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CAS TOPICS => The Powder Room - CAS reloading => Topic started by: wildman1 on March 08, 2021, 09:37:08 AM
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Any body have load data for Hercules 2400 powder? Rifle, pistol, shotgun?
wM1
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Every reloading manual has it.
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Wildman,
I'll give you two loads I fired several thousand rounds of back in the mid to late 1970s when Hercules was still making 2400.
First was a 38 Special load I shot in a 3-screw, Flat-top Ruger Blackhawk with a 4-5/8" barrel. Shot some in the 6-1/2" Blackhawk I also owned but the large majority were through the old Flat-top. I cast Lyman's 358429 out of wheel-weights for 168g SWCs. Put them in 38 Special cases charged with 10.5g of 2400, ignited by a standard SP primer (mostly CCIs back then).
My other favorite Ruger back then was a 3-screw, Flat-top 44 Blackhawk and I mean the original 44 Mag Ruger from before the Super Blackhawk was introduced. I had a couple of them but my favorite shooter was a finished challenged 6-1/2" that had a great trigger and shot my chosen load better than I could hold off hand. Elmer Keith's 44 Mag load was his 429421 bullet over 22g of 2400. I used the same bullet, cast from wheel-weights of course, but my old Flat-top Ruger liked 21g better than Elmer's load. Like Elmer I used standard LP primers to set them off. Hercules 2400 didn't need Magnum Pistol Primers to get going and shoot just fine.
That may not have been exactly what you were looking for but your listing of Hercules 2400 brought back a bunch of good memories of regular trips to the desert with a buddy where we busted up a lot of rocks and tried penetration tests on Mesquite and Ironwood stumps. (smiley face goes here)
Dave
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Every reloading manual has it.
I have several reloading manuals and none of them have it. Some of them have Alliant 2400 but I don't know if that is the same.
wM1
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Wildman,
I'll give you two loads I fired several thousand rounds of back in the mid to late 1970s when Hercules was still making 2400.
First was a 38 Special load I shot in a 3-screw, Flat-top Ruger Blackhawk with a 4-5/8" barrel. Shot some in the 6-1/2" Blackhawk I also owned but the large majority were through the old Flat-top. I cast Lyman's 358429 out of wheel-weights for 168g SWCs. Put them in 38 Special cases charged with 10.5g of 2400, ignited by a standard SP primer (mostly CCIs back then).
My other favorite Ruger back then was a 3-screw, Flat-top 44 Blackhawk and I mean the original 44 Mag Ruger from before the Super Blackhawk was introduced. I had a couple of them but my favorite shooter was a finished challenged 6-1/2" that had a great trigger and shot my chosen load better than I could hold off hand. Elmer Keith's 44 Mag load was his 429421 bullet over 22g of 2400. I used the same bullet, cast from wheel-weights of course, but my old Flat-top Ruger liked 21g better than Elmer's load. Like Elmer I used standard LP primers to set them off. Hercules 2400 didn't need Magnum Pistol Primers to get going and shoot just fine.
That may not have been exactly what you were looking for but your listing of Hercules 2400 brought back a bunch of good memories of regular trips to the desert with a buddy where we busted up a lot of rocks and tried penetration tests on Mesquite and Ironwood stumps. (smiley face goes here)
Dave
Thanks.
Were those max loads? I am looking for something along the line of CAS loads.
wM1
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A search indicated Alliant and Hercules are the same (Alliant bought Hercules). Seems that powder is slow and is mostly for magnums and jacketed bullets from what I saw on reloadammo.com I did see a lead bullet load for 38 special, at 870 fps, but that was a 200gr bullet!!
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Wildman Alliant it the brand name that took over Hercules. Anyhow sometime after the name change the typical internet mythology claimed that Alliant 2400 and Unique were different powders than the Hercules. I had at the time and unopened can of both in the Hercules inold metal square cans, and the round cardboard cans, and the new plastic cans with the Alliant brand. Load tests over the chronograph and the target said there was so little difference between the entire generation as to not get excited about.
So take the Alliant data work up loads with your Hercules powder and enjoy.
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Wildman Alliant it the brand name that took over Hercules. Anyhow sometime after the name change the typical internet mythology claimed that Alliant 2400 and Unique were different powders than the Hercules. I had at the time and unopened can of both in the Hercules inold metal square cans, and the round cardboard cans, and the new plastic cans with the Alliant brand. Load tests over the chronograph and the target said there was so little difference between the entire generation as to not get excited about.
So take the Alliant data work up loads with your Hercules powder and enjoy.
Thanks.
With the powder situation I did not want to throw it out.
wM1
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As long as it was stored in decent conditions, and hasn't deteriorated it should be fine.
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Thanks.
Were those max loads? I am looking for something along the line of CAS loads.
wM1
Neither load was maximum (not even Elmer's 22g 44 Mag load). That said, neither would qualify as a CAS load. As someone already alluded to, 2400 is not the sort of powder for those lighter loads. If you have no use for the kind of ammo 2400 is best at, trade it to someone who needs it for a faster pistol or shotgun powder.
YMMV,
Dave
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Actually found some "most accurate loads" for 44-40 cast with gas check. Thanks everyone.
wM1
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Actually found some "most accurate loads" for 44-40 cast with gas check. Thanks everyone.
wM1
Nice!
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A vs H has been a long argument. Larry Gibson has tested both in his Oehler M43 PBL strain gauge. The results were the same. Many years ago 2400 was advertised as a rifle powder. After the advent of the Magnums, the rifle name was dropped and when Aliant took over, it was renamed a magnum pistol powder....thus the myth!