Hodgdon Lil'Gun Powder

[Donaldjr1969]

Over the last month or so, I have been working up a Speer 300g JSP for my 44Mag using Lil'Gun. Based on my observations, the powder performs best using heavy for caliber bullets such as 270g and higher. With a Speer 270g DeepCurl, 21.5g gives me great accuracy. My 300g bullet does not have any published load data but I have been using the data on Steve's Pages as a guide and have been working up slowly. With a 19.1g charge, no sticky extraction or pressure signs.

As for abnormal forcing cone wear, I really cannot say definitively that Lil'Gun has done anything bad. Sure I have some striations along the forcing cone after 1400+ rounds, but then, about 1000+ have been full house magnums using heavy charges of 2400 as well as factory loads such as WWB (W296 powder I think) and Federal American Eagle (300mp or 2400 powder I think). Plus the majority of my loads have been jacketed. In short, my experiences in my gun have led me to believe that Lil'Gun is no more destructive to my gun (the FA issues are a different story as they have been documented) than any other slow burning powder such as 2400, H110/W296, IMR4227, AA9, 300MP, Enforcer, N110, etc.

On one of the other sites (I cannot remember which) I think I may have read something that the current formulation of Lil'Gun is different from when it was first introduced. If I am indeed correct and Alzheimer's is not setting in at my ripe old age of 42, the original formulation of Lil'Gun was a bit too hot so Hodgdon dialed back the energy content (less nitroglycerin perhaps?) to cool it down. Again, I cannot readily confirm nor deny what I read.

 

[Bozack]

Thanks for the report, Donald. I bought some Lil'Gun for use in my 480 before reading about the problem with the FA guns. I Have only shot 20 round of it so far and am looking foward to working up a good load. I may even use it for some heavy loads in my .45.

 

[Donaldjr1969]

Bozack, I hope it works well for you.

I shot a 19.4g charge of Lil'Gun under the aforementioned 300g Speer JSP in my Super Redhawk tonight. While it was at close range and I did have a bit of fatigue setting in, the results were very good. And with that load, there was no sticky extraction or other signs of excessive pressure. However, I see no need to go higher. Steve's Pages show a maximum of 19.6g used with an unnamed 300g bullet in a Super Blackhawk. So, since I am happy with my results, I see no need to try adding .3g at a time hoping to find the point where adding extra powder does nothing for accuracy and leads to sticky extraction.

 

[mattsbox99]

I've only used it in the Hornet and it works very well, a pound will last me a long time. I wanted to use it in my .357 Max, but that did not pan out because I can't get the 225 grain bullets to fit my chamber.