16ga.com ~ View topic - Decisions, Decisions: Powder for 1 ounce loads

Of the powders below, what would you choose for 1 oz lead hunting and/or target loads in straight wall hulls & why?

Longshot
Herco
Blue Dot
Unique
Green Dot (older black cap version)

I have a nice match target load with Longshot, and I suspect it would make a good hunting load with heavier shot but haven't tried. It's a little loud but it works well for me.

I'm looking to get some insight into the performance of these powders vs eachother. I have the least experience with Blue Dot & Herco. I've excluded 572 due to MSM's cold weather testing. I may make some loads with them all to try but I'm trying to factor in issues like hot/cold weather performance, metering, variability, etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. For reference, I prefer 1350-ish fps, if that plays into it at all, and prefer to use SG16 or Z16 wads for straight hulls. I have enough of most of the primers for match or hunting loads.

Member Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Posts: 2170 Location: Florida

Unique

Joined: 21 May 2015 Posts: 128

My personal preferences are 572 and Unique.

But, I'm also an 8kpsi/ 1200fps guy.

And, I don't think my kind of hunting is / will be affected by cold weather.

Joined: 09 Feb 2015 Posts: 824

Don't piticular care for those powders mention. But if that's all I had to chose from it would be unique.
But my go to powders would be 20/28 for hunting and clay target.
But for clay target like skeet or 16 to 24 yrd trap would be 700x. Nice shooting and cheaper.[/list]

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

Unique.

Universal if they ever start making it again. Winchester 572 as long as it doesn't get cold.

Don't rule out Vihtavuori N320, there is data for it using Cheddite primers, straight wall hulls and the Gualandi BRG16/21(SG16) wad and it is a single base powder. Longshot is OK, but it does better with 1 1/8 oz. loads or you have to push a 1 oz. load a bit faster than most folks want to. There is always WSF, which is a nice powder for 1 oz. loads in the 16 ga. Green Dot? Too much conflicting data, data that has been deleted by the manufacturer, too many loads that have come back on the hot side and it doesn't matter if it came with a black cap or a green cap, that stuff was iffy with 1 oz. loads when I tested it over 20 years ago.

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2349 Location: West MI

Perusing published Straight Wall data and looking first at 1oz and then 1350fps

Longshot shows up in that weight and speed often but I don't like it as it drops terribly inconsistently in my equipment.

Herco SW 1oz recipes by and large are just shy of the 1350 w/a couple knocking on the 1350 door. It is my favorite in the mid to high 1200's 1oz load mimicking the RGL in every aspect as far as I'm concerned. WAS my go to 1oz powder...hope it comes back on the market someday.

BlueDot rarely shows up and I think for good reason, in my experience it's a heavy lifting (>1oz) powder in the 16ga, 1oz seems too light for it to work well. Possibly get alot of muzzle flash, dirty barrels and maybe loud reports from unburned powder.

Unique shows up probably most out of the 5 in the speed and weight range you're looking for. I have -0- experience with it so default to our compadre's on that one.

Green Dot For the same reasons MSM mentioned, I would look elsewhere. Proving more and more to be a <7/8oz powder in the 16ga at best.

Best of luck with it.....

Joined: 01 Oct 2007 Posts: 962 Location: Minnesota

Unique .... have used it quite a bit in the past . It is a bulky powder , so helps eliminate some of the spacial concerns of some of the other powders .

Member Joined: 08 Nov 2005 Posts: 3438 Location: Illinois

Unique-----by a longshot Wink

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

^^^^^

^^^^^

I completely agree!!

Joined: 08 Feb 2009 Posts: 1310 Location: Western WA

1 oz at 1350 is right at the Longshot sweet spot, high performance at moderate pressure. Several options around 25 gr, a perfect choice.

1350 is a stretch for Unique. I’m only seeing one load at that velocity in the spreadsheets, and it’s a BPI number.

V/R
B.

Joined: 04 Mar 2019 Posts: 1844 Location: Central ND

I completely missed the 1350 FPS requirement.

Longshot.

Thank you all for the advice, opinions, etc. I welcome any more thoughts. I think I will save the Green Dot for my practice/warm-up loads & avoid a 1oz load with that, based on your posts & others concerning the overpressure data on some other posts. I was not impressed with Unique for 3/4 oz, but possibly needed the higher pressure of a heavier load.

So my project after I get off this heavy nights workload will be to make up some Longshot, Herco, Unique & Blue Dot 1 oz loads to compare patterns, consistency, residue, ease of assembly, loudness of report, etc. I'm sure most of this is simply for the peace of mind of knowing what my shot cloud is doing out there.

While I do appreciate the suggestion of other powders, some of this is about thinning the herd, and I'm trying not to add more until I know what I should do with what I have...kind of like guns, dogs, & inlaws.

Longshot will get you those velocities and keep the pressure under 10,000 psi. It works. I use it for low pressure loads, high velocity loads and for all of my 2.5" loads. It's not primer or wad picky either.

Yes, Longshot has been a good powder for me, especially in skeet matches. But I wanted to get some opinions on other powders for similar loads, somewhat to narrow the focus. Excluding Green Dot for one ounce loads seems like the right thing to do, and based on the posts I will have to give Unique another chance. Still not sure on including Blue Dot, but there are recipes to compare against, and who doesn't like a pleasant surprise every now & then.

This will probably be a long process of load, test & research until the winter when I could finally put loads to the cold weather test, but at the end of this I'm looking to know what best to do with the powder I have.