Hey folks! Was wondering what kind of powders people were using for their big bores & were happy with. I noticed Wideners has some nice prices on military powder.

http://www.wideners.com/itemview.cfm?dir=278|283|999

Anyone try their stuff? What kind of results ( accuracy ) did you get and any anomalies ( temp sensitive issues maybe) that you may have found out about using the two listed on their site?

If you are using other powders that you like, please feel free to put up what you like most!

Thanks for the help!


About forgot. For the powder that you are using, could you post the bullet type and weight that you use with that powder?

I did some research on those cheap kegs wideners has a few months ago.  There isn't much info out there on them.  Some guys seem to get decent loads with them but I haven't read about any super duper groups either.  The powder was intended for 20mm rounds so it burns really slow.  From what I found those powders work better with big ole 800gr and up bullets.  

I haven't purchased any yet.  Still debating whether I want to go down that path or not.

IMR-5010 for everything I load. It is consistent and lights tracers every time. Great for blasting ammo and not too bad groups with amax bullets. I buy it by the case from hi-techammo.com. Great people.

trying to keep things simple
i load all my ball ammo with 5010
and all my match ammo with h50

I so something similar,  us869 for plinkers/api/apit,  h50bmg for my amax loads.

Pressures were all over the board using WC-872.  The user who provided very detailed data on FCSA decided not to use their remaining 11 eight pounds kegs.

I ordered 4 kegs myself and have been advised against using the powder in my .50..... so I guess I'll need a 20mm now.  

Thanks folks for the information that everyone took time to provide!

The IMR powder from Hi-Tech doesn`t look bad on pricing. Hadn`t considered it before now. Looks to be a very viable option. It is good to see that others are using it also.

The H50BMG powder from Hodgdon was something I had been mulling over for awhile. Seems that quite a few people are using it with the AMAX projectiles. Have a few here I would like to try out to see what they will do. Also have a few of the regular ball I would like to load up to plink with. Not resistant to the idea of using 2 powders to handle the different projectiles. The US869 powder was looked at. Curious to see what kind of performer it is.

Have a friend who is getting good results with the WC860 powder in several different bullet variations. Only problem is, trying to find it nowadays and not having to worry about it being a pull down powder.


Are any of you working at or near compressed loads with the ingredients that you suggested?

As far as the 20mm piece is concerned, I think that may be a little much on ones` poor shoulder to handle!

I've had up to 260gr of us869 in some loads with m8 api bullets, and it wasn't close to being compressed.  Most loads have the powder fill at or below the shoulder.

I've used H50 and US869 thus far.

Either seems to work pretty well, though my preferred rifles and loads (mostly 700gr and less) seem to favor h50.
US869 seems to perform better in my longer barreled rifle. I shoot mostly ball ammo, inside 600yds, and have only been reloading for ~7months.

The wideners wc867/872 is SLOW. If you plan to buy  some, plan to shoot heavy bullets.
I also recommend a barrel at least 36", or you'll see a drastic deviation in velocities.
I researched the heck out of it, and have decided to steer clear. I'm also hearing it's temperature sensitive.

I've shot lots of H50BMG and a fair amount of IMR-5010.

I can't see loading surplus pulldown bullets with H50BMG

and likewise

I can't see loading $2 Amax's or solids with IMR-5010.

If I were limited to one powder only for 50 BMG, it would be H50BMG.  Temperature stable and good to go for 750 grain and lighter bullets.

-David
Edgewood, NM

I would give the WC-867 a try.  I have some and it is definitely faster than the H5010 I also have.  In a 29 and 32 inch barrel the loads chrono the about the same velocity which tells me it is all burning before leaving the 29" tube.  Here are my Chrono results, I tried several single shot loads to get an idea before loading groups of 5.



Here is a 5 shot group at 225 gr WC867 under a Lehigh 650 ball at 300 yards.  5 hole under my thumb.  Looks promising to me, now I need to practice.

Considering the cost for shipping, etc., I'm thinking I can't go wrong with trying the WC867. We typically pay $22-27 per pound here (Alaska) and even with combined shipping of $250 for 48 pounds, it reduces the cost to about $11.33 per.