MAGNUM LOADS WITH ALLIANT POWER PRO 300-MP

lliant Powder is offering a powder will have to perform ex- and are considering it for use in A new propellant known as ceptionally. factory ammunition. Power Pro 300-MP that is spheri- Alliant PP 300-MP is manufac- In discussing the characteristics cal (or ball) and designed pri- tured in the U.S. by St. Marks of PP 300-MP with Alliant's Dick marily for straight-walled magnum Powders and is slower burning Quesenberry and Ben Amonette, it revolver cartridges such as .357, than any of the above-mentioned seems the Federal labo- .41, .44, .454 Casull and similar powders, thus thrives in mag- ratory developed select handloads cartridges, but likewise performs num with long barrels. using standard primers rather well in .22 Hornet and .218 Bee. Many propellants start as a com- than magnum designs. Knowing There are already many great mercial product only available to that switching to a magnum primer slow-burning revolver powders. ammunition manufacturers, then would change pressures, data in Notable performers include Hodg- get renamed as canister powders the accompany table was devel- don H-UO (the same powder as available to handloaders. Accord- oped with standard primers, with Winchester 296), Lil'Gun, Ram- ing to Alliant sources, it is brand the exception of the .327 Federal shot Enforcer, Accurate No.9 and new and intended specifically for Magnum and .454 Casull, which 4100, not to mention proven ex- the market. As this is were capped with the CCI 550 and truded powders such as Alliant written, at least three manufactur- Remington 7Yz primers, respec- 2400and Vihtavuori NUO. To com- ers are impressed with the per- tively. At this point it is unknown pete in this crowd, the new Alliant formance offered by PP 300-MP exactly how much changing to this point no one has been able to answer that question to my satis- faction, therefore I will do some additional testing in a few months (during the next Idaho winter) and report the results. Samples will be taken to a lab to further deter- mine the effects of standard ver- sus magnum primers on pressure. Like most spherical/ball powders, metering was excellent with no important weight variance with thrown charges. One of the first observations (and concerns) was the bulky nature of PP 300-MP. Many loads were compressed and In the .44 Magnum, Power Pro included appropriate powder Using Power Pro 300-MP, Brian 300-MP pushed the 200-grain charges with light and heavy-for- tried a variety of weights Hornady HP-XTP bullet over caliber . This was a con- in the .44 Magnum. 1,700 fps. cern, as it is not normally a good idea to compress spherical pow- locities, but none was detected. In ders in handguns, as pressures studying loads, cases, primers, magnum primers will affect pres- can become erratic. In discussing chronograph tape (as well as my sures, so it is suggested to use this matter with the folks in the notes) from data in the accompa- data exactly as shown. lab, however, it seems this new nying table, there was no indi- This raises the question if stan- powder was not sensitive to com- cation that compressed powder dard primers will give proper igni- pression. They carefully checked charges produced erratic pres- tion in extremely cold weather? At for erratic pressure curves or ve- sures or extreme spreads. Frankly, I was impressed by the Handloads with Power Pro 300-MP high velocities generated by PP 300-MP with light, standard and velocity bullet charge velocity primer case spread heavy-for-caliber bullet weights. (grains) (grains) (Ips) (Ips) Lightweight bullets pose certain .327 Federal Magnum: challenges in magnum revolver 90 Sierra JHC 13.0 1,451 CCI550 Federal 47 cartridges. Velocities were gen- 14.0 1,498 37 erally high, but extreme spreads I 15.0 1,554 77 were often greater than figures 100 Speer JHP 12.5 1,331 30 produced by standard and heavy 13.5 1,400 37 bullets. This was not a reflection I 14.5 1,460 32 of the powder but is rather the 115 Speer Gold Dot 12.5 1,301 55 nature of light bullets [lower sec- 13.5 1,402 50 tional density - Ed.] combined I 14.0 1,436 48 with ultraslow-burning propellants. .357 Magnum: Nonetheless, accuracies were re- 125 Speer JHP 20.0 1,360 Federal 100 Starline 91 spectable. 21.0 1,451 85 With standard weight bullets, PP I 22.3 1,569 67 42 300-MP began to shine, as it of- 140 Hornady HP-XTP 18.5 1,371 19.5 1,455 55 fered strong velocities and accu- I 20.5 1,549 52 racy. For example, from a Ruger 158 Sierra JSP 17.0 1,253 53 GPI00 .357 Magnum revolver fit- 18.0 1,335 45 ted with a 6-inch barrel, the Sierra I 18.5 1,405 30 158-grain JSP reached 1,405 fps 160 Lyman 358156 HP 16.5 1,420 33 using 18.5 grains of powder and 17.5 1,475 30 produced an extreme spread of I 18.5 1,556 8 30 fps. From a sandbag rest, this .41 Magnum: 175 Winchester Silvertip HP 22.0 1,227 CCI300 Starline 68 23.0 1,298 55 TrianglePatch.com I 24.0 1,353 42 210 Speer Gold Dot HP 21.0 1,275 22 In the gun bore they 22.0 1,320 28 do not get stuck e 23.0 1,380 1.0 e make more contact I 226 Mt. Baldy Keith cast 21.0 1,347 36 What will you say 1 22.0 1,379 41 ~.. your patches ... work very well. No 1,440 40 more stuck patches and a far cleaner bore." I 23.0 Handloader reader, Arthur G. in Karns City PA,Ncv 2010 265 0.1 TrueShot WNFP 18.0 1,152 30 p';;'f~~~336-608-9355 Pending 19.0 1,229 35 I 20.0 1,277 60 .44 Magnum: 200 Hornady HP-XTP 27.0 1,570 CCI300 Starline 155 LACKs!:.~~DEf{ I 28.0 1,635 I I 146 '" •..PoWder & RELOADERS (Continued on next page.) BlaCC:~d . IUU'~ The Black Powder Cartridge News is a quarterly publication, load proved accurate with five extreme spread of 11 fps. Even consisting of 72 pages shots clustering under one inch. more impressive, this load cut a and edited by Blackpowder Cartridge Switching to a Lyman 160-grain ragged hole at 25 yards from a enthusiast, Steve Garbe. Whether you're cast hollowpoint bullet from mould sandbag rest. hunting, collecting 358156 (with gas check), the same or competing. this PP 300-MP produced particu- magazine will provide you with a powder charge reached over 1,550 reliable source of practical information fps, while yielding pressures that larly notable performance when The Black Powder Cartridge News is J • written for .hooters by shooters. are within SAAMIpressure guide- matched to heavyweight bullets. For instance, in a .41 Magnum • Buffalo Range • Reloading Bench lines for the cartridge. Similar high • Collectors Corner • WSU Center Shot performance was observed with (stainless steel Ruger Blackhawk • Cowboy Shooting • Match Results Bisley with a 5Y2-inchbarrel), it • Gunsmiths Bench • Product Reviews standard weight bullets in the .327 • Hunting Trail • Upcoming Events Federal Magnum, .41 and .44 Mag- scooted Mt. Baldy 226-grain Keith- • and much, much more nums and .454 Casull. In the .44 pattern bullets 1,440 fps and the Oregon Trail 265-grain wide-nose PG, I••.' P.O. Box 1625 ' Cody, Wyoming 8241 Magnum, the Hornady 240-grain Ph 307·587·7621' Fax 307·587·7695 HP-XTP reached 1,491 fps with flatpoint (WNFP) TrueShot cast MlZlIUI~~'m'I!fA~(;)~fl~Ui:.DiJ.>..@ 25.0 grains of powder and had an bullets 1,277 fps. 22 www.handloadermagazine.com Handloader 274 prietary powder, with 115-grain Handloads with Power Pro 300-MP (Contmuedfrompreviouspage.) bullets. velocity bullet charge velocity primer case spread PP 300-MP proved clean burning, (grains) (grains) (fps) (fps) leaving only a slight film of pow- .44 Magnum: der residue that was very fine and 200 Hornady HP-XTP 29.0 1,706 CCI300 Starline 60 should not adversely affect accu- 210 Winchester Silvertip HP 28.5 1,646 43 racy. In shooting several hundred 240 Hornady HP-XTP 23.0 1,402 28 rounds of plain-base, cast bullets 24.0 1,440 31 in the 1,200 to 1,450 fps velocity I 25.0 1,491 11 range in .41 and .44 magnums, 240 Speer Gold Dot HP 23.0 1,389 23 there was very little leading. Muz- 1,423 24.0 33 zle report and flash were certainly 25.0 1,480 20 I authoritative but were not exces- 240 Nosier HP 23.0 1,415 37 24.0 1,454 35 sive or unpleasant. I 25.0 1,502 28 Alliant's Power Pro 300-MP gave 250 Mt. Baldy Keith .cast 24.0 1,270 40 impressive velocities and seemed 25.0 1,315 32 to awaken and renew the "mag- 25.0 1,339 54 I num" in these cartridges while 270 Speer Gold Dot SP 20.0 1,157 27 21.0 1,201 20 staying within industry pressure I 22.0 1,261 54 guidelines. It also yielded notable 300 Hornady HP-XTP* 20.0 1,321 11 accuracy with a variety of bullet 21.0 1,397 22 weights. Clearly it has earned a I 22.0 1,434 16 place on my bench. • 310 0.1 TrueShot WNFP 20.0 1,468 39 21.0 1,489 44 I 22.0 1,521 67 Deprime Without A Press! ° Hand-held depriming tool .454 CasuII: ° No dies or holders 260 Nosier Partition HP 29.0 1,468 Remington 7'A Starline 27 needed 30.0 1,540 39 ° Fits rifle a pistol cartridges ° Machined from aluminum I 31.0 1,555 77 and hardened steel 300 Speer Gold Dot HP 29.0 1,450 46 ° Cerakote ceramic finish 30.0 1,522 40 541-401-1835 I 31.0 1,552 50 harveydeprimer.com • 3600.1 TrueShot WNFP 26.0 1,473 13 27.0 1,500 22 28.0 1,556 32 I 28.5 1,588 24 8heep~iver * Cartridge overall loaded length is 1.735 inches. HUNTING CAMPS Traditional specializing in Noles: The .327 Federal Magnum loads were fired in a USFA Sparrow Hawk with a 7~-inch barrel. A Brown Bear. 6-inch barreled Ruger GP100 was used to fire the .357 Magnum loads. The .41 Magnum loads were Fair Chase Mountain Coat fired from a Ruger Sisley with a 5~-inch barrel. The .44 Magnum loads were fired from a 7~-inch bar- Alaskan and osn Sheep reled Ruger Sisley. A Freedom Arms Model 83 with a 7~-inch barrel was used to fire the .454 Casull Came loads. Be Alert- Publisher cannot accept responsibility lor errors In published load data. Hunts

In a .44 Magnum Ruger Black- Incidentally, PP 300-MP is the hawk Bisley with a 7Vz-inchbarrel, only powder I have tried that 25.0 grains pushed a Nosler 240- made it possible to duplicate and grain JHP an impressive 1,502 fps, exceed .327 Federal Magnum fac- while 22.0 grains pushed a Hor- tory loads, which uses a pro- nady 300-grain HP-XTP with an overall cartridge length of 1.735 inches 1,434 fps and had an ex- treme spread of just 16 fps. The same powder charge generated 1,521 fps with Oregon Trail 310- _.. 0. _ grain TrueShot cast bullets. "'" • "#In""DISCI In the .454Casuli, Oregon Trail 360- FROh4nlls 10 THIS sales@ciear2i~rget.com grain WNFP cast bullets reached dba America's Best Inc 1630 Fuller Rd,West-Des Moines,lA 50265 1- 800-735-4422 1,588fps using 28.5 grains of powder. October-November 2011 www.handloadermagazine.com 23