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Hot Topic (More than 10 Replies) 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55 (Read 8299 times)
emmett22405
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4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Jan 2nd, 2017 at 12:38pm
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As the temps have dropped of late i have started noticing misfires and large spreads in velocity/ wild swings in trajectory from shot to shot  with my IMR4227 loads in 44-40 (16 grains) and 357 mag (12-13 grains) and since i am using 13.5 grains in 32-40 and 17 in 38-55, am wondering if i should switch to a double based powder like H110  or a different lot of IMR 4227 for offhand matches during the colder weather
  
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Jeff Houck
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #1 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 1:06pm
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I don't have an answer for you, but you have the perfect situation to test the question. Load up some test loads and head to the range, then let us know the results. 

Hurry - inquiring minds want to know! Cheesy
  

Jeff Houck
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emmett22405
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #2 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 1:39pm
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Unfortunately no time for testing  before upcoming Saturday match with forecast below 30 at first relay.  Has nobody else experienced low temp ignition/burn problems with 4227 ?
  
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calledflyer
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #3 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 2:15pm
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I have shot a batch of it in different guns, and down to temps in the low teens. Never had a failure to fire. Are you sure it's not something beside the powder? I have had performance changes in the low temp from the summer- up to the high nineties. Always went bang though. Good powder, good powder.
  
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JLouis
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #4 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 3:01pm
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A couple of things to keep in mind powder is hydropscopic and picks up and looses moisture and it can alter your volume and more so if not stored correctly. And it is also quite typical to have to readjust your powder volumne for every 10 degrees in temperture change and how much is something you would have to determine. This could not have anything to do with your current problem and then again it possibly could and it just provides something else for you to take into consideration.

JLouis
  

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waterman
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #5 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 3:22pm
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Are we referring to fixed ammo?  As in .44-40 lever guns?  Did anyone read the thread about HiVel #3?
  
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emmett22405
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #6 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 5:14pm
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yes, all fixed ammo. I re-read the Hivel string and then  realized that i was using loads from 4227 stored in my basement in an RCBS powder measure with a loose rubber cap rather than freshly poured from the 8# tigthly capped canister hence a chance for hygroscopic contamination of the charge. Will not do that again. Thanks for the considerate and intelligent comments.
  
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JS47
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #7 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 10:34pm
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I've noticed large velocity spreads with 4227 in my 38-55 and especially 45-70 depending on powder position, forward or back.  A card wad .200 off the powder solved the problem in the 38-55.  I went to 5744 or black in the 45-70.

JS
  
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Ol_Deuce
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #8 - Jan 2nd, 2017 at 11:03pm
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I use a slower burn in winter and or 3fff for some of the matches I've shot in the past and have not had a failure
to date !!! ........Ol Deuce
  

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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #9 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 10:54am
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Emmett,

Have you ever read about Skeeter Skelton's "cow killer loads". When he was a young Deputy Sheriff he was called to a car vs. cow traffic collision and was called upon to put the cow down humanely. He was carrying a 4" 44 Special Smith & Wesson stoked with, IIRC, his handloads containing 7.5 grains of Unique under a Keith SWC.  Unfortunately, when he loaded those rounds, he used gunpowder that had been stored in the hopper of his powder measure.  The powder had been compromised, and his loads simply bounced off the forehead of the poor cow.  The cow had to be dispatched by another Deputy.  For quite some time thereafter, he was ribbed by requests for some of his "cow killer loads" from other Deputies.  

He believed that the powder may have been acted on by plasticizers in the plastic hopper. Whatever the mechanism, ever since reading his "cow killer loads" story, I have foregone storing powder in my powder meter.

Harrels meters use a Nalgene bottle for a hopper and I wouldn't be too concerned about them, but I don't leave powder in my Redding.
  
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Ol_Deuce
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #10 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 12:41pm
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Hahaha    Happy New Years  Wink Grin Grin Grin

Ol Deuce  
« Last Edit: Jan 3rd, 2017 at 7:47pm by Ol_Deuce »  

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CajunRebel
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #11 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 6:27pm
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jy3855 wrote on Jan 3rd, 2017 at 10:54am:
Emmett,

Have you ever read about Skeeter Skelton's "cow killer loads". When he was a young Deputy Sheriff he was called to a car vs. cow traffic collision and was called upon to put the cow down humanely. He was carrying a 4" 44 Special Smith & Wesson stoked with, IIRC, his handloads containing 7.5 grains of Unique under a Keith SWC.  Unfortunately, when he loaded those rounds, he used gunpowder that had been stored in the hopper of his powder measure.  The powder had been compromised, and his loads simply bounced off the forehead of the poor cow.  The cow had to be dispatched by another Deputy.  For quite some time thereafter, he was ribbed by requests for some of his "cow killer loads" from other Deputies.  

He believed that the powder may have been acted on by plasticizers in the plastic hopper. Whatever the mechanism, ever since reading his "cow killer loads" story, I have foregone storing powder in my powder meter.

Harrels meters use a Nalgene bottle for a hopper and I wouldn't be too concerned about them, but I don't leave powder in my Redding.


I've taken many a steer down without a "miss" using 22 Shorts shooting the steer in the soft-spot behind the area where the horns would be.  It's a little depression where the spine meets the skull.  Shoot parallel to the front of the skull. The slug never leaves the brain, minimal damage:) 
  
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calledflyer
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #12 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 6:40pm
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Ol' Skeeter always told the truth, twelve times a year, no matter how much better the story could have been with a bunch of embellishment. So did Mark Twain. Cool
  
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #13 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 7:07pm
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Hmmmmmmm.      Roll Eyes
« Last Edit: Jan 3rd, 2017 at 7:49pm by Ol_Deuce »  

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beltfed
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Re: 4227 and cold weather loads in 32-40 and 38-55
Reply #14 - Jan 3rd, 2017 at 9:33pm
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Emmett, 
Is your lever gun a M92 Win or M94 Marlin?
My deer load-as in Northern WI cold weather,etc
works just fine. Second last buck I shot was with 
my M92, first yr prod'n, 44WCF.  Load was 22 gr IMR 4227
under 429434 HP, 200 gr. prints "clover leaves" at 75 yds.
One shot-went thru deer-heart shot.
Deer went about 75yds and dropped dead.
Now you have me worried. I have been using IMR 4227 for several guns last couple yrs , and some is still in my Lyman 55 powder measure in the basement. Have been just topping it off as needed. Probably all yrs long since I emptied the measure. No problems noted, but my basement is dry. I keep a dehumidifier running all summer long.
Hmmmm. Think I will go down and empty the measure. 
beltfed/arnie
  
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