Alliant Power Pro Rifle Powders - The Best Reloading ...

Load Development

Alliant Power Pro Rifle Powders

by John Haviland

N

ew powders seem to arrive on the market almost

daily. However, many

handloaders are set in their ways and

content to continue using established powders, but experimenting

with new powders often pays big

dividends in increased velocity and

better accuracy compared to old

standbys. In that spirit of discovery,

I carried out tests with Alliant¡¯s new

Power Pro Varmint, 2000-MR and

4000-MR spherical rifle propellants

made in America. I¡¯m glad I did

because some of the loads listed on

the Alliant website (alliantpowder.

com) under the ¡°Reloader¡¯s Guide¡±

heading stepped up the speed of my

.220 Swift and provided great accuracy across the board in the .223

and .22-250 Remingtons and .243

Winchester.

Power Pro

Varmint Light Rifle

The majority of the Varmint kernels

are spherical-shaped, but some are

1

LOAD DEVELOPMENT ? Oct-Nov 2011

larger, flattened and have a disk

shape. A varmint hunter might

shoot upwards of 500 rounds a day,

which requires a lot of time at the

bench to handload. That time can

be reduced significantly by setting

a powder measure to drop

the intended powder charge and

then dumping the

Above, Alliant¡¯s Power Pro rifle powders include

Varmint Light Rifle, 2000-MR Medium Rifle and

4000-MR Magnum Rifle. Below, A little experimentation with newer powders beforehand helps

when the shots are long.



Marmots had better beware when a rifle shoots

this tight a group. The five Berger 55-grain Flat

Base Varmint bullets landed in .45 inch at 100

yards using 2000-MR powder.

powder directly into a case ¨C if the

powder drops from the measure at a

uniform weight. Power Pro Varmint

varied in weight 0.1 grain one time

from 37.6 grains for five charges

from my old Ohaus Du-O-Measure



powder measure. So with that peace

of mind, I¡¯ll save hours at the bench

loading Varmint in .223s and .22250s.

My .223 loads with Varmint

came up about 150 fps short of the

velocities Alliant states. Accuracy,

though, was excellent. My Savage Predator Hunter .223 has been

shot a lot over the years, sending

ground squirrels and marmots to

that clover patch in the sky. Still, it

shot a .54-inch, five-shot group at

100 yards with Varmint powder and

Berger 40-grain Flat Base Varmint

bullets and an .86-inch group with

52-grain Flat Base Target bullets. I

flinched on the trigger and flipped

the fifth 52-grain bullet out a bit of

what otherwise would have been a

.43-inch group.

Varmint also shot well in the

.22-250 Remington. From a Cooper

Firearms Model 22, Sierra 50-grain

BlitzKing bullets grouped .38 inch.

That rifle has been a great shooter

Here¡¯s a great long-range prairie dog load for the

.22-250 Remington: The Sierra 50-grain BlitzKing

with Power Pro Varmint powder started out at

3,808 fps and grouped in .38 inch at 100 yards.

since the day I got it years ago. I

wonder if the Cooper, clamped in a

fixture to remove all aiming errors,

would put five of the BlitzKings in

one tiny hole with Varmint powder?

Varmint also shot a tight .80-inch

Oct-Nov 2011 ? LOAD DEVELOPMENT

2

The 1-in-10-inch twist of the Cooper Model 22 .243 Winchester is supposedly too slow to stabilize the long

Hornady 105-grain A-MAX bullet, but it did just fine with Power Pro 4000 MR and shot this .58-inch group.

group with Berger 55-grain Flat

Base Varmint bullets. The group

had a horizontal string to it; I wonder if that might have been caused

by the extreme velocity spread of

102 fps for the five shots?

Power Pro 2000-MR

Medium Rifle

Power Pro 2000-MR reduced velocity spread quite a bit with the Berger

55-grain Flat Base Varmint bullets

in the .22-250 Remington and shot

a tight, round group measuring .45

inch.

The 2000-MR powder provided

the highest velocity with 55-grain

bullets I have recorded from the 26inch barrel of a Winchester Model

70 Varmint .220 Swift. Alliant

states 3,921 fps with the Hornady

55-grain V-MAX and 41.0 grains of

2000-MR. The Berger 55-grain Flat

Base Varmint bullets averaged 3,834

fps with the same powder charge

from the Model 70. The previous

55-grain bullet velocity champ was

the Combined Technology 55-grain

Ballistic Silvertip with 45.5 grains

of Reloder 19 for a velocity of 3,730

fps. I had to use a drop tube to get

all that Reloder 19 in a case. The

41.0 grains of 2000-MR, though, fit

3

LOAD DEVELOPMENT ? Oct-Nov 2011

in a Swift case with a bit of room to

spare.

This Model 70 was made in the

early 1960s and shoots groups at

100 yards somewhat under an inch

on a good day and a tad over when

it¡¯s feeling blue. So a five-shot, .94inch group with the Berger 55-grain

bullet is pretty good for the old soldier, especially at 3,834 fps.

Power Pro 2000-MR also provided high velocities in a .243

Winchester with Hornady 75-grain

V-MAX bullets. The Hornady

handloading manual lists 3,400 fps

as the top velocity with the 75-grain

V-MAX, and 41.0 grains of Power

Pro 2000-MR was really close to

that upper end at 3,369 fps from a

Cooper Firearms Model 22 with a

24-inch barrel. A five-shot group of

.54 inch is a good addition to that

high velocity.

The kernels of 2000-MR have

a flattened spherical shape. They

pack tightly together and measured

exactly 30.7 grains for each of five

throws from my powder measure.

Power Pro 4000-MR

Magnum Rifle

Power Pro 4000-MR is a relatively

slow burning powder intended for

smallbore magnum cartridges. The

Alliant Reloader¡¯s Guide lists a few

loads for the powder with cartridges

such as the .25-06 Remington,

7mm Remington Magnum and

.300 Winchester Magnum. The

.300 Winchester load of 75.0 grains

with a 180-grain bullet at 3,110 fps

is faster than any other load in the

guide with that weight bullet in the

.300.

I tried 4000-MR in the .243

Winchester with Hornady 75-grain

V-MAX bullets and didn¡¯t get any

faster velocity burning four more

grains of 4000-MR than 2000-MR.

However, 4000-MR more nearly

filled a .243 case to hold the powder

charge in a more uniform position.

That resulted in an extreme velocity

spread of only 68 fps.

The long Hornady 105-grain

A-MAX requires a sustained push to

fire it from the .243, and slow-burning Power Pro 4000-MR worked

well for that. The Hornady handloading manual lists a maximum

velocity of 3,000 fps for the A-MAX

bullet, and 42.0 grains of 4000-MR

came close to that speed at 2,861

fps. That speed is as fast as I¡¯ve been

able to shoot the A-MAX from my

Cooper rifle. A .58-inch, five-shot

group makes this combination my

new long-range target load for the

.243.

Although described as a spherical

powder, 4000-MR kernels have a

tubular shape. The kernels are short

and pack together tightly, and five

loads dispensed from my powder

measure weighed 32.9 grains four

times and 33.2 grains one time.

The time to experiment with Alliant¡¯s Power Pro rifle powders was

well worth it, because I now have a

new fast and accurate load for my

.220 Swift, a Hornady 105-grain AMAX long-range target load for the

.243 Winchester and accurate loads

for the .223 and .22-250 Remingtons.



 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download