I don't have time to look up a link right now, but Lil Gun has a bad rep for burning out barrels fast. The president of FA has posted info and ran tests to verify. I've got a bunch of it since it ran faster and was more accurate than powders like H110. Hated to hear that, but would also hate to hear about a nice new gun like a 45 Bisley be ruined for not knowing the score on Lil Gun.
I have recently acquired a 45 Bisley too, and when I get home will look up the two loads I've used with IMR4227 and H110 under a 250 Deep Curl. Both shot well.
Ricky, I've discussed this with Hamilton Bowen, the renowned revolver smith, and he doesn't see this and continues to recommend Lil' Gun for the big calibers.
George, here is the link to the comments Bob Baker, the President of FA, made and process they used to verify the basis for the warning regarding LiL Gun.
We have seen numerous barrels damaged by using Lil Gun. According to customers, some had as few as 30 rounds using Lil Gun through them, some had several hundred. Before we figured out what was happening one customer had sent his gun in for a new barrel. Then 600 rounds later it came back for another new barrel.
A couple years ago we did a test with a M83, .357 Mag. using Hornady 180 gr. bullets. We loaded 50 rds. of three different loads. One was a heavy H-110 load and the other two both used Lil Gun in different quantities.
We fired the H-110 loads first, then cut off the threaded end of the barrel. Rethreaded the barrel and shot one of the Lil Gun loads then rethreaded the barrel and shot the last Lil Gun load.
We found even the light load of Lil Gun caused the gun to get extremely hot. The heavy Lil Gun load had the gun so hot the only place we could touch the gun was on the grips and they were very hot.
Under magnification the surface appeared to have heated to a point of flowing using the Lil Gun loads and the heavy load was worse than the light load. This is probably due to Lil Gun having about 10% more nitro glycerin in it than H-110.
http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/freedom-arms-handguns-sponsored-by-freedom-arms/the-truth-about-lil%27-gun/
I do find it interesting that Bowen does not find the same an issue, but given the data from Baker, I chose not to use Lil Gun in my guns anymore. Pity as I had to rework all my Beowulf loads using 1680 and 4227, but have reasonable replacements now.
I did send a couple of emails to Alexander Arms as to whether Lil Gun was safe in the Beowulf, as they generously suggest that as one of their powders, but never got a response. I've engaged them in email and phone conversation many times before and always had a response. Could have just gotten missed, I know.
In the end it's a personal decision and I hope an unfounded one for any who choose to use Lil Gun. I'll error on the side of caution.
