Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Lilgun Warning

Should be OK if you keep pressures low; use the stock spring and load down till it just cycles. Universal might be a good choice there?
I've done plenty of that in the 40, but in the 10mm I rarely load anything but full power, so I'm sorta guessing on powder choice.

Having trouble understanding using it for loads in that pressure range. Seems kind of radical. Been using it for hornet loads many years now.

I use it at about that pressure in the 300 Blk, and so do about a million other people. I've never heard of throat erosion issues in that cartridge. It's not exactly known as a barrel burner, but then neither is most anything else that would use Lil'Gun in a rifle.

What cartridges did you read the first hand accounts about, and were they rifles or revolvers?

I wouldn't expect that to be relevant to rifles. Flame cutting comes from hot high pressure gas exiting the barrel-cylinder gap. It's essentially 65K PSI flowing into std atmospheric pressure all at once. In a rifle barrel, even with that same initial pressure, the gradient is vastly lower than at a revolver cylinder. By the time the bullet leaves the barrel uncorking what pressure is left, it's under 10K PSI if I remember right. Big difference.

(Best guess, of course.)

Tom

Lil Gun's pressure curve is what makes it such a great powder in, as noted here, Hornets and Fireballs. But keep in mind those are pretty much full-house RIFLE pressures, not wheelguns. Maybe a stainless insert that wraps around the upper part of the frame opening? But that gap gets some high-speed gas flow, for sure.

The problems that have been cited have been with 454 Casull and 460 S&W. All in revolvers, both top strap and forcing cone. I know my rifle application is not the same thing. Probably the best idea would be for me to run a Ruger American 450 Bushmaster hot as a test bed.

Heard of a guy shooting a 260 S&W with a two hand hold, let his thumb get a bit too far forward. The plasma gas from the cylinder gap took the tip of his thumb off, clean as a sharp knife.

Not something to play with.

DF

Here’s the deal. Someone sent in a 454 for warranty work forcing cone erosion, FA repaired and sent it back to owner. If memory serves he sent it back for forcing cone erosion twice more. BOb Baker learned that he was useing Lillgun, so he set up TP round test in a FA 357 magnum and gun gun got so hot that Bob Baker had to use a pencil on the trigger to avoid burns. Bob concluded that Lillgun gun a burn temperature was the problem and no longer warranties forcing cone erosion if Lillgun is used.

I have seen erratic results with lilgun in a 221 Fireball rifle. Using a couple tenths below a recommended load I had excellent accuracy with a couple of groups so I loaded a box. Later, shooting rabbits, I had a couple of blown primers. The rest of the brass looked fine. Backed off a couple more tenths and had similar experience. No idea what causes it, but I won't use it in a Fireball again. I may try it in a Hornet since everyone recommends it for that.

Jerry

Used LilGun in several 22H rifles for about 15 years. It has performed better than any hornet powder, both accuracy and speed. Have used in 221 FB also, with good but not great results, had to back off from max to avoid flat primers.

I've used it in a Ruger 77/44, it flings a 300 grain WFN with some authority.

I've noticed in the Hodgdon books that LilGun has sweet spots for various cartridges like the Hornet and .357 mag where it gives great velocity with much lower pressures. Those are the loads I use it for. Other loads, like the .44 mag, not so much, so I stick with H110 and 2400.

H110 gives just slightly better accuracy so far in my Hornet, but not enough better for the 10000 lbs extra pressure, so I'm switching over as my loaded ammo gets used up.

Thank you to everyone who has posted. I bought Lilgun for a 22 Hornet and now I no longer have the rifle. I was trying to figure out what else I could use it in for when I came across the warning from Freedom Arms. I guess I could use it for fertilizer

Lil gun always gave me the best velocity in 357 mag. I read about the possible issues years ago and have shied away from it a bit. I use more pp300mp lately. PP also works great for fast lighter bullet 300 BO loads. Itll drive 110 vmaxes to 2500 from a 16" ar.

Bb

I contacted Hodgdon ~ 15 years ago and said my best velocities with 158 gr hard cast in 357 mag was with LIL'GUN. I asked why they were not publishing such a load? I was told it melted the base of the bullets. I did not seem to have that problem.