February 2010 No. 264Rifle Magazine Presenfs . HAND lOADER

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ALLIANT'S POWERPRO 300-MP

Keeping up with the changesin the U.S. smokeless pow-

der scene is getting to be quite ajob. Alliant Powder, which wasformally the Hercules PowderCompany and is now part of Al-liant Techsystems of Minneapo-lis, Minnesota, manufactures andmarkets double-base smokelesspowders for the canister trade.Such stalwarts as Bullseye, RedDot, Green Dot, Blue Dot and2400, among several others, allcome from the Alliant facility inRadford, Virginia. Alliant alsomarkets its Reloder line of ex-truded, double-base, rifle pro-pellants that are manufacturedby Bofors, the Swedish powdermanufacturer. The latest of theReloder line, Reloder 17, comesfrom a Swiss company, NitroChemie.

Now Alliant has announced itsentry into the spherical powderbattleground with an entirelynew series of powders calledPower Pro. Presently, the seriesconsists of five powders: 300-MP(magnum pistol), 2000-MR (me-dium rifle), 4000-MR (magnumrifle), VARMINT (light rifle) and3000-LR (large rifle). The pow-ders are manufactured in the U.S.by St. Marks Powders - a sub-

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base, spherical powder witha nitroglycerin content of

about 10 percent and abulk density of approxi-mately .950 g/cc. Gran-ules are very small andflattened, essentiallyindistinguishable fromH-110 and W-296.As ex-pected it meters verywell.With the powder came

some load data forthe .22 Hornet and sev-eral revolver cartridgesfrom the .357 Magnumto the .500 S&W Mag-

num. In Handloader o. 263,writer Stan Trzoniec, in his finepiece on the .22 Remington Jet,settled on H-110 and W-296as hispropellants. He may want to goback and try some 300-MP.It alsomight be quite useful in the .22 K-Hornet and the .218 Bee. I wassomewhat surprised to find theAlliant data called for standardstrength primers throughout withthe exception of the .500 S&WMagnum, where large rifle mag-num primers were employed.

It has long been my experiencethat spherical powders performbetter with magnum strength

sidiary of the U.S.defensecontractor, General Dynam-ics - in St. Marks, Florida.

The first of the series toarrive here for testing wasPower Pro 300-MP. I wasdelighted to find it fit intoone of the few spots in thehandloading powder arraywhere I felt we could ac-tually use a new powder.Power Pro 300-MP is a bitslower than Hodgdon's H-110 and Winchester's 296but faster burning thanIMR's SR-4759. In speak-ing to Alliant staffers, Ifound the powder to be a deriva-tive of the St. Marks non-canisterSMP 297. This really rang a bell,as back when the Olin Corpora-tion spun off the St. Marks facil-ity into a separate subsidiary,PRIME X Tech- nologies, Inc., Iwas informed by the PRIME Xfolks that SMP 297 was "296 witha flash suppressant." SMP 297was an OEM powder sold prima-rily to companies loading ammu-nition for law enforcement andother entities for whom a flashsuppressant is important. I don'tknow how 300-MP ranks regard-ing a flash suppressant additivecompared to the original SMP297, but at the rangerecently as the sunwas setting, balls offire could be seenemitting from themuzzles of several re-volvers as 300-MPwas being tested, al-though the amountsseemed to be lessthan with a number ofother similar pow-ders.

Anyway, Power Pro300-MP is a double-

Author's Selected LoadsAlliant's Power Pro 300-MP

.357 Magnum

.41 Magnum

.44 Magnum

I

bullet charge velocity(grains) (grains) (Ips)

158 17.5 1,308220 20.0 1,202240 24.0 1,462270 21.0 1,271300 21.0 1,225300 24.0 1,207.45 Colt

Notes: The .45 Colt load is for Ruger or Freedom Arms reovolvers only. Not for use in the Ruger New Vaquero. Magnumstrength primers used exclusively.Be Alert - Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load dala.

Handloader 264

spark plugs, especially as temper-atures drop. Accordingly, I usedthem, backing off from maximumcharges to start, but also didsome side-by-side testing withstandard and magnum primers inotherwise identical loads. Inevery case the magnum-primedloads gave higher velocities,smaller extreme spreads andtighter groups. The velocities withthe magnum primers averagedabout 50 fps higher, ranging from40 to 60 fps, depending on the car-tridge and bullet weight. In mycase, to be fair, the temperatureswere in the low 30s, high 20s.

Throughout the tests, my barrellengths were shorter than Al-liant's and the midpoint of thestart/stop chronograph screenswas 12.5 feet from the muzzles.Still, my maximum loads werevery close to those published.

In the .357 Magnum, Alliantlisted loads for 125-, 158- and

170-grain bullets. I chose the 158,starting with 17.5 grains andclocking 1,308 fps from a 4%-inch barrel. Another grain (18.5)added another 100 fps (1,410fps). I actually preferred thelighter load as generally morepleasant and suitable for mostpurposes.

The .41 Magnum was not listed,but I paired 300-MP with Speer220-grain bullets. Twenty grainsgave 1,200 fps, about maximumin my gun. H-110 might producehigher velocities here, but 300-

MP duplicates top 2400velocitiesat lower pressures.

The .44 Magnum may be theperfect vehicle for 300-MP. Itgave exceptional performancethroughout with 240-, 270- and300-grain bullets. I particularlyliked 300-MP with Speer 300-grain jacketed bullets, easilyexceeding 1,200 fps with 21.0grains and hitting 1,300 fps with22.0 grains. With the Speer 270grainers, 21.0 grains recorded1,271 fps; a maximum load of22.0 grains, 1,350 fps. The 21.0-grain load was very pleasant andwould likely do all I need doing.

I had asked about the absenceof .45 Colt data (for strong singleactions such as the Ruger orFreedom Arms) and was told thepowder was likely too slow. Theyhadn't tried it, I suspect, but myfirst attempts were quite promis-ing. I paired Starline cases and

(Continued on page 90)

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Propellant Profiles(Continued from page 31)

LBT 300-grain cast bullets with300-MP.A 5~-inch barreled Rugerproduced 1,100 fps with 23.0grains; 24.0 grains upped speedsto 1,200 fps, the velocity I was

looking for. My usual load of thistype consists of 23.0 grains of H-110 for 1,200 fps. Here was agood comparison of the twopowders: an additional grain of300-MP duplicated the H-110 per-formance and for some reason

recoil seemed softer. It mighthave been my imagination.Suffice it to say these tests are

preliminary. I'll be trying this newpowder a good deal more in thefuture. It is available in one- and8-pound containers. •

lots as closely to theold as it had in thechangeover of ex-truded powders.

As noted back then,Accurate No.2 is avery fast burning,double-base, spheri-cal powder intro-duced in May 1988. Ithas undergone a cou-ple of name changes,

bullet charge velocity(grains) (grains) (Ips)

.25 ACP 35 1.8 969I 50 1.5 808

.32 ACP 60 2.6 970I 71 2.2 842

.38 Special 148 3.0 750

.40 S&W 155 6.5 987

.44 Russian 240 3.5 662

.44 Special 240 4.7 742

.45 ACP 200 5.5 868

.45 S&W 240 6.0 803Be Alert - Publisher cannot accept responsibility for errors in published load data.

Accurate No.2 Author's Selected LoadsAccurate No.2

Itwasn't long ago on thesepages it was announced that

Western Powders of Miles City,Montana, marketer of the Ram-shot and Accurate lines of canis-ter smokeless powders forreloaders, was making somechanges. First, the entire ex-truded, single-base line of Ac-curate powders is now beingmanufactured in Canada at theOntario facility that manufac-tures the IMR line of powders.Thus far we've had the opportu-nity to review Accurate's 4064and 2015 from the new source.Results, which appeared inHandloader Nos. 262 and 263, re-spectively, indicated a very con-sistent changeover.

Now, another change, with thesource of Accurate's ball pow-ders being moved from the CzechRepublic to the St. Marks, Florida,powder plant. This facility, builtin 1972 by the Olin Corporation,originally produced Winchesterpowders. In the 1990s, Olin spunoff its powder manufacturing ca-pacity into a subsidiary calledPRIMEX Technologies, Inc. Morerecently, PRIMEX was purchasedby American defense contractorGeneral Dynamics, which nowowns both the St. Marks and On-tario plants. This means that be-fore long the sources for allAccurate powders likely will bein North America and Americanowned.

I selected Accurate No.2 as thefirst from the St. Marks facility tobe reviewed. I had tested No. 2 in2008 with the results appearingin Handloader No. 254, and I wasanxious to see if Accurate wasable to hold the new ball powder

and St. Marks is thethird different sourcethat been has usedfor Accurate powder.Hopefully, it will bethe last. The nitro-glycerin content isabout 13 percent; thebulk density is .650g/cc. Previously I testedNo.2 in a half-dozen cartridges.This time I was able to add twomore.

Naturally, in shooting the oldand new lots side by side, I gotslightly different velocities. Eventhe old lot produced differentvelocities this time than it did lasttime, but the differences wereslight. Velocities for the new lot,

and even the old lot this timearound, were slightly lower. Thiswas due to considerably colderweather and a different muzzle tomidpoint of the chronographstartistop screens. For the firsttests it was 10 feet from the muz-zle to the midpoint; this time itwas 12.5 feet. It was a mistake onmy part not to have kept it the

same. Still, the new lot com-pared very favorably to the

old, as I assumed itwould.

The cartridges usedin the previous review- the .25 ACp, .32 ACP,.38 Special, .40 S&W,.44 Special and .45ACP - are listed withthe velocities obtainedusing the new St.Marks manufactured

No.2. The new cartridges addedthis time, the .44 Russian and the.45 S&W,were not shot with theold lot for comparison.

As I said before, No.2 is a veryefficient and clean-burning pow-der. It produced quite good ac-curacy in all the cartridges tested.We can't ask for much more thanthat. •

90 Handloader 264www.handloadermagazine.com