Bullseye or HP38/W231.
I would think it would be to get the best performance. Have you clocked your loads?? I would think you are blowing a lot of powder out the muzzle.

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Slower powders usually mean larger charges for the same performance, larger charges mean more muzzle pressure. More muzzle pressure means more bullet destabilization outside the barrel and a less comfortable experience for the shooter.

Despite all that, slower powders (in heavier charges) are still the path to higher performance.

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