Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Superformance powder component???

We are at a point in the evolution of firearms and ammunition where improvement comes, but it comes in increments too small to (objectively) get excited about. Manufacturers find it necessary to create a perception of enhanced magnitude of the immediate importance of these improvements in order to keep the interest up, to keep the churners churning. They've done pretty well at this in our shooting culture. Look at some of our never-ending arguments over which is the better of two calibers, rifles, cartridges, bullets or scopes when the difference is too slight to be noticed in 99% of applications.

I read the article too and it was interesting to see all the work done by Hornady and others. Like others have said here, a lot of hype for a little gain. But this is what keeps the market vibrant - new and improved to spur sales. Its capitalism at work or what's left of it.
These types of developments while interesting are one reason we see questions posed: "is the .308 adequate for cow elk"? As the performance bar is raised, (Hornady) so must be the animals' ability to resist death. Sometimes common sense becomes very illusive.

Beat me to it JB. The shooting world has a propensity to attach magical properties to new products (Wthby cartridges for example). But powders seem to be the favorite.

I can remember reading articles about Bruce Hodgdon's early surplus 4831, and then his first commercial batches of H4831, and the phenomenal velocities acheived. Then there was the Norma 205 and MRP--made even more mystical because of the spotty availability for a couple decades.

My reloading mentor was a 7x57 fan before 7x57's were very well known by the shooting public. He always loved to tell me about the Norma mystic phase he went through while stuffing large volumes of Norma powder into his 7x57......


Casey

Wait... Lee24 is inventing powders now too???

Oh wait... I thought it said "by" not "with".

My bad.

now you're talking magic

A 100 fps increase in MV warrants little more than a yawn....you could experience that, with new lots of powder. Now, a 10% increase, or so, would be an attention getter. But then, what would be "gained". Now your trusty(and lightweight) old .30-06 performs like a "magnum"......it's also going to kick like one. Worse actually, 'cause it was built to be light and handy. What is the advantage to such powder improvements?

Jeff

As far as this shooter is concerned, the last REAL breakthrough with powder came with Lil' Gun because it made my .22 Hornet go really fast and shoot really good as far as accuracy goes.

Just a thot.

D

I'd have to agree with that!

Jeff

"Lil-Gun" is my favorite powder for 500 Smith and Wesson and 480 Ruger loads. I always thought they named it wrong :-)


+1 to MD's post.

If they did ever release the new powders they used along with loading data there would be a handful of reloaders that would stuff 5-6grs more of the stuff than any load recommended and then claim they found the new miracle stuff when there loads went faster than they did before......................DJ

My stomach knotted and I winced when I read that article. I just KNEW that only nanoseconds would pass before some reloaders would start thinking of mixing their own powders.

Not to put too fine a point on it, my friends, but none of us is smart enough to even ponder such activity. None of us know enough about the precise chemical or physical properties of powders to start mixing them. Nor do we have the lab equipment or test guns to safely test out ideas.

Paraphrasing some wise words I read: the interval between trigger and tragedy is far too short to change our minds.

Elmer Keith used to write about "Duplex" loads but they weren't made by mixing powders! Keiths Duplex loads involved a small shaft inside the case that spread the primers flash up into the case - similar to artillery shells.

Some Black Powder Cartridge rifle shooters make true Duplex loads for their rifles which utilize a SMALL amount of smokeless powder in the bottom of their case under a charge of black powder. The Smokeless helps ignite the Black Powder more efficiently. They usually only use them for 1000yd shooting and the like since they recoil more than necessary and aren't legal for the other competitions. We are talking about very low black-powder pressures here so there's lots of room before anything even approaches normal rifle pressure levels much less high ones.

But I agree with Rocky, there's always a few reloaders that have "fast barrels" or some magic excuse for being able to overload modern centerfire rounds. Mixing powders without access to the right equipment is flat out dangerous. The Superformance loads were developed using an Oehler 83 and conformal transducers to ensure safe loads. One of the reasons they produced them was to have high performance at lower, more consistant pressure levels than the light-magnum loads had. But as you said, just wait someone is going to think they have it all figured out and overload stuff...................................dj

Same reason why young men have high car insurance rates. How many men have had the famous last words, "Hey, hold my beer and check this out!"

After having spent the time, money, and energy to work up loads for all my rifles and pistols and then to make alot of those loads so that I have ammo for all my guns I find it really hard to want to run out and try new components. That said, I have to wonder what adding velocity regardless to pressure differences would do to truly make my (or your) weapons perform that much better; or even as well. Working up a load involves experimenting with the type and amount of powder one uses in a particular load with a given projectile within the safe parameters of known psi limits (ie. a loading manuel)to acheive the best possible accuracy. The "sweet spot" for all of my guns is a grain to a grain and a half back from the maximum load. Pressure may allow us to enjoy less recoil, but bullet speed is what drives accuracy, so is what should motivate us shooters and hunters. Never allow what others tell you works best to influence you, but instead allow your weapon(s) to guide you to what it prefers through it's preformance on paper at the range. In the end...why do you care what your rifle shoots best...just give it what it tells you to give and enjoy the returns in the form of game and well shot targets.
Good Luck.